Ceiling speakers
Discussion
Hi guys n gals,
I have a house purchace going through at the moment and it needs ripping to bits. I had a thought this morning about ceiling speakers on the ground floor but have no idea where to start. I'm not after the best of the best just something that will sound good when I have guests round and the boys for poker nights!
Is it possible to connect something up to an ipod dock or laptop and play it through there? I'd want maybe four speakers in the kitchen diner and four in the lounge so eight total. What kind of figure are we looking at and is it something myself and an electrician can do?
Can anyone recommend a supplier or even better show me what you've got so I can get some ideas!
Cheers,
Gav..
I have a house purchace going through at the moment and it needs ripping to bits. I had a thought this morning about ceiling speakers on the ground floor but have no idea where to start. I'm not after the best of the best just something that will sound good when I have guests round and the boys for poker nights!
Is it possible to connect something up to an ipod dock or laptop and play it through there? I'd want maybe four speakers in the kitchen diner and four in the lounge so eight total. What kind of figure are we looking at and is it something myself and an electrician can do?
Can anyone recommend a supplier or even better show me what you've got so I can get some ideas!
Cheers,
Gav..
There are loads of speakers on the market at all prices and sizes. It depends on how good you want it to be and your room size as to the correct choice. I am sure you can pick up single units for £30 or less but we tend to stick to units at £100+,you only put them in once afterall. The better quality units should give you a fair amount of bass and be clear but most importantly not fatiguing to listen to.
Nick
Nick
If your ground floor is open plan, I would advise you to just install a single pair of nice flor standers at one end, connected to an amp with a 12v trigger input.
The sound from these speakers would cover the entire area and will give you way better sound for your buck even if you get some bookshelf speakers and not floor standers.
For smaller, enclosed areas like bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens etc ceiling speakers make more sense.
The sound from these speakers would cover the entire area and will give you way better sound for your buck even if you get some bookshelf speakers and not floor standers.
For smaller, enclosed areas like bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchens etc ceiling speakers make more sense.
Edited by Driller on Wednesday 22 December 12:30
Cheers guys,
The open plan kitchen diner is 3200mm x 5700mm and the lounge is 4000mm x 3000mm but they are seperate rooms. I like the idea of ceiling lights as the house is going to be modern and I like clean lines with no clutter (can you tell i'm single with no kids
)!!
Is an amp a must or can a docking station be simply wired in?
Gav..
The open plan kitchen diner is 3200mm x 5700mm and the lounge is 4000mm x 3000mm but they are seperate rooms. I like the idea of ceiling lights as the house is going to be modern and I like clean lines with no clutter (can you tell i'm single with no kids
)!!Is an amp a must or can a docking station be simply wired in?
Gav..
We put four ceiling speakers in the kitchen (50m2) when the house was re-furbed. They're ideal for a bit of music when cooking and dining, but not for audiophile standard reproduction. Plotloss recommended the make which I'm afraid I can't remember.
Ddin't even think about it for the front room as that has a surround sound system.
Ddin't even think about it for the front room as that has a surround sound system.
Problem is Driller the really nice looking ones usually cost a bomb, but them two you have shown are rather nice looking! Can an ipod dock be wired into an amp?
Ranger what you have just said is exactly what I need it for, just some background music that is of good quality. I'm not planning on having Tiesto round to do a set any time soon
Gav..
Ranger what you have just said is exactly what I need it for, just some background music that is of good quality. I'm not planning on having Tiesto round to do a set any time soon
Gav..
If you want background music only then some half decent ceiling speakers should be ok.
In my case though I found after a while that I wanted a whole lot more oomph and quality than the in-ceilings could provide-especially since it's the ground floor where one spends much of one's time. Again, yuo don't have this need in other areas of the house where it's background only.
No problem connecting an iPod dock into an amp as long as it has a line out (you can even use the headphone out although not the best), plenty of ways to do that.
All comes down to budget I suppose...
ETA pairs of half decent ceiling speakers will be at least £500 and for this you could have a pair of B&W CM1s which will give you a far better sound and don't look half bad either.
In my case though I found after a while that I wanted a whole lot more oomph and quality than the in-ceilings could provide-especially since it's the ground floor where one spends much of one's time. Again, yuo don't have this need in other areas of the house where it's background only.
No problem connecting an iPod dock into an amp as long as it has a line out (you can even use the headphone out although not the best), plenty of ways to do that.
All comes down to budget I suppose...
ETA pairs of half decent ceiling speakers will be at least £500 and for this you could have a pair of B&W CM1s which will give you a far better sound and don't look half bad either.
Edited by Driller on Wednesday 22 December 19:16
Gav,
4 pairs of these - http://www.russound.com/product_detail.php?i=3125 or similar.
Then all you'd need is a couple of stereo amps capable of driving two pairs of speakers each and a couple of iPod docks.
You could get away with one amp and a switch/vol control arrangement for the kitchen if you wanted just the one dock and potentially one amp. Depends on your requirements really.
What you lose in fidelity from ceiling speakers you gain in coverage due to their location, so the sound will be more uniform across the room than if you used a pair of bookshelf speakers or floorstanders. As you're after background rather than hifi then your initial instinct in terms of ceiling speakers is bang on in terms of both application and aesthetic.
As far as the actual work goes, a sparks will have no problem running the cable but the devil will be in the detail as far as how you want the output from the amp switched and how you get the output from the ipod to the amp (Wall docks are popular, for instance). So design/get it designed ahead of time and then just get them to follow the drawings.
4 pairs of these - http://www.russound.com/product_detail.php?i=3125 or similar.
Then all you'd need is a couple of stereo amps capable of driving two pairs of speakers each and a couple of iPod docks.
You could get away with one amp and a switch/vol control arrangement for the kitchen if you wanted just the one dock and potentially one amp. Depends on your requirements really.
What you lose in fidelity from ceiling speakers you gain in coverage due to their location, so the sound will be more uniform across the room than if you used a pair of bookshelf speakers or floorstanders. As you're after background rather than hifi then your initial instinct in terms of ceiling speakers is bang on in terms of both application and aesthetic.
As far as the actual work goes, a sparks will have no problem running the cable but the devil will be in the detail as far as how you want the output from the amp switched and how you get the output from the ipod to the amp (Wall docks are popular, for instance). So design/get it designed ahead of time and then just get them to follow the drawings.
Cheers Plotloss, thats what I am after. So it will be ok to run one amp and dock and have a volume control in the other room? Like I said in my intial post, the house is being ripped to bits and a full re-wire needed so thats why I was thinking about getting it all in place now!
Gav..
Gav..
Edited by GTO-3R on Thursday 23 December 11:30
Plotloss said:
What starts with a request for ceiling speakers ends with a link to a picture of a pair of the finest upper midrange hifi speakers that money can buy.
Fine work.
Do remember you'll need to add the BW-1s, the TDAI2200 and the SDA2175 to really make them sing though...
Yep, they really lost the Plot on this one Fine work.
Do remember you'll need to add the BW-1s, the TDAI2200 and the SDA2175 to really make them sing though...
And out come the cronies...
Gav, I have an open plan ground floor in my house with 4 pairs of ceiling speakers. My experience has been that the sound was disappointing for this type of area even though initially I wasn't looking for anything too high end. Everywhere else they are great
Traditional speakers give you way more bang for your buck in terms of sound quality bass etc and also have the advantage that they fire across the room towards you. Most ceiling speakers fire straight into the ground so if you're not absolutely under them the sound is muddy, unless you get some with pivoting woofers which are hundreds of £ each.
Traditional speakers are built in a rigid box whereas ceiling speakers are open backed and clipped into plasterboard which flexes.
Anyway if you really do just want "background" then as I said before in-ceilings are fine and with a modern amp you should able to drive them all at the same time (especially if it's just lower volume stuff).
I would recommend you at least try out a few types before you buy. I hope that this is of some help to you.
Gav, I have an open plan ground floor in my house with 4 pairs of ceiling speakers. My experience has been that the sound was disappointing for this type of area even though initially I wasn't looking for anything too high end. Everywhere else they are great
Traditional speakers give you way more bang for your buck in terms of sound quality bass etc and also have the advantage that they fire across the room towards you. Most ceiling speakers fire straight into the ground so if you're not absolutely under them the sound is muddy, unless you get some with pivoting woofers which are hundreds of £ each.
Traditional speakers are built in a rigid box whereas ceiling speakers are open backed and clipped into plasterboard which flexes.
Anyway if you really do just want "background" then as I said before in-ceilings are fine and with a modern amp you should able to drive them all at the same time (especially if it's just lower volume stuff).
I would recommend you at least try out a few types before you buy. I hope that this is of some help to you.
Driller said:
Anyway if you really do just want "background" then as I said before in-ceilings are fine and with a modern amp you should able to drive them all at the same time (especially if it's just lower volume stuff).
I'd agree with that. Ceiling speakers for a kitchen, bathroom, the bedroom perhaps; if you just want background music this would be neat and tidy solution, but you're going to be disappointed if you expect to be able to crank up the volume in the living room and have some audiophile grade hifi on-hand.Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff