Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Fitting surround sound speakers in ceiling

How do I need to paint on paneling? Should I use KILZ primer and then choose an interior paint? And when I paint over the KILZ, will the paint appear a lighter color because the KILZ is so white?

I am in the process of finishing a basement rec room, and I'm considering installing speakers for a home theater system in the ceiling. I have several questions:

1) Soundproofing. I don't want to have a problem with sound from the speakers being noticable upstairs. Does anyone have any experience with this (good or bad). There is one mitigating factor - I have already installed a double layer of half inch sheetrock on the ceiling, and a single layer on the walls. I am now installing a 'tray' around the walls, so I will have a triangular shaped cavity all around the room, where the walls meet the ceiling. I will install the speakers in the angled 'tray' piece. So there will still be a double layer of rock between the back of the speakers and the joists/upstairs floor etc.
Should I install anything behind the speakers to help with further soundproofing (insulation? 'box in' the back of the speaker?)

2) What sort of speakers. I went to Audio King and the guy tried to sell me $150 speakers ($600 for a set of 4)and $1.90/ foot speaker wire, saying anything less is not worth paying for and will fail within a yar. I'm not an audiophile and spending upwards of $800 for this project is just not going to happen. When I can buy a complete home theater syastem for $199 including speakers, why should I spend $600 on just speakers? Any reason why I can't just install the speakers from one of these systems in the ceiling? I'm not looking for a gazzillion watts to blast out my eardrums - just a nice clean installation.

3) I need to install insulated speaker wire to meet the local code - which is pricey. Probably a silly question, but is there any reason that regular electrical cable cannot be used? It does not need to be flexible, which seems to be the major obvious difference between proper speaker wire and electrical cable. Does the single larger copper wire cause a drop in signal quality in comparison to twisted wire?

4) This is a large room and I want to allow for the Home theater/TV to be positioned on either of two different walls. Can I bring two sets of speaker wire from each speaker down to different places to allow this? The AK guy said this was a fire hazard!

A lot of questions I know. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Alan

:confused:

weird that I have a painting post before your post show up here...

1- sound insulation is a tough job. Theres lots of good websites out there. I've never worried about it myself.

2- I agree that the Audio King guy is blowing smoke and selling snake oil. buy what you think sounds good. His job is to sell you stuff. He's not your buddy. Listen to your speakers you are buying ON YOUR RECEIVER.

3- All speaker wire is insulated. I'm guessing your LOCAL code has something about dual insulation (two seperate layers of plastic, like normal house wire)? There's nothing about dual-insulation for speaker wire in the national electric code. That being said, I've used cheap romex wire for speaker wire. I can't tell a difference. But I don't pay $2000 speaker speaker either. I laugh at every salesman that ever tells me to buy the $80 monsto-rific audio cables, and challenge every one of them to show me they can tell the difference in a blind listening test.

4- more smoke blowing (surprising since he would be selling you twice as much wire). It's not going to be a fire hazard unless you somehow plug it into your electrical outlet on accident, or something stupid. Speaker wire is low voltage, and is not a fire hazard, especially when left un-connected.


Of course, that's just my opinions.

I wouldn't take the speakers out of their factory speaker boxes, and install them in the ceiling. If thats what you were suggesting, they wouldn't sound good at all.

2- I agree that the Audio King guy is blowing smoke and selling snake oil. buy what you think sounds good. His job is to sell you stuff. He's not your buddy. Listen to your speakers you are buying ON YOUR RECEIVER.


All good advice, though I would go so far as to say that with how the speakers sound with your receiver is hardly relevant unless you acn also hear them installed in your house in your ceiling. Save yourself the hassle and just buy what sounds best in the store.

I second not pulling speakers out of their boxes and puttinghtem in the ceiling. That will sound like @ss. $600 is not much for speakers. Spend the money.

Also, I hope you are not putting your front speakers in the ceiling. That will also sound terrible.

Again, that was just my opinion.
Most places will let you buy speakers after listening to them on a $3000 receiver with lots of power. When you hook the same speakers up to a cheap, low-power receiver, they sound like crap.

My humble thoughts: No, I am not an audiophile. But even my tin ear can tell a difference.

Good speakers will sound good no matter what they are connected to. What does matter is where you are listening to them. They will sound different in your basement than in the store because the accoustics are different.

$600 for speakers isn't much for speakers.

You can spend $200 for htib, but you will be disappointed. You are cheating yourself when you hookup your cable/satellite. A $200 system will only sound good when palying the radio or a dvd/cd. Look for digital audio inputs.
Also since its a large room, you do need a receiver that can drive the speakers and you want speakers that can take it.

You can buy ceiling/wall mount speakers for $200/pr that sound pretty good.

Go with good speaker wire. You don't need $2/ft wire. You can get good speaker wire for half that.

Now my comment on relevency: You are spending $5000 (estimated) to finish the room, yet can't find $600 for good speakers and want to go cheap on the wiring?

Thanks for all the advice guys. I've learnt a lot and can now make better decisions.

This room is NOT a media room, home theater or intended to be set up for such. The idea to put some speakers in the tray ceiling is purely a cosmetic idea. I have a home theater system in the main living room but don't use the rear speakers because the wires would be in the way. That's how fanatical I am about audio! And anyway, my kids will use this room most of the time, not myself - so I'm not inclined to spend big on this idea.

PS - The whole 2000sf basement (including 2 already completed bedrooms, a bathroom and workshop has cost me less than $6,000. Thats' what DIY is all about!

OK, so my estimate was a tad low - still a pretty good guess, though. :D

I stick by my comments, even though this is for the 'kids'. Done right, you may find yourself using it more and more. Done right, the movie experience is so much better.