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The Pros and Cons of Ceiling Speakers
Office buildings, airports and restaurants were the first homes
of ceiling speakers. They can be easily recognized by the dense
grilles that pour decibels right into your head.
But why would someone want ceiling or in wall speakers, instead
of a pair of normal, efficient and highly affordable speaker
cabinets. There could be a few reasons:
* Saving some space in the room;
* Maintaining the aesthetics of the room;
* Hiding the wires;
* Getting rid of the holes in the walls.
In the past, there weren't many fans of wall or ceiling-mounted
speakers. While there are still people that think plenum-mount
technology is just a whim, on the other side it is this
technology in particular that gains more and more advocates.
This is probably due to a change in life styles. People want the
environment adapted to their needs, not the other way around.
There's one sure thing with in-wall and ceiling speakers: they
are not for those who are into high-end audio. You could hardly
find an audiophile willing to trade the deep bass that he or she
loves so much for a bit of extra shelf space.
But even if not an audiophile, you'll need to pay attention to
the following parameters:
* Frequency response - gives you the range of the
audible spectrum that the speakers can reproduce; the human ear
can hear 20 Hz to 20 MHz, thus the more a speaker approaches
this interval, the better.
* Power handling - specifies the ranges of power the
speakers can safely receive from the amplifier (e.g. 20-100
watts);
* Efficiency - also called sensitivity, this rating
indicates how effectively the speaker uses the power sent to it
by the amplifier.
A key aspect in having in-wall or in-ceiling speakers is how you
capture the back wave. You can't always know what happens behind
that wall, how big the hole really is, or if it's sealed. The
answer is to use sealed speakers, no matter their location.
Otherwise you'll have a lot of rear acoustic energy wasted into
the back-wall and a distorted, uneven sound.
Mounting the speakers
Usually it is a lot easier to mount ceiling speakers than
in-wall speakers, at least where there is a fake ceiling.
Mounting in-wall speakers is more of an architectural problem.
That's probably why these are also called "architectural
speakers". People don't like to have small rooms, thin walls,
and wires bursting from one room to another.
The easiest alternative is to project the audio system before
even
having the walls built up. The advantage is freedom to plan
things (speakers among others) exactly how you want them.
Figuring out the wires is the part you should do before building
the walls. Some planning is needed ahead: talking to an
electrician, finding out how much wire you need, seeing what
kind of wire you can actually use (UL-rated wire is approved for
use in walls in all 50 states). Also, seeing the layout of your
lighting system, and how it would interfere with that of the
speakers.
Inserting the speakers can be done on the run, as the wall is
being raised. Some people successfully use the drywall as a
speaker's enclosure. The key is to have the speakers in the
right place from the start. This would save you time, money and
nerves.
Installing the speakers in an existing wall or ceiling is a bit
more difficult and pricey. But it can be done. At first, find
out what's behind the walls you want the speakers mounted in and
see if you can drill. You need to make some holes into the
desired spots, and build the speaker-enclosures.
Ceiling speakers have a drawback: the location. we're not used
to having the sound come down at us from the ceiling, but from
our side. The sensation of the sound-waves reaching the head and
then the ears, is a bit strange. Some ceiling speakers are
flexible within a given degree, so they can be pointed towards
the listener. They are round-shaped in order to match the bulbs
and lamps that also found their site on the ceiling.
Niles, SpeakerCraft, and others use directional tweeters and
woofers that can be separately adjusted to compensate for
imaging problems arising from the positioning drawbacks.
Most in wall speakers have paintable grilles, so you can
perfectly black them out.
Above all, my biggest dilemma is what to do if my trendy,
camouflage speaker, be it in-wall or in-ceiling, breaks down?
Most users say I don't need to worry as they can be taken out,
repaired or even replaced. There's also absolutely no need to
worry if I want to add some speakers to my system, they say. One
solution would be to think ahead and stuff the wall with more
wire for later add-ons. Still, I find this unnecessary hassle.
But for the sake of interior design logic, it may be worth it.
About the author:
Learn how wireless speakers and headphones work, read
product reviews and find out shopping tips and tricks at http://www.Wireless-Speak
ers.org.
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