Question: Ceiling Speakers, enclosures and sealing necessary?

[Tidybuoy]

I'm installing 4 Dolby Atmos speakers in my ceiling. I purchased the speakers and optional enclosure boxes but the boxes are too big and won't fit between my joists. So, I'm going to just add 2x6 blocks between the joists and cap with a piece of mdf.

My question: do you think it's overkill if I add the framing around the speakers and "seal" with caulking. My primary purpose of boxing them in is for protecting the speakers from any dirt landing on them or me accidentally kneeling on them at some point in the future. The optional boxes I bought are metal, sealed, have insulation, but are too wide to fit between my 14" joists.

I'm boxing them in no matter what, but do I need to make them airtight with caulking?

[GH85Carrera]

It would be good to protect them from the ceiling insulation and a box over them is a good idea.

We have rear speakers, but just a wire comes through the ceiling, and the speakers are mounted on the ceiling in the living room. We have 12 foot ceilings in the living room, and it makes the perfect subtle surround sound. The other night we were watching a movie and it had a rain storm going on. I almost got up to look outside to see if it was raining. Then I realized it was the surround sound. It really sounded like it was in the back yard.

[Tidybuoy]

Yes, I'm looking forward to adding the additional ceiling effects. My living room is too small for 7 channel so I have 5.2.4 (4 after tonight's project)

[LWJ]

There is an acoustic benefit to sealing. I have wall and ceiling speakers. Don't think I spent as much as you. I made acoustic surrounds per someone's recommendations. They seem pretty good.

For the extra 20 minutes effort, do it.

[GH85Carrera]

We have a great sounding system, if the wife is not home. I was watching Terminator 2 a while back at "the proper volume" to her the explosions and my wife came back home an immediately made me tun it down to whisper mode. No fun at all.

[stomachmonkey]

Yes you want to seal them otherwise you are loosing sound to the wall interior.

[Mike80911]

I have ceiling speakers in my store and did not enclose them. When I am upstairs in the office the music from below is pretty loud so I would say downstairs is losing a lot of sound quality. I plan on enclosing them someday when I have the time. I would say enclose them now and do the job once instead of taking the chance and having to do it later

[blucille]

Depends on the speaker itself and how small the enclosure is, but the ceiling speakers I’ve installed (variety of brands/sizes/models) recommend a loose pack of unfaced fiberglass insulation inside the enclosure

[porsche4life]

Agree with everyone. Seal them up. Our house has ceiling speakers that sound like garbage. I finally pulled one out for another project and it was packed with insulation.

[908/930]

I don't think it will make much difference sealed or not, easy to do though so why not, remember you are also behind a layer of whatever your ceiling material is, the sealing is to prevent the cab from whistling. However you should keep the inside cubic volume the same as the enclosures you have, or if they give a spec, so if narrower make yours a little longer if possible. And thick enough material so it won't resonate, or brace it, and add some sound dampening material in to it.

[stealthn]

When I did the architectural speakers I boxed the joists (With wood) and the speakers attach to the drywall. I also used fire/sound proof insulation in the “box”