Way OT - Sound differences? Want to do in-ceiling speakers, do they sound good?

[RobPatt]

Got new house, living room layout not so great for standard floor standing speaker placement, will not do the Bose "cube" thing. In-ceiling speakers seem appealing, but wonder how can get good sound w/out using custom made enclosures as w/regular speakers.... ( or a trunk if you talk about a car... but we're talking about an attic here.... )

Any experiences? Visually would seem great, but hesitate/question their good sound. Pls advise, thanks -
Rob.

FWIW - I'm looking ino the Pinnacle BD speakers, or the Ascend CBM 340s or 170s.... or similar, but having hard time w/good placement... NOT for home theater, just good music to chill to...
Cheers!

[hakwuzhere]

I do alot of high end systems with in-wall/ceiling speakers... if you have attic space above, go up there and build a box insulated with sound absorbing material around each speaker you put in.

The companies I like best for stereo speakers are Sonance and Boston Acoustics, both companies have an extensive developmental backround in custom installed speaker applications. Bostons comes from thier car business. Sonance is 100% a custom installation company. Thier speakers start at $100ish a pair and go up to $2k+ea...

If you choose not to build a box around them you have the potential for problems and muddy sound... remember they use the same "infinate baffle" technology that car speakers use, also if you cant angle the speaker behind the grille you will generally get a pillar of sound, and not a good stereo soundfield.

You say these are going in your "living room" is this a room you use every day? or just to entertain? Would you consider it a critical listening area? or just somewhere that you want decent sound while your doing something else?

[GJPinAU]

A mate of mine has done this.
The sound is good when sitting but it blows your ears when standing under them. I think you'll need to be able to angle the speakers towards your sitting positions.
Overall IMHO they look fantastic, no clumsy speaker boxes hanging or on the floor.

cheers,
Greg

[RobPatt]

they're for a room I do use everyday, but just to sit in and chill, listen to music, etc, minimal entertaining, but it's not the "TV Room"... just sofa, love seat, recliner, book cases, fireplace, and my soon to be stereo setup.

Hum.... really thinking I need to figure out some floor speakers, else mount some speakers from high up on the walls... prob w/that is getting them away from a back wall a bit...

...would want to mount on the side walls, far away, angled in towards main seating... (which looks at the fireplace... bookshelfs along left wall...)

hum... thanks for the info too... never hurts to ask!



I do alot of high end systems with in-wall/ceiling speakers... if you have attic space above, go up there and build a box insulated with sound absorbing material around each speaker you put in.

The companies I like best for stereo speakers are Sonance and Boston Acoustics, both companies have an extensive developmental backround in custom installed speaker applications. Bostons comes from thier car business. Sonance is 100% a custom installation company. Thier speakers start at $100ish a pair and go up to $2k+ea...

If you choose not to build a box around them you have the potential for problems and muddy sound... remember they use the same "infinate baffle" technology that car speakers use, also if you cant angle the speaker behind the grille you will generally get a pillar of sound, and not a good stereo soundfield.

You say these are going in your "living room" is this a room you use every day? or just to entertain? Would you consider it a critical listening area? or just somewhere that you want decent sound while your doing something else?

[hakwuzhere]

Shoo, if youve got bookshelves and your a "stereo" fan... you should just get some decent bookshelves... a sealed enclosure speaker will outperform an infinate baffle speaker 9 times out of 10...

When I buy a house, my stereo room is going to have an amp stand with a decent sub underneath and two bookshelf speakers on stands to the left and right... with my listening area in the perfect sweet spot :) Itll either be McIntosh or Rotel powered... with prolly Canton bookshelves and a velodyne sub.

[hakwuzhere]

There are pretty speakers out there that can go great with furniture... ;)

http://www.veeshanvault.org/gallery/albums/album24/CM1_detail_one_large.jpg

B&W CM1's... excellent bookshelves.

[RobPatt]

working the tradeoffs... will prob do regular floor speakers else smaller (big bookshelfs?) on stands....




Shoo, if youve got bookshelves and your a "stereo" fan... you should just get some decent bookshelves... a sealed enclosure speaker will outperform an infinate baffle speaker 9 times out of 10...

When I buy a house, my stereo room is going to have an amp stand with a decent sub underneath and two bookshelf speakers on stands to the left and right... with my listening area in the perfect sweet spot :) Itll either be McIntosh or Rotel powered... with prolly Canton bookshelves and a velodyne sub.

[Gayle]

Last year my girlfriend got a plasma tv and surround sound in the ceiling. We watched Lord of the Rings and X Men that were "dolby theatre" quaulity.

About her TV, I was like "yeah, yeah, thats nice" but the surround sound was like "omg, that's truly awesome! I want that". It was chilling to hear the soldiers walking with their staffs banging the ground and when the wall broke and the water came pouring out--it was just amazing. The couch underneath me shook without the sound hurting my ears.


I think the reason the sound quality was so good was the "dolby theatre" and there is not a lot of it out there. It is like high def content--the players are here but the availablity of the content is still too limited.

[hakwuzhere]

Gayle, you have a girlfriend?.... ;)

dolby theater really doesnt mean anything... there are formats developed by dolby labs... (digital, digital EX, ES, ect...) but every single home theater reciever/processor on the market uses dolby processing in some way. There is also THX labs that has a slightly higher standard for certification than dolby, but it is all based on dolby formats. The competing and less common format (even though all recievers can process it) is DTS.

Any decent surround system should be able to realistically "steer" the sound around the room to create an environment of sound.

Every DVD ever released has some format of dolby sound (2.0, 2.1, 2/3.1, 5.1, ES, EX.......) Also dolby is the standard for HDTV content.

[RobPatt]

....and see how my old speakers sound.... meanwhile am continuing to look into the CM-3s, Ascend models, and other simliar ones... considering an 700 series Onkyo amp... or else HK, prob the Onkyo.

[Gayle]

Gayle, you have a girlfriend?.... ;)

dolby theater really doesnt mean anything... there are formats developed by dolby labs...

Yes I have several girlfriends but they always dump me when they get a new man in their lives. The good thing about having guy friends is they don't do that.

And dolby theater may not mean anything but my ears can hear the difference. We watched other movies that were not in that format and played concert dvds like the eagles that were recorded in it and some that weren't, and to my ears, the dt sounded way better.

[HDhandyman]

All the aforementioned brands are nice, and Hawk definately knows his stuff. I do a lot of this work as well, and he knows that. I'll try to just add a few concruent points of interest.

1. What is your budget?

2. What's wrong with the Bose cube style thing? Have you considered Orb audio? These speakers are great. They sell their own brand, directly, cutting out the middle man and offering great speakers for about half the price.

http://www.orbaudio.com/

you could have a lot of luck with these.

3. Are you an Audiophile? Is the sound quality really important to you? If you don't have any plans to pursue home theater, do you still want to go with a Dolby Surround style system? All of today's new music is mixed for 5.:) and up if you have a surround sound system in place...music studios mix all music this way, today. However, lots of music lovers still prefer the sweetly crafted and often times handmade sound of classic dolby HiFi. There are lots of companies out there who still hand make HiFi amps and speakers that are vastly superior to the digital listening experience. If it's just a music room, maybe you'd rather consider a timeless system like this? I think a lot of people don't realize that certain speakers and amps will never be dated and feel pressured into purchasing the "latest" system.

4. Here's a costly, but great link. We all have our favorite speaker brands and I'm no different. These guys handmake speakers here in my hometown, and are among the top five speaker manufacturers in the world. If you're willing to invest some money, this place could be a great option for you because they produce the classic hand made audiophile experience as well as top of the line digital, in wall setups that rock. Another option with them is to mount their ceiling/ wall line of stuff close to the floor. They can custom make anything, blah, blah, blah. There's a ton of education here as well.

http://www.thielaudio.com

Like anything else, you can get exactly what you want if you take the time to do the research and think hard about the experience that YOU truly want. Don't make any hasty or brand specific decisions. That's the best professional advice that I have to offer. Hope this helps.:)

[stargazer_61]

....and see how my old speakers sound.... meanwhile am continuing to look into the CM-3s, Ascend models, and other simliar ones... considering an 700 series Onkyo amp... or else HK, prob the Onkyo.

Have you looked into Parasound? I have a Halo P3 pre-amp & an A23 power amp driving a pair of (prepare for flames!) Bose 901's. John Curl designed circuitry, lots of depth and warmth and sounds way better than what you would think for the price. 125 wpc and that is plenty. Check out AudioAdvisor.com, that's where I bought them.