A Tale of 5 Installs Part 3 - Best. Attic. Ever.

[admin]

What happens when a musician who is very much into music and live performance decides to finally step up his home to the world of 5.1 surround sound? "Adam" lives in a beautiful historic home and has to decide what kind of system to install - and more importantly - where to put it. His priorities are movies and the ability for him and his wife to be able to crank up the movies and enjoy feature films when the kids go to bed.

Discuss "A Tale of 5 Installs Part 3 - Best. Attic. Ever." here. Read the article.

 

[Rowdy S13]

there's always a way to integrate 5.1 audio

You LIE, see here for proof
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47618

Sean

 

[cwall99]

Huh???

So, I'm confused. I've seen columns and postings on this site a number of times (and don't ask me to provide a URL; I'm far too lazy to do that) deriding the notion of putting your speakers on or in the ceiling.

I'm fine with that, but so far, you're 3 for 3 in putting speakers on the ceiling. What gives?

 

[Rowdy S13]

I think that has been for reasons of compromise. The installs he is doing are in peoples homes who are NOT audioholics, but want some kind of nice/decent surround system. Better to have speakers placed in not optimal locations than to not have any at all. Also note that the first two were HTIB systems, another "sin" for any true audioholic.

Sean

 

[birdonthebeach]

I think that has been for reasons of compromise. The installs he is doing are in peoples homes who are NOT audioholics, but want some kind of nice/decent surround system. Better to have speakers placed in not optimal locations than to not have any at all. Also note that the first two were HTIB systems, another "sin" for any true audioholic.

Sean

Agreed. In a perfect Audioholics world, we would all have dedicated theaters, with perfect acoustics and high dollar gear. The purpose of this series of articles is to show to how to best integrate a system into places that have installation and budgetary restrictions - situations that most people face when deciding to add a surround setup to their home.

 

[annunaki]

Agreed. In a perfect Audioholics world, we would all have dedicated theaters, with perfect acoustics and high dollar gear. The purpose of this series of articles is to show to how to best integrate a system into places that have installation and budgetary restrictions - situations that most people face when deciding to add a surround setup to their home.

I've been dealing with that for years.

 

[JohnA]

Clint....Not only do you need to get yourself a ladder, but pick up a 6 foot, 1/2" alarm bit, and then just go through the fire blocking that you keep running into...

 

[Haoleb]

Most people dont want big speakers and components and wires and so on. They want something small and simple. The last house I did a full install for was for a couple where the husband wanted something that sounded good and was of good quality, The wife did not want to see speakers anywhere, no components taking up her closet space and so on. This house is in the area of around 9,000sq' and you would think they would have a little compromise...

Anyway I installed all in ceiling speakers for the multizone system and they have a 5.0 system where I had to install all 5 speakers in the ceiling as well. I had heard systems done like this previously but there was no way the wife was going to allow me to put the LCR in the wall that the tv was mounted on. I ordered some speakers with aimable tweeters and when all was said and done it looks extremely slick and sounds better than most most people have that arent into the hobby even with the speakers in the ceiling above the tv. Sometimes you just have to compromise to meet a clients demands. They dont have a subwoofer in the system but for them its great, They dont require the floor shaking exprience most of us desire.

I think we sometimes forget that the majority of the population has never had anything better than just a little minisystem and whatever is in their car. To them a system like this is the holy grail.

I should mention, That once the system was installed and they started using it the wife found out she actually loves everything and probably uses it more than her husband who was the one who wanted it. And I mean, When I was ordering gear and getting stuff she was getting so angry at him he actually threw his cell phone across the yard talking to her about it once...

 

[allargon]

Boing, boing, boing.... That's what I thought when I saw all those wood paneled walls and hardwood floors. However, I know that room treatments and rugs probably weren't in the cards. I do like the painted (or was it just white) speaker cable going to the mains. I do want to know is there a particular reason you chose dipoles for the surrounds. The way the photo looks it is if the right surround will bounce right off the windowed wall. My apologies if this post sounds like I'm nagging/nitpicking, but I'm generally curious.

Oh... you can stand up in my attic with ease, too.

 

[dorokusai]

Clint....Not only do you need to get yourself a ladder, but pick up a 6 foot, 1/2" alarm bit, and then just go through the fire blocking that you keep running into...

I once tried to get my cable modem routed into my basement with a 3 ft., flexible bit and drilled thru all kinds of stuff in my house/wall/substructure, drill jerking sideways, hitting metal....that to this day, have no idea what it all was. Needless to say, I was never able to complete that task.

Mark

 

[Alex2507]

So, I'm confused. I've seen columns and postings on this site a number of times (and don't ask me to provide a URL; I'm far too lazy to do that) deriding the notion of putting your speakers on or in the ceiling.

I'm fine with that, but so far, you're 3 for 3 in putting speakers on the ceiling. What gives?

One thing to keep in mind is that not all ceiling speakers are created equal. They do have some well thought out products on the market, and they aren't cheap. Some people are just not willing to put up with speakers sucking up their space. Period. I tried that approach to a degree and finally gave in to the 'there is no substitution for displacement' approach.

Preaching to the choir is easy but you can talk till you're blue to normal people and watch them turn around and buy up 120 Hz TV's, cube speakers and extended warranties. Then they put the speakers where ever the wife says it's okay. Nutless wonders!

J/K Kind of.

 

[gene]

Ceiling speakers should be avoided for critical music or hometheater as much as possible but given the choice between 5 in ceiling speakers or 0 speakers for a 5.1 system, I'd choose the former. If a compromise could be made, the installer should try to encourage their customer to use in-celing speakers for the surrounds and distributed audio only.