In ceiling speaker installation Q's (1 Viewer)

[Rob_J]

Hi all, I'm looking for a little advice on some in-ceiling speakers. We are renovating our home, and will be replacing the ceilings in our living room, dining room, and kitchen. I plan on installing some in-ceiling speakers for general listening/background music (no home theatre or critical listening) in the kitchen, and possibly dining/living rooms. Questions: 1. Our contractor is suggesting we use resilient channels for the ceiling drywall. Will this be a problem with in-ceiling speakers? From what I've read, speakers need a really solid structure to mount onto, and I'm thinking that resilient channel is the exact opposite of that. 2. Speaker placement: The kitchen and dining room are essentially one area (divided by a 12" beam on the ceiling) and the total room size is about 15'x20'. I was originally thinking of two speakers in the kitchen, and two in the dining room. Is this overkill? Would it sound ok with one speaker in each room, on diagonal? 3. Lastly, I'm looking at either Boston Acoustics HSI460 or Definitive Technology Di6.5R. They're comparable in price, but I think the Definitive Tech might be the better of the two. Comments? I've attached a rough layout of the rooms. Thanks!

 

[Robert_J]

1. Why resilient channel on the ceiling. I've only seen it used in theaters for soundproofing. Are you keeping sound away from the room above? As far as attaching, my in-ceiling surrounds just grab the drywall with flip out tabs. It's not like you are going to be cranking these to 120db or anything. This is background music. 2. I'd go with 2 speakers in each room. That way the sound is balanced (not one loud spot in the room) and you will be able to get some stereo separation in each room. 3. Can you audition each set? Which sound better. You said this isn't for critical listening. For background music, I'd be going with the contractor series from Parts Express.

 

[Rob_J]

Hi Robert_J (nice name, by the way! ) My contractor is suggesting resilient channels to reduce noise from the living room to the bedrooms above, which I agree would make sense. We'll be adding insulation in the joist cavities as well. My concern was that since resilient channel is meant to allow the sheetrock to vibrate, yet not transmit the vibrations to the joists, if that would mean the speakers would be ale to resonate it more than normal. I didn't think of the balancing aspect of two speakers. Thanks for that tip, I'm going to go with two in the kitchen, two in the dining room. I heard it's not good practice to put the speakers above the dining room table though. So I was thinking of putting them in diagonally opposite corners. Both the Boston and Def Tech sounded pretty good (better than I was expecting), but the Def Tech look nicer and their tech specs show lower response than the boston. Price-wise, they're very similar. Thanks for your help!

 

[conuronton]

If you haven't made provisions, I might suggest having a seperate volume control for each room.