Speaker Placement... too high

[JWade]

I am having a house built that should be ready for delivery soon. My wife and I love the open floor plan, but that doesn't always lend itself to very good sound. Moreover, the family room which will be my only AV room (until the basement can be finished with the all powerful, sounds conditioned media room, aka Man Land!) has 11 foot, beamed ceilings. Looks great, but I am worried about having the speakers hung from the ceiling with such tall ceilings. The house will have a pre-wired 5.1 (a bit behind the times) system that the techs installed in the gang boxes in the ceiling, before I could specify otherwise. I am looking at the Mod 2 system from Orb Audio which claims to produce a good sounds from most speaker placements. My question(s), am I going to be satisfied with the sounds coming from well above ear level? Any knowledge of the ORB Audio system (or others) that might deliver clean, rich sounds from '11 feet up'?

Also, the house will also have distributed sound in two other rooms and I need to find a mid range reciever (<$1000) that supports a multi-zone setup and can be controlled by auxillary control panels.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Jason

 

[markw]

All the speakers are at that 11' level?

Imagine watching someone talking at face to face level and their voice eminates from some point 5 - 6' above their heads and the corners.

How do you think it'll sound?

The ability to deliver clean, rich sound won't be the problem, although overall room size may be an issue. Generally, small speakers sound best in small/medium sized rooms

 

[JWade]

Still in denial...

and trying to convince myself it will be okay.

Yes, all speakers will be installed from the ceiling (gang boxes). Definitely not optimal, I realize that. The family room is 20' x 15' and has large opennings on two walls (again back to the open floor plan).

I suppose that I am trying to go with 'form' over 'function' on this one as it will be in the main living area and I will have a media room in the basement in the near future. I can have someone move the gang boxes from the ceiling to the walls (ear level), but I am trying to avoid that and keep in mind that this will be more for TV/Music with the family than it will be for watching movies. Hoping that someone will assure me that it will be acceptable for at least TV/Sports viewing with the family.

I have given up on having perfect sound, but if it is going to absolutely stink then I will pay to have someone move the pre-wires.

Any insight on multisource/multi room recievers. The system installed by Advent will have a A Bus to port the sounds to the other rooms and will have control panels in the rooms. I don't have any experience with this but would like the aiblity to listen to music in other rooms while having TV/5.1 in the family room.

 

[JWade]

I could have the center channel perched on top of the cabinet so at least primary voices will be closer to the video source. But, would that hinder multi channel music listening. I have always heard keep all channels at the same level, what ever level that is... your thoughts?

 

[markw]

I don't imagine you everconsidered in-wall speakers? They cost a little more but offer more optimal placement*, possibly better sound, and an almost invisible installation.

* as long as you know where the TV is gonna be and work from there.

 

[JWade]

Have thought about it

but would require reconfiguring the current wiring/gang box installation and I am not sure if I could find a quality 'in wall' speaker setup.

We do know where we are planning to place the TV, so that is not the problem. It is more quality of sound and if I was to re-route the wiring, I would just have the gang boxes installed on the walls then place my speakers at ear level. But,.... using the in wall speakers would gain some points with the wife (the form over function part). The other concern is how to tweak the direction of the sound when you have in wall speakers.

The other rooms have in the wall speakers, but I don't think they are of great quality.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I thought more about at least perching the center channel on top of the display and then having the fronts and surround in the ceilings. This way, I could keep the primary voice near the picture and have the secondary/surround audio up higher. That may be a good comprimise. I have my current setup that way (but only 2 feet different) and it sounds fine.