Greetings Sam
IMHO, you will need to decide a few things:
- sound vs aesthetics
- budget
- voice matching
- full range / sats
- amount of effort
If I read correctly, you have a hard ceiling, and won’t be installing a cove / false ceiling. But are you willing to cut into the ceiling, which I did for that photo. Then I buried my speaker cables in the ceiling.
You don’t need to do that, as you can see, there are fine example such as the neat work by others such as bro Cash and also bro Jag’s previous setup. Even trunking is fine, if it passes the WAF…
Speaking of bro Jag, he had almost full range speakers, and that is something that has been bandied about in the US AVS forum as the true answer. But IMO, separating the bass is ok, and I have not felt any deterioration of the sound as a result. But most small sats such as the Gallos only go down to 110Hz.
As bro foodie has mentioned, there are many other speakers you can choose. However the in ceilings will be awkward unless you use a box for them.
Bookshelf speakers make the most value for money alternative, BUT, to be able to give a point source sound, which is important, you either have a very large tall ceiling OR, use unidirection ‘full range’ cones, like the Gallos (which aren’t full range), or coaxial ones such as KEFs, which don’t use the traditional tweeter / woofer in separate locations. Will it make a difference? Well, I believe it matters if your ceiling is low, because of a phase difference. But YMMV, but do note that most in ceiling speakers adopt this coaxial arrangement.
Now if budget is no issue, you can go as high end as you wish, but most will not spend more than their mains. As for tonal matching, IMHO, due to the differences in mounting, the way our ears work, it matters less if the Atmos channels use other brand speakers.
More importantly, get sturdy mounts, that won’t vibrate, and IMO, stay away from ball and socket fixtures as they tend to get loose with time.
If you intend to use them in the living room then aesthetics and WAF may play a bigger role, and you will want to cut into the ceiling as I did. It’s costly, dusty and a lot of effort… trunking is far cheaper.
In my current setup, I have a false ceiling, but I have retained these Gallos. They do the job well enough. If they spoil, I’ll get some Dynaudio in ceiling ones with movable tweeters that allow me to point the tweeters at the listening position. This is important to get that surround feel and is recommended by Dolby.
Bro Desray has a whole thread on speaker position and the Atmos experience, and the relevant angles to get that right. It’s worth paying attention in the planning phase to get it right.
You have listened to my current setup before, and have seen how my current Atmos speakers are setup, so you know what I am using.
You also travel a lot to USA, so you can score some fine speakers at great prices. Just take note of these points and good luck with the search.
Cheers