In-ceiling speakers

[Scott]

So before I drywalled my garage I prewired for future speakers in the ceiling. Well I got a deal on a new receiver for the house so my old 5x100w Pioneer is enroute to the garage. Anyone have speaker recommendations for in-ceiling speakers? I am not looking for anything too fancy, $100-200 for 4 speakers. Ebay has some off brands as well as speakers from, Pyle, Audio Source, Pheonix Gold, all in my price range. Any favorites? I am thinking 4 6.5" coax, or maybe 8 inchers.

 

[bmwpower]

I like:
MB Quart
Boston Acoustics
SpeakerCraft
Paradigm
Infinity
Yamaha

Not a fan of:
JBL
Bose

Stick with a brand-name. I would suggest listening to some of them locally, if you can. Go for the biggest woofer you can. If you are lucky enough to find some with directional tweeters, you can use them to direct the highs toward the listening area.

 

[the dude]

I also like B&W in walls...but they are pricey.

Honestly, I would go for a set of 6.5" coax car speakers... I know they are 4 ohm but I am sure your pioneer could handle them. It would be really cheap and they will def make noise. The nice thing is that lots of them have directional tweeters.

Or even better, get 4 sets and run them in series for an 8 ohm load. I am sure you could do it for under $200

As for sound quality; I don't think that in wall or roof speakers really need to pass a sound quality test...but that's just me.

 

[Scott]

I agree, and it is the garage, whatever I buy will be better than my yellow Sony "Sport" radio/tape player that is covered with drywall dust and mud. I might head down to Frys this weekend to see what they have.

I have been abusing the Pioneer with my Wharfedale home speakers that are 4ohm for years now, so it can handle it.

 

[cc_rider]

check out www.partsexpress.com for some possibilities.

Speakers are not really that difficult to build yourself; Parts Express has everything you need to build nice speakers from scratch, including technical info and a good tech forum. I built a pair of in-wall speakers using just veneered plywood. 1" tweets and 8" woofs, with the crossovers screwed to the back. I stuffed some polyfill into the wall cavity and hooked them up. Sounded pretty nice considering I didn't bother to get the speaker volume correct.

FYI, don't bother buying 'The Loudspeaker Design Cookbook'. It is NOT a bunch of 'recipes' for speakers, but a detailed technical treatise on all the minutiae of speaker design, 99% of which has little to no effect on the sound quality.

Rock On!

c.

 

[04 Navi]

I love Paradigm, but for inwalls I took a chance and bought some polks off of Ebay. RC85i's are very good. Most people ask where the subwoofer is, they are that good. Directional tweeters and great low end. The others mentioned are good, but for the money you can't beat these ones. Good luck.

 

[Raven1911]

If you want in wall speakers, what is the best way to run the wiring if your garage is already drywalled? I don't think I have a crawl space up there to go into, but I will have to look.

 

[cc_rider]

Running the wiring is the hard part. If you don't want it to show you have two options: up from below or down from above. I'm considering a third option in my garage: add wood trim all the way around, and hide the wires behind it. I'd route a wire groove in the back and tack the wire in place just before installing the trim. I haven't actually DONE it yet though, so don't hold me to it...

It's not such a huge deal to poke small holes in drywall and patch them up later though.

Regardless, you'll need a 'fish tape', a long piece of spring steel wound onto a reel, used for 'fishing' wires. Helpful tip: if you're gonna pull more than one wire, get some thin (but strong) rope or twine of some kind, and fish it through first. Use the twine to pull the wires through, and make sure to wrap the ends up with electrical tape so they don't snag. If you have any really long runs to pull, buy a bottle of 'wire pulling lubricant'. There's several kinds, and it'll make your life a WHOLE lot easier.

 

[DarrenD]

So before I drywalled my garage I prewired for future speakers in the ceiling. Well I got a deal on a new receiver for the house so my old 5x100w Pioneer is enroute to the garage. Anyone have speaker recommendations for in-ceiling speakers? I am not looking for anything too fancy, $100-200 for 4 speakers. Ebay has some off brands as well as speakers from, Pyle, Audio Source, Pheonix Gold, all in my price range. Any favorites? I am thinking 4 6.5" coax, or maybe 8 inchers.

try Crutchfiled,...do a search for their website, porbably just crutchfiled.com, but they have a lot of speaker options as well.

 

[Scott]

Well, I decided to go "thrifty" (read cheap). After going to a couple of stereo places locally, I just couldn't stomach paying $300 for for speakers. So I ordered 4 Pyle 8" two-way speakers off eBay for $109 shipped. The extra money will go towards tools I figure. I will post pics of the install when I get them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=180075336096&rd=1&rd=1

 

[TNToy]

Sounds like the way to go. It's the garage, and you'll be listening to the radio a lot of the time anyway, right?

The good speakers go inside with the home theater.

 

[bmwpower]

Well, I decided to go "thrifty" (read cheap). After going to a couple of stereo places locally, I just couldn't stomach paying $300 for for speakers. So I ordered 4 Pyle 8" two-way speakers off eBay for $109 shipped. The extra money will go towards tools I figure. I will post pics of the install when I get them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWN:IT&viewitem=&item=180075336096&rd=1&rd=1

If they sound good to you, that's all that matters.

 

[Scott]

Yea, the good speakers are for the living room.

 

[cc_rider]

$110 for four 8" coaxs is a pretty good deal. You may not be happy with the Pyle's, but it's a start. You can always upgrade later. Car audio speakers are standard sizes, but home audio drivers (tweeters and wooders) are not, so when you decide to upgrade (and you will), you might need to make some 'adapter plates' to fit new drivers. Piece o' cake though.

I'll post some pics of the speakers I've built/rebuilt. Including a pair of 'Drive-In Movie' speakers; I installed Alpine 4" coaxs and damping material on the insides. Sound darn good for 4" drivers in aluminum shells...

c.

 

[G M]

If you are prewiring it would be a good idea to run the speaker wires back to a volume control at a convient spot on the wall, then from there run them back to where your amp would be, also run a cat5 wire from the volume control to the amp, this could be used for an A-bus control setup or for a interative volume control in the future.


As for speakers I put 3 pairs of Proficients in my garage, they are a decent speaker. Just make sure you build or install a box around them and insulate it othewise the sound will transfer through the attic to the outside and your bass won't be as good.

 

[Anthony 98 GTS]

I went middle of the road with mine.............Today I just purchased 2 pairs of Klipsch SCW-2's. Cost $239 a pair shipped.

 

[Scott]

Sorry, the pics are not that great. The speakers work fine, a good starter set. I need to build some sort of box behind them to keep some of the sound out of the attic.