In-ceiling or Freestanding for HT

[THD1%]

I am getting a house built and I have to make a decision on how I want my surround wires run. It comes wired for 7.1 in the media room and 5.1 in the family/living. Basically I am deciding whats best for the family room. I dont know if I should have in ceiling or just have the wires run to a j-box near the floor for free standers on stands. We arent going to use the family for movies because I will have a dedicated home theater so basically it will be for television watching.

Are in ceiling installations decent? Its going to be in between floors so once I get it wired it will be hard to rewire. I dont know if I want all the clutter since I have a true home theater but I dont want crappy sound either. Also, if I decide the ceiling route would it be better to have a seperate free standing center channel instead of having a ceiling mounted one?

Thanks.

 

[Adam]

I don't know if this is possible, but perhaps you could have it wired so that you could do either. You could run wires for both, or you could have junction boxes in the ceiling where you'd put speakers there if you chose to do that, but run wires from those junction boxes to where you'd put the wall plates for the freestanding speakers. With the second choice, if you put in ceiling speakers, you would disconnect the wires from that junction box to the wall plates (so the ceiling speakers would be connected, but the wall plates wouldn't be). I just like having options later on.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I am getting a house built and I have to make a decision on how I want my surround wires run. It comes wired for 7.1 in the media room and 5.1 in the family/living. Basically I am deciding whats best for the family room. I dont know if I should have in ceiling or just have the wires run to a j-box near the floor for free standers on stands. We arent going to use the family for movies because I will have a dedicated home theater so basically it will be for television watching.

Are in ceiling installations decent? Its going to be in between floors so once I get it wired it will be hard to rewire. I dont know if I want all the clutter since I have a true home theater but I dont want crappy sound either. Also, if I decide the ceiling route would it be better to have a seperate free standing center channel instead of having a ceiling mounted one?

Thanks.

While intercom speakers may not be up to par with hi-fi speakers in the ceiling, you can certainly tell where the audio is coming from and I doubt you would like in ceiling mounted speakers.

 

[Davemcc]

My opinion, FWIW. In ceiling, no. In wall, maybe, there are supposed to be some very good ones. However, were it my new home, I would simply wire for floorstanding or bookshelf speakers and prewire for a sub. These are the bread and butter of the industry and you are more likely to find bettter sound at better value. Plus, there are so many brands/models, you can change speakers like socks if you want. Once you go in-ceiling or in-wall, you're pretty much stuck with the initial choice.

 

[Seth=L]

My opinion, FWIW. In ceiling, no. In wall, maybe, there are supposed to be some very good ones. However, were it my new home, I would simply wire for floorstanding or bookshelf speakers and prewire for a sub. These are the bread and butter of the industry and you are more likely to find bettter sound at better value. Plus, there are so many brands/models, you can change speakers like socks if you want. Once you go in-ceiling or in-wall, you're pretty much stuck with the initial choice.

Yes, floor standers or bookshelf speakers for that matter will likely always sound better than in-walls or in-ceiling speakers for the money.

 

[MDS]

I dont know if I should have in ceiling or just have the wires run to a j-box near the floor for free standers on stands. We arent going to use the family for movies because I will have a dedicated home theater so basically it will be for television watching.

My house was pre-wired for 5.1 but IMO in a rather dumb manner. There are two j-boxes in the ceiling for the surrounds and those wires run over the ceiling and down to the wall behind where the TV sits. That is fine.

BUT, there are also two wall plates on each side of the wall and those were for the front speakers as well as a wall plate slightly higher up the wall that was intended for the center channel. Now here is why I think it is a poor setup: You STILL have all those wires in the center j-box that have to be connected to the receiver and you still have to run wire from the other wall plates to the actual speakers. So all it accomplishes is hiding 5 feet of wire behind the wall (and a whopping 18 inches of wire for the center).

If the speakers are in close proximity to the AV equipment, nix the idea of running a few feet of it behind the wall to another wall plate. For side surrounds and/or rear surrounds that are located away from the equipment then yes j-boxes with speaker binding posts are the way to go.

One thing I'd suggest though if you are still in the building phase - go with 'retro rings' (aka mud rings) rather than the j-boxes. The j-boxes cannot accomodate a large number of wires and when you eventually have to rip them out there is practically no way to do it cleanly without damaging the wall. When you install wall plates after the drywall is up you have to use the retro rings; I say use them initially - it will make things a lot easier to work with.

 

[JessyMcK]

run the wires in the ceiling and down the walls. Remember where they are(take pics if you need). Then when you decide you can put in retro fit junction boxes. That way your wires will be in place for in-ceiling, in-wall, or floor standing. This way there won't will be extra wallplates where you don't want them. Retro fit boxes are about $1 at any hardware store.

 

[THD1%]

I wish I could wire both but I am sure its an upgrade...they like to nickel and dime. What if I only get the rear surround in the ceiling? Can you really notice them coming from the ceiling? I was looking last night on a company called JA audio...they had swivel speakers for the ceiling at a decent price...has anyone ever heard of them? Maybe I should just get it wired for freestanders...I hate this...decisions decisions. I really like the clutter free for the family room...but I dont want to make a mistake since it will be hard to rewire through the TJI's.

 

[Adam]

I had a friend who mounted some small NHT bookshelf speakers to the ceiling in his house for the rears. I never saw it, but he was quite happy with the sound. Admittedly, they weren't built-in ceiling speakers, but I'm just giving an example of someone who had the rears mounted high like that and was happy.

 

[jcPanny]

Family room speaker system

Since there is not much TV material with surround sound and you have a dedicated HT room, you might be able to get away with a quality 2.1 system in the family room. Another aproach would be to make the family room, your "2-channel" room and get some high end mains like the Onix Strata Mini's:
http://www.av123.com/products_product.php?section=speakers&product=78.1

 

[ParadigmDawg]

If you can wire for both without paying an upgrade fee then do that. I am going to go against the grain and say use the in-ceilings for the family room. They are going to sound way better than the TV speakers and they will be well hidden and have a high WAF. You have the dedicated HT for real movie watching and music playing. I use in-ceilings for my surrounds and they sound really good.

 

[THD1%]

Cool thanks guys. I met with the builder today and went ahead with the ceilings. I got to thinking why make the living room as good as the dedicated media which totally defeats the point of having a media room. I don't think it will sound that bad.

Now the next thing is to pick out speakers...

Thanks again!