Ceiling speaker installation

[pete_c]

I meant middle left and right a bit behind center....so I guess I call it middle rear (not correct) - Just recently remodeled family room adding the 6 & 7 speakers in the ceilling where as the rest of them are free standing / mounted on the wall.

So you say that boxes are not really necessary?

Having the large space between the ceiling and the bottom of the master BR floor made it easier to fish the wiring for the speakers. I was able to do said endeavor with minimal drywall damage.

 

[Dumetre]

My in ceilings sound excellent without boxes.

 

[Ranger Digital]

Pete, unless you are putting the speakers into a caverness space, like attach above or HUGE area, i would say NO you dont need back boxes. I put back boxes on some ceiling speakers once and it was just too much, made them boomy as they were not designed for a small cabinet like back box (like a regular speaker). Designed for open back spaces typcially 4-12" deep and running the length of a wall or ceiling rafter.

Thats been my experience as well as input from manufacturers.

You could alway install just the speakers and if you dont like it, add boxes later?

You will enjoy them regardless likely, lol.

 

[cgull]

If you think a box is necessary but don't want to mess with building a box, you can get sealed speakers. I think Speakercraft and Paradigm ceiling speakers are sealed, so no box required.

 

[KentDub]

Pete, unless you are putting the speakers into a caverness space, like attach above or HUGE area, i would say NO you dont need back boxes.

Actually the opposite is true. Speakers emit a positive wave in one direction and a negative wave in the opposite direction. The purpose of a cabinet is to prevent those two waves from ever meeting. If you turn on a speaker in an open room it sounds quiet and weak - that is because the waves are canceling eachother out. Ceiling mounting can act as a 'perfect' (or close to) speaker enclosure - if it is going into an attic. An attic will act as an infinate baffle. Attics have so much volume and non-parallel surfaces very little of the negative wave will reenter the listening room - thus little to no canceling can occour. If you are mounting into a ceiling that has a floor on top of it, you will want to enclose it. This is mainly because the waves will reflect downward very early with high amplitude - sheetrock does very little to dampen sound. The best design for speaker enclosures is to allow no parallel walls (i.e. do your best to not let the negative wave reflect directly upon the path it traveled from). Since the space can be very small, look into getting real acoustic dampening material and spacing it in the enclosure (i.e. not standard insulation, but acoustic insulation). The material will absorb a lot of the amplitude of the negative wave so what does reflect won't have nearly as much as a canceling effect.

To summarize, remember that the purpose of a cabinet is to deaden the negative waveform. If it is not killed, waves will cancel themselves out (called aliasing). Note the opposite can occour too: instead of canceling a wave you can boost it. The words that people associate with speakers 'boomy', 'piercing', etc. (in this situation) are caused by poor cabinet design that reflect the negative wave at some frequencies.

This is a big subject, and though there is a lot of math behind it, it ultimatly becomes very subjective.

Hope this helps,
Kent

 

[pete_c]

As the topic grows I keep learning. Thanks guys.