sumo

Thanks for your thoughts on this. And I was just getting used to the sound of chirping crickets that always fills that awkward silence. [] So youre right, it's not exactly what I was hoping for, but not at all unexpected at this point, either. As for the receiver question, yeah, I should have just left that off since its not like Im going to run out and replace it if everybody here hates it. I just wanted to say thanks for giving this some thought and taking the time to respond.

OK, here's the background. We had a house built. I talked the lovely wife into having prewires added for home theater since the room configuration was going to be difficult to have rear or side speakers without the wires being very obtrusive. When we added the 5.1 prewire option, they pointed to a layout and said they normally put two up front and two in back which I thought was fine. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I'm a total noob at this. Anyway, I was not sure quite how it would work because in the back we have a stairway that cuts through the wall which would make equal placement almost impossible. When the house was built I saw that they actually put the speakers in the ceiling. Now, like I was saying, I don't know squat about home acoustics, so even though I was a little surprised, I just thought, "oh, that's how they get around that back wall problem." I forgot to mention that this room is two stories tall. Once I started shopping around, I was informed that this was really not ideal. Great. Soooo, I obvioulsy need some advice on how to make the best out of this situation. 1. What do I look for in ceiling speakers when they are going to be 17' in the air pointing straight down? Directional tweeters will help somewhat. I like the Klipsch sound and feel the brightness will actually help keep the sound from getting too muddled traveling that distance. The reference line is pretty much out of my price range, so I was thinking along the lines of the SCW-2 or 3. 2. If I install rectangular speakers with 8" woofers (15.83" x 10.23"), am I going to need to put any reinforcing in around the opening? I have seen in other posts that the installation kit is not necessary for wall/ceiling materials 3/8" or more thick and that the speakers will just clamp on, but it just seems like an awfully big hole in the drywall. Also, are there precautions that need to be made to keep vibrations from creating nail pops in the ceiling? 3. I'd like to try to use ceiling speaker layout as the 5.1 arrangemnt that it was intended. However, I am already conceding that a 7.1 plan may work out better, keeping my old front speakers to use as the fronts, use the two front ceiling speakers as the "surrounds" and the two rear ceiling speakers as the "rears". Of course, tonally matching all the speakers goes out the door, so in the long run I may end up getting an extra set of fronts. The question is, does this sound like a better idea than having the fronts in the ceiling? Or are there any other ideas? Or am I just screwed? 4. After purchasing a Yamaha 7.1 receiver, I hear that a "warmer" sounding receiver like Harman Kardon works best with the Klipsch's. Bah. I really like the Klipsch's, so I was wondering what you guys thought of this assessment? So I'm trying to learn here, though it is turning out to be trail by error. Oh well. Any advice?