grspec said:
I currently have pre-wired speaker jacks for the front speakers that are on the wall at the ceiling. Can you just mount bookshelf speakers that high up or is it going to ruin the sound? Should I just go with floorstand speakers and use some raceway to hide the speaker wire?
Thanks
If I've learned my lessons right--I'm new to audiophile stuff, so please correct me, people, if I'm wrong
--it's ideal to have the tweeters of main speakers at or near ear level. But with our present set-up, we have our mains (bookshelves that are roughly 19 x 9 x 12") high off the ground. In fact, the bottom of the speakers is over 6' off the ground. It doesn't bother us at all for stereo music (we had a 2.0 system for years). Now that we have a 5.1 set-up, the high main speakers still don't bother us for music or movies. Even as movie action sweeps across the screen, it's not bothersome to have the sound start with a high speaker, swoop to the center, which is about 4' off the ground, and go to the other main. Maybe we'd like it better if the mains were at the level of the center, but it's just not possible right now.
But acceptable for us might not be acceptable for others. One thing you could do is put the speakers high and test them that way, before going to the trouble of running wire down the wall. Another thing you could do is forget the jacks that are there, and run new speaker wire along the floor.
Oh, and I guess there's something else to consider. If your speakers are positioned high up a wall, you'd have to be sure their sound dispersal pattern will let a good amount of their sound reach your ears when you sit in the room. There'll be a pattern for the speakers positioned vertically and horizontally (ours lie on their sides). If your speakers don't have a wide enough pattern, you probably won't be happy having them far off the floor, though some sound will hit your ceiling and reflect down.
Chris
