New guy here...plenty of questions!

[fuzz092888]

Go to the pros and joes gallery sometime from the main forum page. It's towards the bottom, there are a lot of good systems in there from members here.

 

[kb2wji]

Ha! Circuit City was a miserable company to work for. I definitely appreciated the discount though Even after I left the company I still had plenty of connections to get taken care of. When I went salary I thought I was getting a nice pay bump. They didn't tell me they would be turning my 50 hour work week into a 70 hour work week. I don't miss that place one bit.

I'll check out the pros and joes category for sure. I've been scanning Craigslist recently (it's how I picked up my Marantz amp). I guess now i'm in the market for a 7.1 AVR with hdmi switching. Cant wait to see what that's going to run... Again, thanks for the heads up on HTD...didn't even know they existed. I think i'll be going that route with my ceiling / wall stuff.

 

[fuzz092888]

Ha! Circuit City was a miserable company to work for. I definitely appreciated the discount though Even after I left the company I still had plenty of connections to get taken care of. When I went salary I thought I was getting a nice pay bump. They didn't tell me they would be turning my 50 hour work week into a 70 hour work week. I don't miss that place one bit.

I'll check out the pros and joes category for sure. I've been scanning Craigslist recently (it's how I picked up my Marantz amp). I guess now i'm in the market for a 7.1 AVR with hdmi switching. Cant wait to see what that's going to run... Again, thanks for the heads up on HTD...didn't even know they existed. I think i'll be going that route with my ceiling / wall stuff.

Wow that sucks.

All AVRs have HDMI switching. If you don't mind refurbished accessories 4 less could be a website you check out.

 

[kb2wji]

Wow that sucks.

All AVRs have HDMI switching. If you don't mind refurbished accessories 4 less could be a website you check out.

I love refurbished My new-to-me refurb 27" Samsung computer monitor just arrived and I'm digging it. I'll check that site out. Thanks again for all of your input...huge help!

 

[Don G.]

I'll share my personal experience with you, may help, may not. I bought a house a year and a half ago. Single level, no media room, TV in the main living area.

Previous owner spent about $17k ten years ago to have the house wired for sound. Has Niles speakers in all the ceilings in every room, remote repeaters on the wall next to the light switch, two outdoor speakers outside in the screened porch.

I have not listened to it after the first week since we moved in. I like good quality sound and can't stand the sound of ceiling speakers, and Niles makes decent speakers.

Also, once you have them installed, you are pretty much stuck with the location, no matter how you arrange the furniture in the room.

I say all of this to suggest an alternative; WiFi speakers. You can set up a decent sounding Sonus system or a competing brand for a little more than you are planning to spend. It gives you better sound quality than any ceiling speaker, it is much more flexible and you can upgrade any speaker any time you want.

Just something to think about.

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

MarkW: I don't know if I follow. Are the speaker designs that much different? I thought they were the same basic speaker just with different mounting hardware. If a ceiling speaker fires directly at the floor, wouldn't a wall speaker just fire directly at the opposite wall?

Well sure in-wall speakers fire directly at the opposite wall, just like your Polk towers do. It’s not a problem for the latter, nor is it for the former.

The problem with ceiling speakers is that they only sound good when you’re directly below them. Any other place in the room, you’re severely off-axis, which means the highs are lost (and with them, definition). To get an idea of what I’m talking about, next time you go shopping at a big store, listen to the way things sound when you’re directly below a speaker, verses 30 ft. down the aisle. Or turn your Polks 90° off-axis and give them a listen and notice how significantly worse they sound.

Aim-able tweeters will only be useful in situations where the listening position is static. By contrast, in-wall speakers will sound decent in most locations in the room.

Bottom line, unless the ceilings in question are 12-14 ft. high, I’d go with in-walls.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[kb2wji]

Thanks Wayne, that clears it up quite a bit. Makes sense. My ceiling is essentially a big ^ The speakers will be in the higher part of the ceiling which will be ~14ft or so. The speakers will be slightly angled towards the center of the room just because of the slope of the ceiling. Unfortunately in the main living area, stealth is more important than quality. Hopefully the ceiling is high enough to allow halfway decent sound. I'll have a decent setup downstairs if I want to listen to quality