How to Set Up Dolby Atmos Speakers on the Sony STR-DH790 (5.1.2)

To set up Dolby Atmos on a Sony STR-DH790, connect two height speakers to the SPEAKERS SURROUND BACK/HEIGHT (FRONT B/BI-AMP) terminals, then run Easy Setup: set [Assign Surround Back Terminals] to [Height Speakers], pick a pattern ending in .2 (like 5.1.2ch), and choose your height speaker type. Finish with Auto Calibration, play an Atmos source over HDMI, and look for ATMOS on the receiver’s display.

One thing to know before you buy speakers: the STR-DH790 can run two height speakers at most. They use the same terminals as surround back speakers, so your choice is 5.1.2 (Atmos) or 7.1 (surround back), not both.

What you need

• Two height speakers. These can be ceiling speakers, speakers mounted high on the front wall, or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers that sit on top of your regular speakers and fire sound up at the ceiling.
• A TV connected to the receiver’s HDMI TV OUT jack. Easy Setup runs on the TV screen.
• An Atmos source connected by HDMI. Sony’s example is a Blu-ray player with a Dolby Atmos disc. Optical and coaxial inputs can’t carry Atmos.
• Premium High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet. That’s the cable Sony names for Atmos playback.
• The calibration microphone that came in the box.

Step 1: Pick your height speaker type

The STR-DH790 supports four kinds of height speakers. You’ll tell the receiver which kind you have, so decide now. The display abbreviation is what you’ll see on the receiver’s front panel.

Type (display name)	Where it goes	Good fit if
Top middle (TM)	On the ceiling, roughly above or just in front of your seat. Sony’s diagram shows about 65° to 100° up from the listening position, with 80° marked.	You can mount speakers in or on the ceiling.
Front high (FH)	High on the front wall, above your front left and right speakers.	Ceiling mounting isn’t an option but wall mounting is.
Front Dolby Atmos enabled (FD)	On top of, or built into, your front left and right speakers. They bounce sound off the ceiling.	You don’t want to mount anything. Sony notes these let you play Atmos without ceiling speakers.
Surround Dolby Atmos enabled (SRD)	On top of, or built into, your surround speakers.	Your up-firing modules sit on the surrounds.

If you choose a Dolby Atmos enabled type (FD or SRD), you’ll also enter your ceiling height later. The receiver uses it to aim the bounced sound better. Sony allows 2.00 m (6′ 6″) to 10.00 m (32′ 9″).

Step 2: Wire the height speakers

Unplug the receiver before you touch any speaker wire. Sony warns that bare wires touching each other at the terminals can damage the amplifier.

1. Strip about 10 mm (13/32 in) of insulation from each speaker wire and twist the strands tight.
2. Connect the left height speaker to the L pair of the SPEAKERS SURROUND BACK/HEIGHT (FRONT B/BI-AMP) terminals. Match red (+) to red and black (–) to black.
3. Connect the right height speaker to the R pair of the same terminals.
4. Check that no loose strand touches a neighboring terminal or the back panel.
5. Plug the receiver back in.

Use speakers rated 6 to 16 ohms. That’s the impedance range Sony specifies for the STR-DH790.

Step 3: Tell the receiver about your speakers

Easy Setup walks through the speaker settings and calibration in one pass. Use the remote’s arrow buttons and the center enter button to make each choice.

1. Turn on the TV and switch it to the receiver’s HDMI input.
2. Press HOME on the remote, then select [Easy Setup].
3. Select your language if asked.
4. Select [Assign Surround Back Terminals], then choose [Height Speakers].
5. At [Speaker Pattern], pick the pattern that matches your system and ends in .2. For a full Atmos setup with a subwoofer, that’s [5.1.2ch]. Without a center speaker it would be 4.1.2, and so on.
6. When [Front High/Top/Dolby Speakers] appears, pick the type you chose in Step 1, such as [Top Middle Speakers] or [Front Dolby Speakers].
7. Continue to Auto Calibration. Plug the microphone into the CALIBRATION MIC jack on the front panel, set it at ear height where you sit, select [Start], and stay quiet for about 30 seconds while each speaker plays a test tone.
8. Select [Save&Exit] when measurement finishes, then unplug the microphone.

If calibration stops with an error or a warning code, our STR-DH790 Auto Calibration guide explains each code and how to fix it.

Prefer the front display? Do it with AMP MENU

You can set the pattern and type without the TV. This is handy if you only want to change the height type later.

1. Press AMP MENU on the remote.
2. Go to <SPKR>, then PATTERN, and choose 5.1.2 (or your other x.x.2 pattern).
3. Go to HEIGHT and choose TM, FH, FD, or SRD. HEIGHT only appears when the pattern has .2 in it.
4. Press AMP MENU again to close the menu.

Changing the pattern this way doesn’t measure anything. Run Easy Setup afterward so Auto Calibration can set levels and distances for the new speakers.

Step 4: Set the ceiling height (Dolby Atmos enabled speakers only)

Skip this step for top middle or front high speakers. The setting only appears when you picked Front Dolby or Surround Dolby speakers.

1. Press AMP MENU.
2. Select <SPKR>, then CEILING.H.
3. Choose the distance from your floor to your ceiling. If you’d rather work in feet, change DIST.UNIT in the same menu.
4. Run Auto Calibration again from [Easy Setup]. Sony says setting the ceiling height and then calibrating helps these speakers work better.

Step 5: Play Dolby Atmos and confirm it’s working

1. Connect your Atmos player to one of the receiver’s HDMI IN jacks.
2. Set the player to send its audio as-is. Players call this bitstream or similar. On a Sony Blu-ray player, set [Audio Settings] > [BD Audio MIX Setting] to [Off].
3. Press 2CH/MULTI on the remote or the receiver until the display shows A.F.D. (Auto Format Decoding).
4. Start a disc or show with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, and select the Atmos audio track in the disc menu if there’s a choice.
5. Press DISPLAY a few times. When the receiver is decoding Atmos, ATMOS appears on the display.

Atmos from your TV’s apps

If you stream on the TV itself, the sound has to travel back to the receiver through the HDMI TV OUT jack. Sony says eARC can carry Dolby Atmos in Dolby TrueHD, which plain ARC can’t. To use it, your TV needs an eARC port, and the receiver needs EARC set to ON in the <HDMI> menu.

Look at the label on the receiver’s HDMI TV OUT jack. If it says only ARC, not eARC/ARC, Sony says to update the receiver’s software first. If EARC is missing from the menu, that’s the same sign.

Using the height speakers with non-Atmos content

Most TV shows and older movies are 5.1 or stereo. Select the Dolby Surround sound field (shown as DSUR) and the receiver will spread multichannel sound into the height speakers too. The 2ch Stereo and Front Surround sound fields never use the height speakers.

Height speakers are silent? Check these

• Wrong terminal assignment. If [Assign Surround Back Terminals] is still set to [Surround Back Speakers/Nothing], the receiver treats those terminals as surround back. Rerun Easy Setup and pick [Height Speakers].
• Pattern has no .2. A pattern like 5.1 or 7.1 has no height channels. Check <SPKR> PATTERN with AMP MENU.
• The source isn’t sending Atmos. If ATMOS doesn’t appear, check the player’s audio output setting. Also press AMP MENU and make sure <HDMI> AUDIO.OUT is set to AMP, so the receiver decodes HDMI audio instead of passing it to the TV.
• You’re playing stereo PCM with A.F.D. A.F.D. sends no sound to the height speakers for two-channel Linear PCM. Switch to Dolby Surround for that content.
• It’s a DTS soundtrack. Sony notes that with a 5.1.2ch pattern and Front Dolby, Top Middle, or Surround Dolby speakers selected, DTS audio may play with no sound from the height speakers. Sony lists this in its own troubleshooting pages, so it isn’t a wiring fault. Pick the Dolby Atmos track when a disc offers both.
• Calibration shows Error 33: HT. Check that both height speakers are wired to the SURROUND BACK/HEIGHT terminals and that the wires are tight. Sony’s message for this case says only one height speaker was detected.
• You want to hear each speaker. Press AMP MENU, go to <LEVEL> > T. TONE, and turn it on. A tone steps around every speaker, including HL and HR for the height pair.

If you reset the receiver later, all of this is erased, including the height type and ceiling height. Our STR-DH790 reset guide lists the order to rebuild it. For the picture side of an Atmos movie night, see how to pass 4K HDR through the STR-DH790.

Sony’s own summary of the requirements is on its Dolby Atmos playback page for the STR-DH790.