New house being built, in-ceiling speakers? Thoughts? Bad or good?

[gigahertz20]

We are having a new house being built and we are thinking about doing in-ceiling speakers, what are your guys thoughts on these? A friend told me to buy only rear in- ceiling speakers because he thought it wouldn't sound right if I had the left, right, and center speakers as in-ceiling speakers as well.

The guy that is wiring our house for everything suggested to go with Klipsch or MTX for the in-ceiling speakers. I did a quick search on eBay for "Klipsch in ceiling speakers" and most of the sellers are selling the "Klipsch RCR-5"

http://cgi.ebay.com/Klipsch-Sp...dZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247


Are these any good? Any suggestions as well? Should I only get the in-ceiling speakers for the two rear speakers? Thanks for any help

 

[krotchy]

Side/Rears as in ceiling are not ideal, but if you are not an audiophile they will sound pretty much perfect to you. In-wall is more ideal however since they will at least be at the correct height for projecting outward. Also I would recommend some rectangle in ceiling speakers that have a mid and a tweeter. Mid only designs can only do so much.

IMO convenience can trump perfection for 99% of the population when it comes to audio, so it kind of depends on how good your ears are and what your priorities are.

 

[CubanlB]

Um... pretty much any inceiling is going to have a midrange/woofer and a tweeter the tweeter is just in a different style of housing. If you want more control over where the sound goes you can get inceilings with pointable tweeters and even with pointable midrange (see the klipsch cdt-XXX series and others). to have more control over what type of sound you get from each speaker you should build a backbox when you do your prewiring. Basically you want to use mdf or plywood (you can get fairly complex treating with fiberglass and other resins if you want) to built a speaker cabinet that is open on the side that will face the drywall and closed on the other sides and mounted to the joists or trusses. There are some forums on avs discussing backboxes and there are many small plastic ones that can be complete rip-offs on the internet. best bet is just to build them on the cheap and mount them in the ceiling. at your prewired locations. you can do inceilings as fronts, but they will never be as good as floorstandings, but they essentially take up no room.

excuse any poor spelling, it was a long day.

 

[s44]

If you care about sound, skip the ceilings. Do in-wall if you want, but at ear level for the fronts (not way up by the ceiling as builders tend to want to do). And *definitely* don't do in-ceiling fronts.

I guess a directional box-mounted in-ceiling like some of the Triads could work, but that's expensive.

 

[sivart]

I would say it is okay for in-ceiling for the rears (space forced me to do this in my theater room). If you are using a projector, you can still use in walls for the front and center. Just buy a screen that is acoustical transparent. That way your center speaker can be in the center of the screen, instead of above or below.

 

[richardycc]

is this for a dedicated home theater room or a living room with a big TV/surround sound system? you should place the speakers at ear level, see dolby for suggestions:

http://www.dolby.com/consumer/...nment/roomlayout2.html

I'd not do in-ceiling in a dedicated home theater room, but if this is the living room that you are going for the WAF, in-ceiling speakers are probably better than no speakers for the surround channels, I'd do in-wall speakers at ear level, you can paint it to match your wall color.

 

[sivart]

Originally posted by: richardycc

I'd not do in-ceiling in a dedicated home theater room, but if this is the living room that you are going for the WAF, in-ceiling speakers are probably better than no speakers for the surround channels, I'd do in-wall speakers at ear level, you can paint it to match your wall color.

That also assumes that you have walls equal distance from the seating area. This is not the problem with a ceiling mount (unless you have an open living room up to a second level)

 

[alfa147x]

how about in wall would this make any difference?

 

[Shawn]

We have in-ceiling speakers throughout our whole house and they are awesome. We can listen to XM radio anywhere in the house. Surround sound sounds great too. I couldn't imagine not having them.

 

[Kaido]

Look up Infinite Baffle subwoofers if you want bass in the ceiling

 

[cheesehead]

The guy who is wiring your house isn't much of an audio enthusiast. If you want high-quality in-wall sound, look for Speakercraft, Bohlender-Graebner, Triad, and maybe Dayton's top-spec stuff if you're on a budget.

Due to the lack of a properly sized speaker cabinet, most in-wall speakers have little or no bass. Installing some sort of subwoofer (ideally in an actual box set somewhere you won't see it - maybe the side of a cabinet?) would be ideal. I would recommend a Hi-Vi SP10 or Dayton RS265 subwoofer along with a BASH 150W plate amp.