In Ceiling or In Wall

[gbowland]

We are building a house and the living area is 22' X 22'. The area is very open to the rest of the house. I plan to purchase either Rc85i's or Rc65i's? Is it preferable to in ceiling mount or in wall mount? Also, I currently own a panasonic 42" Plasma HDTV. Are the TV speakers capable of being the center speaker? Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.
Gary

[anonymouse]

Are you thinking about these for fronts or rears or all round? For fronts, you definitely want in walls. The in ceilings will give you a very strange effect. The in ceilings will work for rears but should be 3-4 feet behind the listening position. The TV could potentially be used as a center, but it will not be optimal. The timbre (i.e. tonal) matching of the fronts will not be the same as the TV speakers. You also need to consider whether you like the sound from the TV now. If you do, then the timbre matching compromise might be acceptable to you. Try it out and listen. If you do not like the sound now, then you will not like it as a center. The center carries all of the voice in a movie (or most of it). Me personally, I would buy a dedicated center.

[mantis]

anonymouse,
your advice is a bit off bro. Allow me to help further.

Lets talk inceiling theater.... this is killer. All speakers in the ceiling with a plasma is the total way to go. Stealth is key here. Sound quality isn't bad like one would think, actually inceiling i s totally acurate. If your inceiling speakers have pivit tweeters(Polks do) you can aim the sound where you want it to go. Using 5 exact speakers is total Timbre matched.
Mount ing the rears should be on the sides of you. Inceiling allows for perfect placement. Off to the right and left of the listening area. Also go 7.1 , surround back is also able to be in the perfect location going all inceiling. Now you will have 7 exact speakers.
Do not use the the tv as a center channel. It doesn't work and it never did. The center channel is the most important speaker in the theater array.

If your ceilings are higher then 9 feet , well then inceiling will not work correctly. 10 feet max. Inwall speaker will need to be used at this time. Again using all the same speakers is key.

7.1 inwall or inceiling is great when you set it up correclty and use good quality gear to go with it. Wire is also very important. Go with high quality 14-2 cl3 rated wire and your set.

Good luck with your system.

Dan

[gbowland]

Thanks for the info.
It seems I might have a bit of a problem. Our ceilings in this room are 12' and the room is open to the kitchen area to the rear and open to the study and entry on another side. The adjoining ceiling heights are 10' so this in effect pops our living room ceiling up 2' bove the surrounding rooms. I could place the speakers in this "Popped Up" wall area if this makes any sense. They would be a little over 10' from the floor. Would this be acceptable? Also, could I use one of the in wall speakers for a center speaker. Wife don't want no speakers on the wall.

[disneyjoe7]

Have you considered using towers front, and using towers set behind you. The center could be placed in or on a large long equipment cabinet. See SteveinAZ in system showcase for a picture of this cabinet.

[mknutt]

I am interested to hear more about this as well. I have a somewhat similar setup with 11' ceilings in my living room. Hoping to put in-ceiling surrounds but no am a little worried if you think 10' MAX for in-ceilings. What is the accepted height for in-ceiling?

[gbowland]

I think we have solved some of our problem. We cut the ceiling heigth to 10'. With the size of this room should we use Polk Audio Rc85i's or Rc65i's or a combination of the two?