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I recently built some Swope MTM's (which I love) as main LR's for my home theater and I was originally planning on building the center and rear surrounds to round out the set. I'm still planning on the center but now, because of how my living room is setup, I'm wondering what the best course of action is for the rear surround speakers. I'm looking for some guidance/advice from anyone willing to lend a hand or idea.
The room is 20' long x 13' wide with 18' ceilings. When the house was built the room was pre-wired for surround sound and on the back wall there are speaker wires about 11' off the ground. Here's a rough sketch of the measurements.
My issue lies mainly with wanting to use the pre-wiring rather than putting some surrounds on stands. Though probably the ideal solution, stands are not an option since I have small children that could easily knock them over, and not to mention, my wife thinks stands are "hideous." :E I've been looking for speaker mounts but I'd need to tilt the speakers roughly 60 degrees to point them down at where my couch is. No mounts I've found allow for that amount of tilt and the rear Swopes, while not giant speakers, seem too heavy to mount like that. I've been debating my options and it seems to me my two best available options are either in-wall speakers or building a much smaller/lighter surround speaker that I could somehow mount at that angle.
As one option I've been looking at these Dayton 5 1/4' in-wall speakers that are great deal for the set. The tweeter can be pivoted (though how much I don't know and the Dayton site didn't mention) but the driver cannot. So while these would be easy to install it doesn't seem like the best stereo image since the drivers would be facing directly towards the opposite wall at about 7' about where the listener's ear.
The second options is that I could build a smaller surround speaker. I'd want to use the same HiVi series for look and sounds consistency as well as the Dayton tweeter that's in the MTM's. There are 3" and 4" HiVi driver options available so it seems doable. The problem here is I'd have to design something myself and I have no experience/software/test equipment/etc... for doing this. And I'd have to end up with something small and light enough to be mounted at an extreme degree while still being able to house a Xover inside the cabinet. I wouldn't mind attempting to design a speaker but it seems both fun and daunting at the same time.
Sorry for that long explanation, but there's my dilemma. Any advice as to what would be the best sounding solution?
The room is 20' long x 13' wide with 18' ceilings. When the house was built the room was pre-wired for surround sound and on the back wall there are speaker wires about 11' off the ground. Here's a rough sketch of the measurements.
My issue lies mainly with wanting to use the pre-wiring rather than putting some surrounds on stands. Though probably the ideal solution, stands are not an option since I have small children that could easily knock them over, and not to mention, my wife thinks stands are "hideous." :E I've been looking for speaker mounts but I'd need to tilt the speakers roughly 60 degrees to point them down at where my couch is. No mounts I've found allow for that amount of tilt and the rear Swopes, while not giant speakers, seem too heavy to mount like that. I've been debating my options and it seems to me my two best available options are either in-wall speakers or building a much smaller/lighter surround speaker that I could somehow mount at that angle.
As one option I've been looking at these Dayton 5 1/4' in-wall speakers that are great deal for the set. The tweeter can be pivoted (though how much I don't know and the Dayton site didn't mention) but the driver cannot. So while these would be easy to install it doesn't seem like the best stereo image since the drivers would be facing directly towards the opposite wall at about 7' about where the listener's ear.
The second options is that I could build a smaller surround speaker. I'd want to use the same HiVi series for look and sounds consistency as well as the Dayton tweeter that's in the MTM's. There are 3" and 4" HiVi driver options available so it seems doable. The problem here is I'd have to design something myself and I have no experience/software/test equipment/etc... for doing this. And I'd have to end up with something small and light enough to be mounted at an extreme degree while still being able to house a Xover inside the cabinet. I wouldn't mind attempting to design a speaker but it seems both fun and daunting at the same time.
Sorry for that long explanation, but there's my dilemma. Any advice as to what would be the best sounding solution?
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