New House, Weird Speaker Placement (1 Viewer)

[MichaelLT]

My wife and I just bought a house. The problem is the previous owner put a surround sound system in the ceiling. All four speakers (r&l fronts and f&l rears) are in the ceiling. They are in wall speakers, not the in ceiling ones either. Anyone have any experience with this? We move in in 3 wks. and I would like to have my ducks in order. I am assuming they are crappy speakers. I had planned on using in walls for the front but, not putting them in the ceiling. I am not sure how I am going to deal with it. My wife loves the fact that they are up out of the way. Would buying some in walls that have directional tweeters help the sound at all?

 

[MichaelLT]

Anyone? Someone?

 

[Chris Tsutsui]

I've honestly never heard of people using ceiling mounted mains. I'm sure you'll be able to hear sound and music, just don't expect a good soundstage.

Since they are installed in walls, you can easily just leave them there and buy new mains and use the ceiling surrounds for 5.1. Then later if you want a more cohesive surround sound "unhook" the rear ceiling surrounds and use new ones.

Using that wall design speaker in the ceiling probably has no negative effects. A lot of Speaker drivers can operate front firing (wall) or down firing (ceiling) and still sound ok.

I would try out the ceiling speakers and see how they are, then decide whether it was worth putting in front in-walls. It probably depends on whether you like the sound quality, and if you can accept voices coming from the ceiling rather than from the television.

In general you'll find that "better" speakers won't be in-wall because wall mounted speakers have many design restrictions. I suggest keeping the in-walls there, and using them until you can upgrade to some bookshelfs or floor standers. Obviously the person that owned the house before didn't know or care much about that home theater.