[xecluded]

I know that in ceiling speakers are bad  for sound but my wife does not want any wires or speakers hanging in our newly built home.   Can someone suggest some full rangers that can be used as decent "in ceiling".  Thank you.

[coke]

I installed equipment like this back in college, but most of it was fairly inexpensive.  From what I did experience though, most of the better speakers designed to work in ceilings with no enclousre had a coaxial tweeter. 

Sometimes we also used a small sub hidden somewhere in the room with systems like these.

[JLM]

Will these be the main speakers (audio Left/Right or A/V Left Front/Right Front) or A/V surrounds? 

In-wall/ceiling flush mounted speakers are rarely aimed at the listening position(s) so high frequency beaming is a concern for single driver speakers.  The solution under these constraints would be to stay with smaller diameter drivers, but that limits bass and volume.  A better solution could be to use a larger driver that has a whizzer cone.  Another single driver option would be something like small Gallo spheres (F3 = 80 - 120 Hz, 85 dB/w/m, handles 60 - 125 watts from a single 3 inch driver, come in several colors, $200 - 330 each plus special mounts) that can be mounted like an eyeball on the ceiling or on-wall/ceiling mounts and so be aimed.


Have you considered the in-wall wiring to use? 

I used 16 gauge zip cord for 25 foot runs, but there is better cables available.  Cable runs get long quickly and so does the price.

[xecluded]

We will mainly use them for background music.  Home builder already pre-wired for stereo speakers at kitchen, master bath, and outdoor patio with separate volume control at each location.  Not sure the quality of wires that they used but we will just utilize what already there.

[JLM]

While normally a big fan of extended range drivers, I'm not in this case:

- Limited dispersion as mentioned above

- Not aware of any options with pre-built box/cover grate if you stay with flush mounted installations

- I would expect bass would be very limited due to lack of available 'cabinet' volume


BTW are these wired together (or will you need 3 stereo amps)?  How long is the cable run (impedance becomes a concern, sound will be low quality, tinny, and no dynamics if too long)?  Depending on how they're connected to the amp it could overheat.

[xecluded]

I am clueless as how they wire these things.  Too bad we paid for these pre-wired and now learned that it is much troublesome.  I will try to convince my wife not to use them.  Wish me luck with that!

[CSI]

Horses for courses. Having worked for two different distributed audio speaker companies (who did, believe it or not, employ talented speaker designers) I can tell you the best route is to buy speakers that are specifically designed to sound good in ceilings. You can find satisfying products from SpeakerCraft, Sonance and Triad (among others). Stick with the higher end of each line (but you don't need to go overboard). Contact each company directly and ask for their advice. Sometimes the Tech Support guys will be more candid about good recommendations than the sales department. They can also give you pointers on the kind of amps that will work well. Not all two channel amps, even very good ones, will be comfortable driving multiple speaker loads.

[Folsom]

How high is the ceiling? Must they be flush?

I recently was given some wall mount speakers, unknown origin, and then made an amplifier and donated them to The Clay Studio in town. They had 4 inch drivers on each side, and some metal inverse tweeters. They radiate like magic, with a woofer and tweeter on each side of a triangle shape. The woofers where on top on one side, and on bottom on the other.

I don't know anything about them, Signet brand. They aren't expensive. But you can blast 30-50w into them (don't know their ohm). Leonard Cohen will sing for you. Anyway the music fills a much larger space than any home living room I've been in, personally.

What appears more important is that the amplifier and source is good. Once you've got some dispersion with a bit of umph to it, the qualifier becomes whether it's pleasing to the ear or fatiguing. Power conditioning will greatly help. Tubes/Class D will also.

There's no reason you can't bump some loud background music when no one has to talk, and just jam out to some tunes while cooking/cleaning/relaxing. Frankly if it excites you to listen to it, you've won; even if imaging etc isn't perfect. For me this is all about how much I listen, and how well the influence of emotion is brought about. You can have a great deal of talent in something but basically if the timbre in the oscillation of harmonics of different instruments doesn't sing to me like a real one would, I get a bit bored. Imaging, detail, and everything else is a great, fun, benefit but I need hair raising, emotionally deriving sound. That's something I can get at an actual orchestra, but those aren't available every night, in my home. That being said, it can still be achieved in ceiling speakers or any other non-ideal situation. I can still see you having a nice glass of Port and listening to say the Superwolf album while sitting on your coach with feet up on an ottoman.

[gregfisk]

KEF and Klipch both now make in ceiling speakers and they both have strengths and weaknesses. The Klipch speakers have a wider dispersion pattern and like mentioned above the higher the ceiling the better. We install in ceiling speakers made by a company called proficient, they have several tiers of quality and the nicer models sound pretty darn good for in ceiling type speakers. They also flush mount very flat so they look a lot better than most brands. They are also much cheaper than the name brand speakers but punch way above the price point they are sold at. check out the web site at Proficientaudio.com

I own an alarm company that does all low voltage wiring including whole house audio and surround sound systems. We cater to your typical non audiophile but I have listened to a lot of in ceiling speakers and the truth is none of them sound great but they do work well for back ground music.

Greg

[S Clark]

"No wires"     If she is so rigid, split the house and tell her to decorate her half as she wishes.  Wow.