Please Suggest a solution for Ceiling speakers

[amirsd]

Hello All

I just bought an Onkyo TX-NR696 Receiver. This receiver has 7.1 channels. I have two front speakers and a subwoofer (just a stereo setup). All plays all well and fine. I also have around 8 speakers in my ceiling pre-installed before I moved in. These speaker are in great condition.
How can I hook these speakers to this Onkyo Receiver or any other new amp/receiver so I can play them all together. Only issue is that I do not really have much option to run wires unless I take the drywall out. Is there another way I can accomplish this, maybe connecting another amp or receiver to the 8 speakers and connecting the existing Onkyo receiver wirelessly to the new amp......

Please suggest the best way. If needed I am willing to spend a little.

 

[lovinthehd]

Do you know what speakers they are? Where are they in relation to your seat? Can't imagine using more than two or four, tho.

No plans for other speakers at ear level?

 

[BMXTRIX]

I hate when builders put random speakers in my ceiling and don't actually wire them!

Seriously - This isn't how it is done. If you have ceiling speakers, then they are wired to some location. You need to find that location, then you can put equipment there.

Where are your ceiling speakers? 8 speakers in your family room is likely a pre-installed bastard of a surround setup. Because... builders suck.
But, if they are throughout your home, then you will need to add a lot more information about locations how many rooms, where they are wired, if there are volume controls, etc.

It may have been a Sonos system from the start by the last owner, and they could have taken all their Connect: Amp units with them.

 

[amirsd]

Thanks for the response..Its a big living room. The size is pretty big. All the speakers are on one ceiling accessible through the attic. I can see they are wired. I think if I recall there was an Amp connected to them. Don't have that amp anymore. The wires were all hanging when I moved in. After the renovation all the wire access was closed.
I probably may also stop by a music store to see any other options.

 

[lovinthehd]

Where are the wires hanging? From the ceiling in the main room?

 

[TLS Guy]

I would just forget those ceiling speakers were ever there. We get these posts on a regular and far too frequent basis. Basically they at best, can give your home the ambiance of a department store!

 

[BMXTRIX]

I don't get it. If you have wires coming out of the wall, attached to something, then you should know where they are. If they get buried in the wall, you should know specifics of where they are and what they were for. In a big living room, 2 or 4 speakers should cover it nicely for listening to music. But, it won't do much better than a couple of floorstanding speakers as well. So, just use the speakers you are already using.

I am fine with whole house distributed audio. But, this is not that. It doesn't even sound like it is good in-room audio. The fact that it doesn't sound appropriate for the room itself is a red flag for me and makes me lean towards the suggestions of just removing them completely.

If your goal is to create a decent surround sound setup in the room, then you would want to make sure speakers are in the right location and will be a good part of your surround sound setup. But, that doesn't involve 8 speakers I expect.

Anyway, the ceiling speakers are useless without the wires. You need those wires and they need to be where your equipment is located.

 

[amirsd]

Yes. I am getting to the same decision. I was thinking of engineering some Wireless/Bluetooth methods but maybe its not the way to go.
Appreciate everyone's input.

 

[snakeeyes]

Onkyo TX-NR696 is 5.1.2. That means you can do 2 in ceiling speakers but then you can only have 5 other speakers (not 7) on the ground. (Not including the subwoofer)

Placing in ceiling speakers for Atmos needs to be pretty close to the Dolby recommendation or it won’t work that well for creating an Atmos bubble of 3D sound.