Surround speakers

[Aven]

Right now I run my B&W CDM 1NT's as fronts with a subwoofer. I would like to add surrounds to this system. Unfortunately, the room set up (and wifes opinion) leaves little room for wall or stand mounted speakers in the rear.

I was thinking about trying two in-ceiling speakers for the rear surounds...

Do any of you use this sort of set up?

Any suggestions for a good match?

Thanks,

Aven

[beden1]

Right now I run my B&W CDM 1NT's as fronts with a subwoofer. I would like to add surrounds to this system. Unfortunately, the room set up (and wifes opinion) leaves little room for wall or stand mounted speakers in the rear.

I was thinking about trying two in-ceiling speakers for the rear surounds...

Do any of you use this sort of set up?

Any suggestions for a good match?

Thanks,

Aven

Aven,

I have ceiling mounted surrounds in two of my three HT setups. It works very well, but, you will clearly hear the sounds coming out of the ceiling mounts (they become a critical part of your listening), and it's important to get speakers that match well with your main fronts.

I would suspect that B&W makes ceiling mounted speakers that will match well with your CDMs.

In one of my HT setups, I have 4 ceiling mounted surround speakers - one in each corner that works very well. I am not able to run the speaker wires now, but if I were to do it over again, I would have two rear surrounds and two side surrounds . . . to accompany my main speakers.

[hifiguymi]

Right now I run my B&W CDM 1NT's as fronts with a subwoofer. I would like to add surrounds to this system. Unfortunately, the room set up (and wifes opinion) leaves little room for wall or stand mounted speakers in the rear.

I was thinking about trying two in-ceiling speakers for the rear surounds...

Do any of you use this sort of set up?

Any suggestions for a good match?

Thanks,

Aven

Ceiling speakers can work very well in surround systems for rear channels. Some will work better than others. To go with your CDM1NT's look at the CCM817 or a pair of CCM746S's. The CCM817 is a angled speaker so it sticks down a liitle, but it will give you the best performace in that application. The CCM746S is a dual tweeter and dual voice coil woofer (it's used mostly in small rooms where two speakers won't fit but it gives you stereo) and will create a big rear soundstage. It can be used for both the rear and surround back channels in one speaker if need be. Outside of those I'd stick with something like the CCM65, CCM80 or the rectagular versions of them.

Eric

[dave240z]

I had a similar problem when upgrading to 5.1 in our house. The WAF (wife approval factor) is not to be ignored. For most of us, it can be a major consideration with some of this stuff.

Have you looked at the M1 series? I am using these as my rear surrounds and have been quite pleased. There is no disguising the fact that they are speakers, but they are relatively small and due to their slick mounting they don't look too awkard. They also come in black, silver or white so you can try to blend them with your wall color. Best of all, they are WAF approved! (your results may vary)

While it will be obvious that the M1s are fairly small and not a close match to more dedicated in-wall options, I think they perform admirably well. I look at it this way. If you are looking for a matched 5.1 system for playing SACDs, etc....then you might be disappointed. But for a 5.1 HT setup, these add a whole new dimension. Even though they are small, they perform the job of rear surround admirably. I don’t think surround is very demanding for most movies, but the added dimension of having sounds coming from the rear really improves the movie watching experience.

I’m no audiophile, but I believe the rear surrounds work best when they are above and slightly angled towards the listener. Having an in-ceiling speaker may not spread the sound out as effectively if that makes sense. Mounting in the wall is more favorable for this very reason. I think ceiling speakers are better suited for background noise, like when you’re cleaning and want to listen to some music throughout the house.