I needed to think about the installation with flexible seating in mind.

Let our rigorous testing and reviews be your guidelines to AV equipment not marketing slogans.

Beale Streets patented technology maintains high-quality audio in a small enclosure by wrapping the speakers port around an internal cavity.

Our Audioholics team continued conversing with Beale Street with an aim towards getting a hands-on experience with their Sonic Vortex speakers.

Our curiosity was piqued even more with what we saw from Beale Street at CEDIA 2015.

After a few months, we decided wed go full-on with an installation of a complete, multi-zone system powered by Beale Street Audio.

Install a complete, in-ceiling 7.1 home theater setup to test out a scenario where a home theater lover might be limited by aesthetics or physicalarchitectural challenges.

Install a second stereo zone utilizing Beale Streets new D2.1 amplifier.

This second zone would be able to function independently or as a mirror to the Main Zone.

Test out an in-ceiling-only Dolby Atmos setup to see if that is a viable option for users who cannot install floor-level speakers but dont wish to settle for anything less than the latest audio advancements.

In talking with Gene DellaSala, Audioholics President, we decided that instead of simply reviewing a Beale Street Audio speaker setup (which were in the process of completing), wed also chronicle elements of this experience since many of our readers are now looking at incorporating immersive audio setups centered around Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Auro-3D.

We also get frequent questions about situations where speaker placement in a home becomes an issue.

Before getting started, however, Id be remiss if I didnt publicly (and profusely) thank my wonderful wife, Clio, who consented to the notion of having 15 holes cut into our basement ceiling and more cutting work done in our kitchen ceiling.

No matter how excited you may be to jump into a new setup, dont rush.

In my case, I decided to configure a Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 system, an Auro 3-D 13.4 system, and a 7.1 in-ceiling surround solutionat least as much as we could given physical limitations.

Given what we knew at the time, we were confident that DTS:X would overlap one or both of these speaker configurations.

For our all in-ceiling 7.1 system, we tried to overlap this with the Auro-3D installation since (sans the overhead voice of God speaker) the in-ceiling speaker arrangement is identical.

For the Dolby Atmos speakers, we decided to use Beale Street Audios traditional, down-firing 6.5-inch speakers (IC6-BB).

Both Beale Streets angled and downward-firing speakers feature positionable tweeter housings to fine-tune the setup.

All totaled, that amounted to 11 in-ceiling speakers (and we hadnt gotten to the subs yet).

The designated area was physically large (approximately 25 feet long by 13.5 feet wide) and part of a larger basement area.

Because it was located underneath the sunken living room, headroom was flirting with the bare minimum recommended by Atmos at just shy of seven feet.

The listening area has a left side wall but the right side and rear are open to the rest of the basement.

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