rjnjlhuber Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 We are building a new house. We need suggetions on which is best Klipsch speakers for total home audio and entertainment room. Please help. Our house is 2 story. - 6000 sq. ft. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Istari Posted November 22, 2003 Share Posted November 22, 2003 Let's see... 6000 sq ft at roughly $100.00 per sq ft (national average?) building costs = $600,000 or so. May I assume that money is no object for the speakers???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjnjlhuber Posted November 24, 2003 Author Share Posted November 24, 2003 Of course, money is always an option. However, we have saved for our lifelong dream home and want the home entertainment system to be great sounds without taking up room. We prefer to have speakers in ceilings or corners. Just so they are not noticed and when we have a crowd, we can talk without yelling because we used the perfect speakers and placed them correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironwoods Posted November 24, 2003 Share Posted November 24, 2003 I would have to recommend going out to listen to any in-wall and ceiling speakers. I'm not all that impressed with any of them. Although I'm sure good one's do exist, I would rather spend big $$$ on cabinet type speakers. Something that you can position for the best sound. In-walls are usually symetrically placed according to a given floor-plan or room fixtures, and unless your absolutely sure about where your furniture is going ,will not offer many options. I do have in-walls as my rears in a 5.1, but would much rather have stand-a-lones. As for ceiling speakers for background music, I think anything would do, IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted November 25, 2003 Share Posted November 25, 2003 ---------------- On 11/24/2003 2:48:28 PM ironwoods wrote: I would have to recommend going out to listen to any in-wall and ceiling speakers. I'm not all that impressed with any of them. Although I'm sure good one's do exist, I would rather spend big $$$ on cabinet type speakers. Something that you can position for the best sound. In-walls are usually symetrically placed according to a given floor-plan or room fixtures, and unless your absolutely sure about where your furniture is going ,will not offer many options. I do have in-walls as my rears in a 5.1, but would much rather have stand-a-lones. As for ceiling speakers for background music, I think anything would do, IMHO. ---------------- I noticed that you mentioned "best Klipsch" which would have to be either a Reference series or a Heritage series setup depending on your preferences (I'm a heritage guy myself) Inwalls (in ceiling) speakers are a frequent question on this forum, and ironwoods shares my opinion on these... as they are a compromise from many aspects. Placement, imaging, sound transmission (between rooms), imperfect enclosures of varying volume, etc... limit their accuracy when compared to free standing speakers. In-ceiling speakers are indented for ambient music such as "musak" and aren't for attentive music/movie listening. From a previous reply I posted: ---------------- Because of placement and orientation, overhead speakers won't be able to create much of a soundstage (stereo imaging), and are best suited to musak. They will reproduce most of the frequencies for ambient music, but the directional higher frequencies will probably be lost due to room effects and the bass extension will be limited due to the small driver size. Given this, I also understand the decorating advantages to making the speakers disappear and giving you the option of having music in every room. You will not be doing critical listening in any of these environments; so don't over spend in most of your rooms. Dome tweeters will give you better dispersion if you ceiling mount, but is less critical for wall units. You may consider adding a small subwoofer to the some rooms to enhance the bass reproduction. For home theatre, the three main channels produce the bulk of the sound and spending the most money there will give you the greatest paybacks. I don't know what you are currently using but you will be disappointed with builtins in the long run. I would strongly suggest getting floorstanding units for these three channels or at least a mix of bookshelf units and full size units. Freestanding units benefit from good cabinet construction which will be pretty resonant free, and be of exacting interior volume (essential to design for bass reproduction). It will also provide you with some flexibility for placement to avoid any serious in-room cancellations and control primary reflections (artto can really fill you in on this). Once you've chosen your mains, the rear channels should match them to avoid having them stand out due to a different timbre. Ceiling placement also adds the additional shortcoming of sound effects traveling from the front channels UP to the rears. If you must go with built in units for your rear HT, I would suggest getting matching (to your main speakers) in-wall units if possible. Otherwise I'd go for non-built-ins again. Given that the speakers influence the sound more than any other component other than the room itself and that you mentioned that you have top of the line receiver, dvd player, tv , etc... I would recommend you do similar with the speakers. Skip the Synergy series and look at the Klipsch Reference series for your mains and surrounds and you won't be disappointed... without spending alot and giving up substantial room for the top of the line Heritage Series. ---------------- Let us know what you choose... Good luck with your home... Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip marr Posted November 26, 2003 Share Posted November 26, 2003 I DISAGREE...I think if done correctly, you can gain a substantial sound stage for both music as well as home theater. However, no one here will be excited about what I am going to say, because it does not include Klipsch. Do not get me wrong - I love the Klipsch sound - but only out of the Heritage series - when they built a great product. I have Hereseys and would never trade them. Having over 30 years in the music industry, I have yet to find a better value for sonic quality and impact from a stand alone speaker. We built a home ourselves last year, and the Klipsch were relegated to the music room due to their size. We too wanted all house audio as well as 2 HT rooms. Our home is highly contemporary, so clean lines and minimal clutter is important. Initially we went out to audition what Klipsch made in in-walls, and were somewhat disappointed. After a few months of listening to others (Paradigm, Sonance, B&W, DynAudio, Niles, Cambridge, JBL, Triad, Atalntic Research, Polk, DF, and probably others), we just were not still happy. We came across an industrial installer who also did high end HT projects on the side. His take was that all of these in-walls were made by primarily a few key producers. His theory to manage cost was to identify the primary source, then audition the primary sources best of the best. His result.......SpeakerCraft. Many of you may not be familiar with SpeakerCraft, but they were basically the first guys in the business, give or take a few years. They have a tremendous line of in wall and in ceiliing speakers that sound fantastic. They do 2 way, 3 way, and I believe 4 way units for in wall. You have to hear them because many sound great even without a sub. The in walls have cross over switches which allow your to compensate for furnishings - what floor or bookshelf speaker has that? There are also models that have the entire speaker able to rotate within the enclosure for better dispersion. Also, look at the ceiling line called AIM - this allows you to actually rotate the entire speaker within the enclosure for precise distribution. I am using 3 AIM for the front channels in our hearth room with a vault ceiling, and 2 in the back. The sound stage is tremendous, and the equipment is virtually invisible. As much as I love my Hereseys, the SpeakerCraft line is equally as good for the application I needed. They have a new sister company named Proficient, that also have some good products. Their top of the line items are fantastic as well - the lower end just a pricepoint category. I would audition the SpeakerCraft and Proficient lines because if they don't do it for you, nothing will. Good luck, and let us know what you finally end up with!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formica Posted November 26, 2003 Share Posted November 26, 2003 It very important to take into account your expectations and needs. If you don't do any dedicated listening to music now, you probably won't after you build your new room. Some people want audiophile sound, but then only do casual listening to oldies on FM. Invest you funds where you will enjoy it most... be it an audio system, HT projector, or even a commercial stove . May of those who post on these forums are music or audio aficionados, so will tend to recommend audio equipement which would satisfy their pretty demanding needs. I'm not saying that it's impossible satisfy the most demanding users with built in speakers, but it's my opinion that it requires alot of planning, an acoustician, an RTA, and greater costs. I think JBL Synthesis system is an excellent example of what can be done and Klipsch will soon offer a competing THX system as well. These aren't what most people think of though when you talk about "built-in" speakers. Give them a listen, and I can understand the decorating advantage of discreet speakers... but if they were so great, why would they still make large expensive ones? Here are a couple of additional points I thought I'd bring up... - Ceiling speakers cannot create a realistic soundstage unless your musicians are on the ceiling. The word "soundstage" is used to define the simulation of precise positions of the musicians on the stage. Given the directionality of higher frequencies, you would have to lower your midrange and tweeter to ear level. These spekaers will give all music and movies an intimate small room effect feel (ambiance), which may or may-not be desirable. They can produce a good diffuse sound field which is good if you don't have discreet channels (eg: rear dolby prologic). Discreet surround channels, on the other hand (DTS, AC3, DVDA, SACD), will tend "swoop up" from front to back. - The x-over adjustment is probably more of a frequency attenuator (ie: built in EQ) rather than modifying the x-over point, as this would unbalance the speaker and possibly create cancellations and distortions onto itself. One of the x-over guru's on here could probably fill you in more on this, but x-over points and slopes are quite a science. - Unless you build an enclosure to install it in your wall/ceiling cavity, you will have limitations imposed by your construction. The enclosure is only as good as your cavity... and rough carpentry and cabinetry are very different fields . Additionally, at higher volumes, the gypse (wall) panels will resonate at their natural frequency and begin to emit their own sound. Apart from colouring the sound inside the room itself, it will most likely be audible in the next room . The internal volume of the enclosure will also vary, so the driver will be designed for an average sized space, and it's frequency response will vary accordingly (see Thiel / Small parameters). But like I said earlier, it really depends on your needs and expectations. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted December 1, 2003 Share Posted December 1, 2003 Although I would not trade my particular Klipsch reference setup, including the two RCW-5s I have in the rear walls of my HT, I must also recommend you listen to some in-wall offerings from Atlantic Technology. They were one brand I did consider before buying the Klipsch system and they are quite impressive, yet still somewhat cost-effective. http://www.atlantictechnology.com/ Best of luck on your new digs! -Picky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artto Posted December 5, 2003 Share Posted December 5, 2003 Unfortunately, most in-wall speaker systems are not really very good as full range, wide dynamic speakers. Theyre usually designed more for paging or background music applications in office or retail type environments. Not exactly what youd call high fidelity. There are, for instance, highly respected speakers which are used for mastering recordings like Urei Time-Aligned co-axials that are quite large & intended to be mounted in-wall. Klipsch used to make decorator models of the Heritage series that could also be used that way. The worst part of in-wall speakers is you are going to have one hell of a time getting the best placement selected. Once you put the holes in the wall, youre pretty much done. And they wont sound the same as just moving them around without mounting them in the wall. Major compromise IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picky Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 The Atlantic Technology in-wall speakers I was referring to were never meant for "paging" or "background music" applications. They were designed from the ground-up, primarily, for home theater applications. I recommend you please get out and listen to a complete system installation of these speakers before lumping them together with "most" in-wall speakers. Although my Klipsch reference series greatly out-perform these, they were a serious consideration had we decided against floor-standing speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j-malotky Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 RJ I hope you designed your HT room properly before they started building and are not trying to make living room into a HT. If you are still on "Paper" get a hold of ARTTO ASAP and get the design of this room down before any studs go up. He by far has the most impressive audio listening room I have been in. As far as your question, Klipsch Heritage is the only answer I can give. If you want the best quality of sound, you just will not get it with in wall speakers. If you want inwall, I would design openings in your walls for Heresys with custom grills to match your walls before going with inwall speakers. Unless all you watch is movies with dialog and sound effects. If you enjoy concert films or music you really surrounds with fuller range IMO. Where are you located? Maybe try to visit some of us who have designed there HT rooms as part of the new house design to get some ideas. JM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.