Posted: 12/8/2010 11:26:47 AM EDT
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OK Audiophiles. I'm clueless on this stuff.
Contemplating speakers for the new house I'm building. Looking to do a living room area + kitchen+ maybe 2 bedrooms. What is the best bang for the buck in wall / ceiling mounted speakers? I would prefer ceiling mounted, as opposed to mounting in the exterior walls. What to look for in a centrally mounted audio rack & distribution of the sound? Thanks! |
| Are any of these rooms going to be set up for home theater or critical listening? If yes, then skip the in-wall and in-ceiling speakers and get real speakers. In-wall and in-ceiling work fine for back ground music. Look at the Dayton line from Parts Express or the speakers from Monoprice. The distribution and volume control is where things can get expensive. PE has a full line of distributed audio equipment. I'd also check out smarthome.com. First, determine your goals for your system before buying anything. |
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I use these for my left and right surrounds:
Polk RC80i Yes, you trade some sound quality for the unobtrusive appearance of ceiling speakers. That said, my Polks sound pretty good. I would highly recommend them, especially for a kitchen or bedroom. It's nice to not see any speaker wire or have speakers sitting in the way of things. If the ceiling speakers I linked don't do anything for you, check out some higher end models. You might be impressed with the sound quality. I would consult a professional, reputable home A/V installer regarding a plan for distribution/wiring/etc. |
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If the OP is building a house, can't he size and build the walls that house in-wall speakers in such a way that they sound good?
If the speaker components are high quality and his walls are stiff, all joints sealed, proper insulation added, etc., can the sound be improved to close to the quality of real cabinets? Just a thought... |
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Quoted:
If the OP is building a house, can't he size and build the walls that house in-wall speakers in such a way that they sound good? If the speaker components are high quality and his walls are stiff, all joints sealed, proper insulation added, etc., can the sound be improved to close to the quality of real cabinets? Just a thought... ...and a very good thought. If I had the time I would experiment with building an enclosure for my ceiling speakers. It would involve building a box and securing it to the ceiling joists. Right now the speakers are covered with insulation only, and the sound is still more than acceptable. I think that constructing a speaker cabinet within a wall is a superb idea. |
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Thanks for the input.
The home theater will be downstairs & a separate affair. This is for "background" music / listening. Kitchen , dining, & living room for sure. Building boxes would be cake. What do I need to know about speaker boxes? Then will be the inevitable: What speakers? |
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For background listening - Monoprice or Dayton (Parts Express). Good quality at a great price.
Don't box these speakers in. They are designed to use large enclosures like wall cavities so putting them in a small box will greatly impact the bass response. There will be no low bass and a peak in the higher bass region. |
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Here's some various options size and price wise. Check out the wireless light speaker, however with new construction you can probably go with a more permanent speaker solution. http://www.klipsch.com/na-en/products/architectural-speaker/ |
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Quoted:
For background listening - Monoprice or Dayton (Parts Express). Good quality at a great price. Don't box these speakers in. They are designed to use large enclosures like wall cavities so putting them in a small box will greatly impact the bass response. There will be no low bass and a peak in the higher bass region. I'm not sure that anyone has suggested putting them in a small box, and a wall cavity cannot be considered much of an enclosure. We certainly sacrifice a degree a sound quality for the sake of looks when installing open backed in-wall speakers, but I fail to see how one could make things worse by constructing a reasonably sized, robust, sealed enclosure for something like this monoprice in-wall speaker. I understand that we're not talking rocket science, here. One could go back to the drawing board several times before achieving a flat bass response with a DIY wall enclosure, but I don't really see the point in discouraging one from trying. Once again, a wall cavity comprised of 2x4s and drywall is not much of an enclosure, and will do little if nothing to aid low bass. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
For background listening - Monoprice or Dayton (Parts Express). Good quality at a great price. Don't box these speakers in. They are designed to use large enclosures like wall cavities so putting them in a small box will greatly impact the bass response. There will be no low bass and a peak in the higher bass region. I'm not sure that anyone has suggested putting them in a small box, and a wall cavity cannot be considered much of an enclosure. We certainly sacrifice a degree a sound quality for the sake of looks when installing open backed in-wall speakers, but I fail to see how one could make things worse by constructing a reasonably sized, robust, sealed enclosure for something like this monoprice in-wall speaker. I understand that we're not talking rocket science, here. One could go back to the drawing board several times before achieving a flat bass response with a DIY wall enclosure, but I don't really see the point in discouraging one from trying. Once again, a wall cavity comprised of 2x4s and drywall is not much of an enclosure, and will do little if nothing to aid low bass. yeah, but if you're designing and building the house you could always provide 2x6 or 2x8 or whatever size studs and cover the speaker walls with multiple layers of MDF and/or drywall. The speaker manufacturer can provide info on speaker volume and so forth. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
For background listening - Monoprice or Dayton (Parts Express). Good quality at a great price. Don't box these speakers in. They are designed to use large enclosures like wall cavities so putting them in a small box will greatly impact the bass response. There will be no low bass and a peak in the higher bass region. I'm not sure that anyone has suggested putting them in a small box, and a wall cavity cannot be considered much of an enclosure. We certainly sacrifice a degree a sound quality for the sake of looks when installing open backed in-wall speakers, but I fail to see how one could make things worse by constructing a reasonably sized, robust, sealed enclosure for something like this monoprice in-wall speaker. I understand that we're not talking rocket science, here. One could go back to the drawing board several times before achieving a flat bass response with a DIY wall enclosure, but I don't really see the point in discouraging one from trying. Once again, a wall cavity comprised of 2x4s and drywall is not much of an enclosure, and will do little if nothing to aid low bass. yeah, but if you're designing and building the house you could always provide 2x6 or 2x8 or whatever size studs and cover the speaker walls with multiple layers of MDF and/or drywall. The speaker manufacturer can provide info on speaker volume and so forth. Exactly, which to me is a akin to building a special enclosure for in-wall speakers. I think we're on the same page, here. |
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Quoted:
I use these for my left and right surrounds: Polk RC80i Yes, you trade some sound quality for the unobtrusive appearance of ceiling speakers. That said, my Polks sound pretty good. I would highly recommend them, especially for a kitchen or bedroom. It's nice to not see any speaker wire or have speakers sitting in the way of things. If the ceiling speakers I linked don't do anything for you, check out some higher end models. You might be impressed with the sound quality. I would consult a professional, reputable home A/V installer regarding a plan for distribution/wiring/etc. +1 on the polk in wall. I had a set of the RC85i as rears for my living room and they sounded very good. For the OP's purpose they would be excellent. I would suggest using conduit to feed your speakers and other items. I did and was glad as I could change things out easily. I just stubbed out the conduit in the crawl space so it was easy to replace wires and change out components. |