Rear in ceiling speakers

[rivercat]

I am going to begin finishing our basement in the next few months and am in the planning phase right now when it comes to the stereo setup. 
 

it won’t be a dedicated home theater exactly,  more of a family room with a heavy bias towards a great area to watch movies and sports. 
 

I have RF7’s for the L/R. A RC7 for now that I’ll upgrade to RC64 eventually for my center. 
 

The room is a little in the longer side with a bar in the back on one side of the room and the entry hallway on the other side, so there is not anywhere to put traditional rear speakers on a wall or anything. I will have to do in ceiling speakers behind the seating area for my rear surrounds. 
 

There will be room for in wall surround speakers on the sides as well. the plan would be a 7.1 system.
 

So what I’m needing is as nice of an in ceiling speaker as I can get that will work with RF7’s and a RC64 in the front. 

 

I’ll try to get a drawing uploaded here as well that might help visualize this more. But I’m leaning toward PRO-180RPC for those two rear surrounds in the ceiling and two PRO-180RPW for the in wall speakers.

I can’t help but think an in ceiling speaker that can be aimed a little bit might be an ideal fit for those two rear speakers, but is the PRO-18RC on par with the 180RPC in terms of performance?

 

Is there anything else I should be considering that I haven’t listed out?

I’m open to suggestions.

 

[wuzzzer]

Surrounds don't go in the ceiling, Atmos speakers do.  You'll just need to configure your receiver to be a 5.1.2 setup with  the .2 being in-ceiling or height, whichever your receiver will allow.

The most popular in-ceiling speaker for this application is the CDT-5800.

[rivercat]

2 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:

Surrounds don't go in the ceiling, Atmos speakers do.  You'll just need to configure your receiver to be a 5.1.2 setup with  the .2 being in-ceiling or height, whichever your receiver will allow.

The most popular in-ceiling speaker for this application is the CDT-5800.

I understand rear surrounds don’t normally go in the ceiling, but I can’t be the only one that has a long room or a room without a usable rear wall to mount more traditional rear surrounds. 
 

My front stage is great, my side surrounds will be ideal, it’s just the rear that would need to be ceiling mounted. I can’t imagine that not doing anything at all for the rear would be better than having some nice in ceiling speakers back there acting as surrounds. 
 

The in ceiling mount is not the first choice for a perfectly setup home theater, I get that. But I guess I’m essentially thinking something pretty nice is better than nothing at all. 

[wuzzzer]

I have a 5.2.2 setup.  Atmos speakers in the ceiling.  With movies the effects are significantly better than configuring it as a 7.2 setup.  If your receiver is Atmos capable, just configure it that way.  You can switch back and forth to see what you prefer if you want.

[rivercat]

30 minutes ago, wuzzzer said:

I have a 5.2.2 setup.  Atmos speakers in the ceiling.  With movies the effects are significantly better than configuring it as a 7.2 setup.  If your receiver is Atmos capable, just configure it that way.  You can switch back and forth to see what you prefer if you want.

Ok, sorry, that makes sense.

 

So to clarify, it makes sense to put the speakers where I’m talking about, but I’ll want to get a receiver that is Atmos capable?

 

Then I can configure that setup as either a 7.1 with those in ceiling speakers as the rear surround OR a 5.1.2 with those in ceiling speakers as Atmos speakers and no true rear surround speakers?

 

Either way, 7 speakers, placed where I’m thinking they should, makes sense, it’s just the setup within the receiver that I’ll have to mess with to see what sounds the best?

[rivercat]

This is not the best picture, just pulled the blueprints from my house and used my phone to mark some stuff. 
 

The red part on the bottom is where a bar will go. 
 

The blue at the top is the TV and two RF7’s.

 

The green is a poor attempt at a recliner and sectional couch. 
 

The pink spots is where I’m thinking for the speakers in question here. 
the two spots on the sides, close to the furniture would be the in wall speakers, and the two spots between the furniture and the bar would be the two in ceiling speakers.

[rivercat]

Here are a couple pictures of the actual room. 
you can see on the far wall where I’ve roughly outlined in blue painters tape where an 85” tv will go with some built in cabinetry on either side. 
 

There is a blue X marked on the wall where one of the side surrounds would go. 
 

Up in the ceiling I have a a blue X outlined in red where I’m talking about placing these in ceiling speakers.

 

You can also kind of see what I mean about not having a spot to put traditional rear speakers. Half of that area is an open entryway into the room and the other half is where a bar will go.

[rivercat]

[wuzzzer]

9 hours ago, rivercat said:

Ok, sorry, that makes sense.

 

So to clarify, it makes sense to put the speakers where I’m talking about, but I’ll want to get a receiver that is Atmos capable?

 

Then I can configure that setup as either a 7.1 with those in ceiling speakers as the rear surround OR a 5.1.2 with those in ceiling speakers as Atmos speakers and no true rear surround speakers?

 

Either way, 7 speakers, placed where I’m thinking they should, makes sense, it’s just the setup within the receiver that I’ll have to mess with to see what sounds the best?

Correct.  

[rivercat]

So if my speaker placement is solid, it comes down to what speakers to put up there. 
 

My initial thought is the PRO-180RPC. 
they seem like one of the nicer ceiling speakers available and should match the PRO-180RPW’s I plan for the side surrounds.

But they’re not able to be aimed. 

 

The PRO-18RC. Honestly just not sure what the difference between this and the 180 is. This one looks like it’s able to be aimed.

 

the CDT5800 I’ve seen a few people talk about now. Also able to be aimed. Is this the best one of the three for what I’m looking for?

[wuzzzer]

4 hours ago, rivercat said:

So if my speaker placement is solid, it comes down to what speakers to put up there. 
 

My initial thought is the PRO-180RPC. 
they seem like one of the nicer ceiling speakers available and should match the PRO-180RPW’s I plan for the side surrounds.

But they’re not able to be aimed. 

 

The PRO-18RC. Honestly just not sure what the difference between this and the 180 is. This one looks like it’s able to be aimed.

 

the CDT5800 I’ve seen a few people talk about now. Also able to be aimed. Is this the best one of the three for what I’m looking for?

The CDT series will be timbre matched the best to your front speakers.  If you do those, I’d recommend the R-5800 as your side surrounds.