Home Theatre With Ceiling Speakers?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Anyone have a surround-sound home theatre with ceiling mounted speakers? I know it's not ideal, but it may be the compromise necessary to please both myself and the spouse. I'm finishing our basement now, and it would be easy to wire and install speakers. Crutchfield has a number of options, most with aim-able tweeters to help with the imaging. They also have a subwoofer that can be mounted in a floor or wall and ported into the room, pretty sweet.

I just want to make certain that if I go to the trouble, it won't sound like ass. This would likely be a 5.1 or 6.1 system, with all speakers mounted in the ceiling (except the sub).

[David]

Of all the ones I listened to, Polk sounded the best so that's what I bought.

[onewhippedpuppy]

That's what I was looking at on Crutchfield. I've owned several sets of Polks over the years, and always liked them. Do you have a ceiling mount setup?

[jriera]

I have a 7.1 system with Center and fronts NOT in ceiling (they are behind the screen) and the rest are Sony SPC8 in-ceiling. I also have two sub woofers. The main design objective (from my wife) of 'no cables have to be seen was accomplished.

Sound is (almost) as good as my old install in Texas where I had a dedicated theater room with bi-poles after some adjustments. Amplifier (in both cases) is an Outlaw 1070 (http://www.outlawaudio.com/products/1070.html)

[gchappel]

As mentioned above I would try to use real speakers for the front three. It gives you your soundstage. There is a great deal of directionality here as well- you don't want your front center speaker- where the dialog comes from- to be several feet away from the tv and coming out of the ceiling. You can get away with the surrounds and rears being in the ceiling if you must. Get a good subwoofer- I like a small company called HSU research myself. Hide it in the corner, or use it as an endtable.
Right now my system is not wife friendly as I have wires strung everywhere as I am in a testing and tuning mode, but with a good install a decent system and a wife can coexist. At least until you turn it on.
Gary

[Eric Coffey]

I'd probably go with some something like Definitive's UIW-75/65's for L/C/R, and their bi-pole BP/A's or BP/ZA 's for the rear surrounds. Keep them in-wall if possible (as opposed to in-ceiling).

[kstar]

Originally Posted by gchappel

. . . snip . . .

. . .but with a good install a decent system and a wife can coexist. At least until you turn it on.
Gary

Which one, the system or the wife?

[David]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Do you have a ceiling mount setup?

I put two TC60i speakers in the rear, one RC60i speaker in the middle rear (which isn't hooked up because of the kitchen speakers), and two RC60i speakers in the kitchen since you can see the TV from the kitchen now that I removed a wall. I use regular cabinet speakers for the fronts.

I used all in-wall rated wire and kept the wires at least 2 feet away from any parallel electrical wires.

[gchappel]

Originally Posted by kstarnes

Which one, the system or the wife?

If I told you I would have to kill you. I was wondering if anyone would have the same sick sense of humor as I.
Gary

[serge944]

I would stick with conventional speakers for the front three, unless you can properly aim in-wall speakers.

Don't even consider in-ceiling for the front channels. Having speakers that are just not perfectly ear level is bad enough.

I'd rather have a excellent 2 channel stereo setup than a compromised 5 or 7.1.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Good advice, thanks guys. Positioning the front 3 anywhere other than the wall would be tricky, the TV will hang on an angled wall above a pellet stove. The TV will actually be fairly near the ceiling, with no floor space near it. Immediately adjacent will be a door to a bedroom and french doors into an office on the other side. Hard to picture, I know, but basically there's no floor or wall space for front speakers. Based on what I'm reading here, I may just skip the surround sound.

[serge944]

Yeah, I agree. If you can't fit a proper surround system, there is no point wasting money and time for a compromised setup.

[David]

Honestly, we hardly ever use the surround sound. My wife says it's too loud.

We do use the kitchen speakers quite a lot though.

[Seric]

Originally Posted by serge944

yeah, I Agree. If You Can't Fit A Proper Surround System, There Is No Point Wasting Money And Time For A Compromised Setup.

+1

[javadog]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Based on what I'm reading here, I may just skip the surround sound.

Good plan. This is one of those things that you either do it right, or don't do it at all. I'm an advocate for having a room devoted to television viewing. I don't have TV or stereo in my living room, as the wife wanted that room to look more formal. The TV room has two seats, a TV and a surround system. No fireplace, no other furniture, no wifey knicknacks. Speaker are normally hidden. Looks nice, sounds nice.

JR

[imcarthur]

As above, inwall/inceiling speakers are a major compromise in sound.

1. Imaging doesn’t happen. This is because the tweeter is typically recessed & the high frequency dispersion is seriously hampered. To recess the drivers on an essentially infinite baffle just doesn’t work well.
2. Bass response is far, far less than ideal – even in the non-subwoofer frequencies. Inwall/inceiling speakers typically are unboxed in the rear so you are relying on the air volume behind it. In a ceiling application that could be your whole attic or the length of your stud airspace volume. A bass driver needs a specific air volume to compress. You can improve any inwall/inceiling application by boxing it (figure 12 -15 liters for an 8”) & filling it with insulation & damping the box with a dynamat type of product.
3. Most inwall/inceiling speakers are cheap generic Chinese-made speakers with plastic baffles. In other words: like a decent clock radio with a 6" or 8" driver.
4. Inwall/inceiling speakers have the largest profit margin of virtually anything in consumer electronics.

Ian

[JeremyD]

I have jbl rear mounts in the ceiling - pretty sure they are the 8"

The front three I have decent center, and floor speakers - I'm pretty pleased

[onewhippedpuppy]

Yeah, half-assed isn't what I'm looking for. Pre-marriage, I had a great Toshiba DVD player, really nice 5.1 Sony receiver, Yamaha towers with side-mounted 12" woofer, matched Yamaha center channel, JBL rears, and a JBL 15" powered sub. I spent a lot of time on set-up, for what it was it sounded pretty damn good. When I lived on the first floor of an apartment complex, when we watched movies the 3rd floor neighbors could easily FEEL it. Usually they came down and joined us. Had to sell to a roommate when I got married due to limited square footage and a big-speaker unfriendly new wife.

Kudos again to the braintrust, I'll save my money.

[cab83_750]

I have heard of celing-mounted surround sound, and it was TERRIBLE. I could not enjoy the movie at 90 deg and the sound from the ceiling;------ it was very weird>

[Nine17]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

Based on what I'm reading here, I may just skip the surround sound.

I did. I use Dolby Pro-Logic to decode 5.1 and one of the receivers (I have a Panasonic) that does simulated surround through two speakers. I have two real nice speakers on good stands that cover the range down to within 10 Hz of a sub. My wife was a V.P. of sales and marketing in a couple of well-known technical companies involved in surround and even knows Ray Dolby himself. She says that the engineers have found that women get creeped-out by surround. There's something about the back channels that stimulates their "fight or flight" response.