6ft ceilings and recessed bookshelf speakers?

[dobbershot24]

Like a self inflicted wound, I’ve played around with creating a media nook in less than ideal conditions. I have a 12’13 space in my basement with 6ft low ceilings and although it made for a perfect remote working office, it is laughable conditions for a small home theater. Non the less I have tried.

I have a 14in concrete ledges circling the room with 3 of the walls being concrete. I built off of the walls and insulated it. My question is.. should I use wall speakers with a huge amount of unknown space behind the drywall, or should I build cubbies for front ported book shelf speakers. I’ve attached photos. It’s quite the ridiculous set up.

 

[TLS Guy]

Like a self inflicted wound, I’ve played around with creating a media nook in less than ideal conditions. I have a 12’13 space in my basement with 6ft low ceilings and although it made for a perfect remote working office, it is laughable conditions for a small home theater. Non the less I have tried.

I have a 14in concrete ledges circling the room with 3 of the walls being concrete. I built off of the walls and insulated it. My question is.. should I use wall speakers with a huge amount of unknown space behind the drywall, or should I build cubbies for front ported book shelf speakers. I’ve attached photos. It’s quite the ridiculous set up. View attachment 61361View attachment 61362View attachment 61363View attachment 61364View attachment 61365

Compared to a lot we have seen round here over the years, you are good!

 

[j_garcia]

Did you already choose speakers or no?

In walls for fronts, definitely no. Rears and heights should not be a problem for in-wall, in-ceiling. Cubbies for the fronts, not for me personally, but you've done better than most. The placement is usually dictated by the studs and that doesn't necessarily mean it is the best spot - then you are stuck with it too. If it were me, mains and center would not be inside anything, but if they must, then what you've done is pretty nice. Center needs some room to be angled up slightly. Do you have wiring for ceiling speakers?

For the sub, I think SVS just announced an in-wall version of the 3000. I would recommend looking at that if you haven't' chosen one already.

 

[dobbershot24]

Oh man, that makes me feel much better to hear. I’ve been fairly discouraged by the limitations of the room. I’ve built all openings for the precise specs of the speakers plus a small wiggle room to get each in and out. I’m trying to make all the adjustments I can to maximize performance one piece at a time. I’ve planned for a 5.1 system

Mains I’ve chosen are the Bower and Wilkins 607
Center Bower Wilkins HTM6 S2
Sub SVS pro 1000 ported
Rear In wall TheaterMonolith THX-275IW 3 way

powered by the Emotive XMC 9.1.6 processor
And the Emotive BasX A7 Channel Amp.

But I’m open for any suggestions.

 

[TLS Guy]

Oh man, that makes me feel much better to hear. I’ve been fairly discouraged by the limitations of the room. I’ve built all openings for the precise specs of the speakers plus a small wiggle room to get each in and out. I’m trying to make all the adjustments I can to maximize performance one piece at a time. I’ve planned for a 5.1 system

Mains I’ve chosen are the Bower and Wilkins 607
Center Bower Wilkins HTM6 S2
Sub SVS pro 1000 ported
Rear In wall TheaterMonolith THX-275IW 3 way

powered by the Emotive XMC 9.1.6 processor
And the Emotive BasX A7 Channel Amp.

But I’m open for any suggestions.

Now we see your first major mistake. You can not use speakers designed to be free standing as in wall speakers.

The reason is the a speaker out in a room has a transition point were it transitions from being a monopole to an omni-pole. This frequency is determined by the width of the front baffle. This has to be compensated for, by a boost of 6 db. starting below the transition frequency. This is designed into the crossover network.

When you mount a speaker in wall, there is no transition frequency, in fact there is bass reinforcement from the large flat baffle. This remains a problem in any event, as not all walls are the same. These reflections result in peaks and nulls in the lower frequencies.

In any event using the speakers you have selected is going to make them very bass heavy.
The result is likely to be poor speech discrimination, especially for male voices.

In wall speakers are not easy to design, which is why there are precious few good ones.
I have designed one for my wife for our great room, and it has excellent speech discrimination, but it is not the easiest of journeys.

So I see that as a major flaw in your design.

 

[Wardog555]

Just use regular speakers wall mounted and you will be happier with the audio quality and experience!

 

[TLS Guy]

Just use regular speakers wall mounted and you will be happier with the audio quality and experience!

That is an improvement but not ideal. Optimum for free standing speakers is minimum 14" from room boundaries

 

[MrBoat]

Put the speakers on stands and move them into a more optimum position when serious listening is wanted and simply put them back out of the way for ambient use. I lived like that for years when my children were young. I still do this with some systems I have.

 

[Mike L. Long]

Your idea inspired me to create my library for recreation. I am still working out how everything will be because I want to consider where to place the speakers and the resting place step by step. For this, I need to persuade my father to find his free time to do work and free my time from educational tasks to start embodying my idea together. But I will free up my time with the help of https://ca.edubirdie.com/college-paper-writing-services , which completes assignments for college. But it will be more challenging to release the father's time, but I will say that the room will be for two according to the schedule .. Ha..Ha..Ha..

 

[Russell Burrows]

Oh man, that makes me feel much better to hear. I’ve been fairly discouraged by the limitations of the room. I’ve built all openings for the precise specs of the speakers plus a small wiggle room to get each in and out. I’m trying to make all the adjustments I can to maximize performance one piece at a time. I’ve planned for a 5.1 system

Mains I’ve chosen are the Bower and Wilkins 607
Center Bower Wilkins HTM6 S2
Sub SVS pro 1000 ported
Rear In wall TheaterMonolith THX-275IW 3 way

powered by the Emotive XMC 9.1.6 processor
And the Emotive BasX A7 Channel Amp.

But I’m open for any suggestions.

Consider a heze from Longeze forum member
Tr rig or tactile response rig.
Google sburger and the tactile response for bass
It's a wooden frame with some subwoofers free air and innertubes .
In a small space with a low ceiling perhaps the best choice is avoiding the excitement of traditional subwoofers in favor of a tr rig?

I use a tr bed as I like intense bass without disturbing nearby folks at late hours.
Some pics

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

Consider a heze from Longeze forum member
Tr rig or tactile response rig.
Google sburger and the tactile response for bass
It's a wooden frame with some subwoofers free air and innertubes .
In a small space with a low ceiling perhaps the best choice is avoiding the excitement of traditional subwoofers in favor of a tr rig?

I use a tr bed as I like intense bass without disturbing nearby folks at late hours.
Some pics

This!