# Family Room Theater



## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

We are doing a kitchen remodel which included knocking out a wall to make a great room combining the kitchen and family room. The wife is on board with installing in-ceiling speakers (see graphic, not a lot of room for floorstanders or even wall speakers). While I want quality sound, this will by no means be a reference system. Just something to watch football, play games, and do general entertaining. It will be our primary movie room for a while, though.

Room is 34' long total and about 15' wide at the widest point with multiple openings.

The bump out you see there in the top right is going to be a built in shelving unit for the electronics. Just enough for Receiver, DVD, Cable, and possibly one more. TV is going over the fireplace

Questions:
I have never dealt with in-ceiling speakers before or 7.1 (I've done several 5.1 and 6.1 installs -- all wall or floorstanding speakers). Where should I locate the surrounds in this arrangement? The goal is 7.1 when available, but run all speakers for sports events and music.

How wide/deep to make the niche for the equipment? I'm figuring about 22" wide, but I have no idea how deep (figure a Marantz 6005 receiver or similar size).

I'll post more pictures as the buildout commences. Thanks for any comments or advice!

Anthony


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

I like to use this link for determining speaker placement. It give the preferred angles, etc. I would try to make the niche 18" deep at a minimum, preferably 24". Some of the receivers can get pretty long. For instance, the Onkyo TX-NR5007 has a depth of over 18" and you still want some breathing room for heat and cables.


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Yeah, my Marantz SR-18 is pretty deep as well. Would not be the first time I used a mirror on a stick to wire that thing up.

Link didn't seem to take. I'm interested though, care to repost? 

Thanks.


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Did it work this time?
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-Ql4k9YzmDCd/learn/learningcenter/home/speaker_placement.html


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

Worked. Thanks.


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## Rippyman (Apr 20, 2011)

I wouldn't bother with a surround setup for something like this.

For my house I did an entertainment floor using six HSI 480's by Boston & one 12" sub for the lows.
http://www.bostonacoustics.ca/HSi-480-P343.aspx

I created 3 zones, Kitchen, Dining Room & Great Room. Each zone consists of two speakers abviously. Its all controlled by HAI's HiFi2 system.
http://www.homeauto.com/products/wholehomeaudio/wholehomeaudio.asp

I just run two channel stereo, for music & tv. It sounds awesome. For movies I just go to one of my HT rooms.

Some pics for reference. I don't have a dining room pic.

HAI control pads.









Great room, you can see the sub in the lower left.









Kitchen, HAI control pads just below the TV.


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## Owen Bartley (Oct 18, 2006)

Rippyman, your home is gorgeous.

Anthony, assuming you're using the standard round in-ceiling speakers, your placement options are really only limited by the ceiling joists and any lighting. I'd say you might as well try to optimize placement according to some of the standards, like Dale suggested.

Usually there's a sort of circular arrangement, so something like this, maybe even allowing the front L/R to follow a bit more of a curve like the surrounds?










Edit: Here's a few more links that essentially confirm the same...
- Dolby
- DTS
- THX


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## Anthony (Oct 5, 2006)

So after deliberating and going over space availability, we came up with a slightly altered plan:

In ceilings behind the couch and between the table and island for Rear/Surround. 

I am going to build a small run of LCR speakers based on the Zaph B3N design. It doesn't handle a lot of power, but they are small speakers that I have enough room for in the front plane as opposed to coming from the ceiling. I'll need a subwoofer, but I have some 8" drivers and an old NHT 1259 laying around that I'm sure I can do something with.

So now I have four extra Snell in-ceiling speakers, but since I've done custom installs in the past (and have relatives that want to get into the HT thing) I'm sure I can find a good home for them.

Thanks for the help.


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