Each speaker has a different composition and behavior towards natural factors like rain, humidity and so on. When it comes to ceiling speakers, make sure to ask your vendor about the outdoor resistant properties of the same. If you are not careful enough, you might be fooled into buying something that does not suit your requirement. Despite the huge technological progress, systems are not completely resilient. You should be prudent enough to buy speakers that come within your budget and includes all attributes according to your preference.

Unlike a normal speaker which is usually placed in a cabinet, the diver of a ceiling speaker is set in a frame that is drilled into the wall directly. It often happens that you receive redundant bass effects from the wall in turn that would be missing from a speaker of the same dimension. One vital accessory that you might want to add to your speakers is a swiveling tweeter. This allows you a perfect arrangement where you can swivel the ceiling speakers to any desired direction. If you are all alone, you can make all the speakers face you, so that you get the maximum sound effect with an ultimate auditory experience.

While installing ceiling speakers, the primary factor is the rigidity and size of the speaker cavities. It is important to get the task done properly else the auditory effect of the entire system might be adversely affected. Finally, once you have completed purchasing and installing your ceiling speakers, be prepared to face the fact; your speakers might not render the same magical auditory effect as it did in the showroom demonstration. There is no need to panic and complain as it is a common thing to happen. All you can do in this situation is simply finding out a little time to adjust the treble, bass and sound control of the speakers. Devote ample time to check the settings which can please your ears. After some days of experimentation, you will certainly get your perfect sound element.

Shop around and buy the perfect set of ceiling speakers from reputed concerns like ticcorp.com and make the most out of your money.

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Planning and preparation

Planning and preparation is the key to a successful install.

It’s easy to get carried away and want to dive into the practical side of fitting your system as quickly as possible, but a well thought out preparation will allow you to foresee any potential pitfalls and avoid them before you end up with unwanted holes in your walls and ceiling. It makes sense to begin your planning before you purchase your speakers where possible, as this will allow you to make sure that the speaker you choose is compatible with the locations you wish to install them in.

Speaker placement

The essential part of your preparation will be determining the placement of your system. In most cases this means finding a balance between ultimate performance and visual discretion. This balance will be different for each individual install, as it will depend on your room and your personal taste, but there are also audio considerations to take into account.

For stereo speakers to be effective they really need to be spaced equally from your listening position, and the same applies to surround speakers, whereas subwoofers can be placed almost anywhere in the room, as the bass frequencies they reproduce are Omni-directional

In Wall Speakers need to be mounted in internal walls, as outside walls are generally brick or stone and therefore it’s not feasible to mount a speaker inside them. On wall speakers can be mounted on external walls if necessary using wall anchors and brackets.

Once you have decided where you wish to place your speakers you need to investigate the structure of the wall you propose to mount the speaker on or inside. You will need to utilise a stud finder to locate where the studs or battens are in the wall, as in-wall speakers or in ceiling will need to be mounted in between two studs.

Wiring

When it comes to running wiring for your system you can either choose to run out-of- wall wiring, or you can utilise in-wall wiring. Out of wall wiring is the simpler option, as your speaker cables are run along the surface of the walls, and can be hidden by furniture or carpets, and held in place by small clips. In-wall wiring requires a bit more preparation work as you will be required to route your cabling inside your walls, behind the plasterboard and through the supporting studs.

What you’ll need

In terms of tools, you will need a stud finder, for locating wall studs, AC power cables and pipes behind your wall. You’ll need a drill and the appropriate drill bits specific to your speaker housing, and you will also need a drywall saw, a spirit level and wire strippers.

As for skills, you would need to be comfortable with cutting into drywall and patching up any visible holes or exploratory cavities. This guide will cover the basics, such as trying to locate studs or ceiling joists, but if you aren’t comfortable taking this on then an approved installer may be the way to go for you.

Beginning the install

Once you have chosen your speaker locations and completed your preparation, the next step is to make sure that the locations that you have chosen are viable. You will need to use your stud finder to check behind the walls and make sure that there are no AC power cables, or water pipes in the position you wish to place your speaker.

You will also need to be sure of where the studs or joists are, as the in wall speakers or ceiling speakers need to fit in the space between them, and preferably as close to the middle point between the two as possible. It is worthwhile tapping on the wall to try and locate the studs/joists as you can usually detect a change in the sound when you pass over one. It’s impossible to be certain what is behind the wall without drilling, but the more you can find out without having to drill, the better.

Once you have checked the wall or ceiling as thoroughly as possible visually and with your stud checker, and you are confident there are no obstacles, then it is time to make a small pilot hole through the surface in order to explore the space. You will then be able to use a piece of heavy gauge wire, or a bent metal coat hanger to prod around behind the wall and feel for obstacles. When drilling the pilot hole, use caution and drill slowly into the wall so that if you do happen to hit a pipe or hidden fitting you may be able to react in time. For maximum safety it is best to turn off the mains supply in the area you are working to avoid either drilling into live power cables, or prodding them with your exploratory wire or coat hanger.

The speaker manuals will contain the dimensions for wall mounting, and often include a template which you can use to trace onto your wall or ceiling. Use your pilot hole to make sure there is nothing to obstruct the speaker anywhere within the template area, and remember to use a spirit level to make sure your speakers are positioned in line. If your speakers are quite large, e.g. subwoofers, you may need more than one pilot hole to check the required space.

Don’t cut into the wall or ceiling until you have drilled pilot holes for each and every speaker location, as if one of the locations throws up a problem, you may need to re-think your entire layout, and if this is the case then at least you will only have to fill in small pilot holes, rather than an entire speaker sized cavity.

Fitting the Speaker

Once you have drilled all your pilot holes and have established that you have enough width, height and depth in the required location to mount the speakers, you may then begin to cut into the wall. When cutting the wall, start by drilling a hole in one corner and then use a handheld drywall saw. Cut the whole piece out at once, in order to keep the cavity tidy. If you are cutting a painted surface or plastered finish it may be best to score the outline of the cavity first, in order to minimise cracking of the surface.

Now that you have a cavity of the correct size in the wall you can wire up and install the speaker, as per the manufacturers instructions. Use caution whilst screwing the speaker frames into place, as if you over tighten them, you may bend the framework or crack the surface of the wall. If the speaker has any in-built tone controls then it is best to listen to your system and adjust them before fixing the speaker grilles in place.

Painting and finishing

It’s often necessary to paint the frames and grilles of the speakers in order to blend them into the room they are fitted in. If you wish to do this, then you need to take great care not to get paint on the speaker drivers themselves. These should be fully masked before attempting to paint the units. When it comes to painting the actual grilles, the best method is to use a spray paint, and apply several lights coats, so as not to clog up the holes in the grille itself. If you have no option but to paint the grilles with a brush then make sure you thin out the paint before application, we normally recommend diluting 5:1 as a guide. This will allow you to achieve as smooth a finish as possible. As with all elements of installation, refer when necessary to the manufacturer’s instructions if you are unsure about painting your unit.

Hope this helps you to do the job without any tears, I think I have covered all the pitfalls that you could encounter.

We offer stealth speakers from the worlds best speaker companies – Niles – Speakercraft – Polk -KEF – Monitor Audio and more

Graham Waywell

Director [http://www.CoolHifi.co.uk]

With over 35 years experience in Hi-Fi retail and Multiroom system design and installation

Online retailers for types of Real HiFi, Turntables, Ortofon Cartridges, Isol8 Mains products, Dali Loudspeakers, Niles In Ceiling and In wall speakers and many many more products from the Worlds best Audio equipment manufacturers

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But why would someone want ceiling or in wall speakers, instead of a pair of normal, efficient and highly affordable speaker cabinets. There could be a few reasons:

Saving some space in the room;
Maintaining the aesthetics of the room;
Hiding the wires;
Getting rid of the holes in the walls.

In the past, there weren’t many fans of wall or ceiling-mounted speakers. While there are still people that think plenum-mount technology is just a whim, on the other side it is this technology in particular that gains more and more advocates. This is probably due to a change in life styles. People want the environment adapted to their needs, not the other way around.

There’s one sure thing with in-wall and ceiling speakers: they are not for those who are into high-end audio. You could hardly find an audiophile willing to trade the deep bass that he or she loves so much for a bit of extra shelf space.

But even if not an audiophile, you’ll need to pay attention to the following parameters:

Frequency response – gives you the range of the audible spectrum that the speakers can reproduce; the human ear can hear 20 Hz to 20 MHz, thus the more a speaker approaches this interval, the better.
Power handling – specifies the ranges of power the speakers can safely receive from the amplifier (e.g. 20-100 watts);
Efficiency – also called sensitivity, this rating indicates how effectively the speaker uses the power sent to it by the amplifier.
A key aspect in having in-wall or in-ceiling speakers is how you capture the back wave. You can’t always know what happens behind that wall, how big the hole really is, or if it’s sealed. The answer is to use sealed speakers, no matter their location. Otherwise you’ll have a lot of rear acoustic energy wasted into the back-wall and a distorted, uneven sound.

Mounting the speakers

Usually it is a lot easier to mount ceiling speakers than in-wall speakers, at least where there is a fake ceiling. Mounting in-wall speakers is more of an architectural problem. That’s probably why these are also called “architectural speakers”. People don’t like to have small rooms, thin walls, and wires bursting from one room to another.

The easiest alternative is to project the audio system before even having the walls built up. The advantage is freedom to plan things (speakers among others) exactly how you want them. Figuring out the wires is the part you should do before building the walls. Some planning is needed ahead: talking to an electrician, finding out how much wire you need, seeing what kind of wire you can actually use (UL-rated wire is approved for use in walls in all 50 states). Also, seeing the layout of your lighting system, and how it would interfere with that of the speakers.

Inserting the speakers can be done on the run, as the wall is being raised. Some people successfully use the drywall as a speaker’s enclosure. The key is to have the speakers in the right place from the start. This would save you time, money and nerves.

Installing the speakers in an existing wall or ceiling is a bit more difficult and pricey. But it can be done. At first, find out what’s behind the walls you want the speakers mounted in and see if you can drill. You need to make some holes into the desired spots, and build the speaker-enclosures.

Ceiling speakers have a drawback: the location. we’re not used to having the sound come down at us from the ceiling, but from our side. The sensation of the sound-waves reaching the head and then the ears, is a bit strange. Some ceiling speakers are flexible within a given degree, so they can be pointed towards the listener. They are round-shaped in order to match the bulbs and lamps that also found their site on the ceiling.

Niles, SpeakerCraft, and others use directional tweeters and woofers that can be separately adjusted to compensate for imaging problems arising from the positioning drawbacks.

Most in wall speakers have paintable grilles, so you can perfectly black them out.

Above all, my biggest dilemma is what to do if my trendy, camouflage speaker, be it in-wall or in-ceiling, breaks down? Most users say I don’t need to worry as they can be taken out, repaired or even replaced. There’s also absolutely no need to worry if I want to add some speakers to my system, they say. One solution would be to think ahead and stuff the wall with more wire for later add-ons. Still, I find this unnecessary hassle. But for the sake of interior design logic, it may be worth it.

Learn how wireless speakers and headphones work, read product reviews and find out shopping tips and tricks at http://www.Wireless-Speakers.org.

A quick overview of speaker structure helps to see where the latest innovations are being made. The sound producing mechanism of speaker is held in place by a frame. The frame consists of: a basket, a soft donut shaped gasket, and two plates that carry the load of the magnet. There are seven components of this mechanism. These elements are: the magnet, the metal core, a voice coil wrapped around a light weight bobbin, the cone or diaphragm. The voice coil and cone/diaphragm are a unitary assembly and held in position by a speaker surround and the spider (also known as a damper). When current flows through the voice coil, it is pushed forward by electromagnetic force.

Out of the 27 utility patents in the past 18 months, the greatest number belong to the voice coil, which has 8. The component with the next most innovation is the cone (also called a diaphragm), which has 6. The third is the spider (also called a damper) with 4 innovations. Followed by these are the basket (2), magnet (2), gasket (1), horn (1), and surround (1). A patent was even issued for a new type of dust cap (1) that disperses pressure waves with less interference. The dominance of voice coil patents might just be evidence that this is the critical point because this is where electrical energy is converted into mechanical energy for the purpose of pushing air.

In addition to innovations that focused on components, there were 10 utility patents that involved major restructuring of the speaker. Examples of this include the use of bar magnets or voice coils embedded in the cone. In fact, the majority of innovations involving overall speaker structure were for flatter speakers. A massive research and engineering effort spent on creating flat speakers was a clear other trend in the past 18 months. This all points to one thing: the speaker of the future is going to be flat. At least that is what the manufacturers think. This is likely to be based on market research that shows customers vying for flat speakers to go along with their flat panel TVs.

An example of an innovation in flat speakers comes from a patent by Sony. This design produces a speaker that can be 5 ft tall, 3 ft wide, and where the sound is generated by vibration motors that push a non porous fabric. There is no voice coil and no cone. The Sony patent includes the uses of rack and pinion gears to adjust the location of the vibration on the fabric for optimal sound. We all want our flat panel TVs, and in the future, we may all want our flat panel speakers, too.

Freelance inventing is not dead. The two clear leaders in speaker innovation are freelance inventors and the Pioneer Company (Table 1). Combined, these two make up 41% of all new utility patents in the past 18 months. Following these two leaders are Sony, Matsushita, and the collaboration of Pioneer Co. and Honda Co., in order of the number of patents. These latter companies make up 26% of all new utility patents. All of the patents were awarded to for profit entities except one lone patent awarded to National Taiwan University.

Design patents are mostly for look of speaker cabinets, giving the inventor rights to a certain type of the speaker appearances. Standard speaker cabinet designs had a clear lead over the other types with a frequency of 9 patents in the 12 months. The other types of design patents are for home theatre cabinets, automobile speakers, remote acoustic hailing devices, iPod docking stations, and of course, computer speakers. Other types include: microphone shields, portable speakers, subwoofer enclosures, tweeter enclosures, and even speaker stands. The top five design types listed above account for 59% of the speaker designs.

Out of the patents that were just design patents, 57% were for just only 1 speaker; 57.1%. Designs with two speakers had 26.5% of the patents, with far fewer patents that involved more than two speakers. The design with the largest number of speakers had 8. This speaker was by Moog Inc. for a remote acoustic hailing device. These military devices are for delivering audible warning messages to potential threats at stand-off distances.

The leading companies in the speaker design patents were Sony in the top slot, followed by Samsung, SDI Technologies Inc., Moog Inc., Hosiden, and Panasonic. These six companies accounted for 69% of all the speaker patents in the past 12 months. Even though the two leaders are foreign, there were also three domestic companies in the top six for speaker design patents, which is nice to for American engineers to see.

One discouraging aspect of recent speaker patents for American engineers is the predominance of patents by foreign inventors over that of domestic inventors. The percentage of domestic utility patents for speakers was a measly 11%. Out of the 27 total patents that were reviewed, 24 of them were foreign, while only 3of them were domestic.

With regard to speaker design patents that focus on speaker enclosures, the story is similar, with 43% of speaker design patents going to domestic inventors. Although American inventors do not account for the majority of the patents in speaker design, it is clear that they are more interested in speaker design than in speaker function.

The electromagnetic speaker of today has had largely the same structure since it was patented in 1875 by Alexander Graham Bell. The trusty speaker may not have been the target of radical technical inventions for some time, but the newest patents awarded show that radical design and performance improvements may be in our future.

Nathaniel Lee Glenn is a technician at State of Franklin Analytics, member of the Audio Engineering Society, and engineering student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

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These devices are of many types and come in various models: on-wall, in-wall, satellite, bookshelf and floorstanding. Bookshelf and floorstanding models usually have the best sound since the enclosures and speakers are performance matched. Satellite models are quite small, and occupy much less space. On-wall ones are quite common with flat-panel TVs. In-wall models not only have good sound, but can also be painted so as to match the walls. All models of stereo speakers come in various shapes, sizes, and finishes; the ideal way to select these devices is to test several models by listening to them before making any decision.

Tips to Choose the Right Stereo Speaker

1) Read reviews on the Internet and in audio magazines to help you determine which stereo speakers to listen to.
2) Look for the acoustic suspension speakers if you wish to have tight, clean, accurate bass.
3) Set your budget for the speaker cables; they can cost you a few dollars to several thousand of dollars.
4) If you want big and wide soundstage, go for the flat panel speakers.
5) If you are looking for inexpensive models, shop in electronic stores; however, if you are in search of high-fidelity ones, audio specialty stores are the right place to go.
6) Avoid listening to those models that are not within your price range.
7) Ask the salesperson of the shop to position the models optimally.
Let the appearance or size of the speaker be less significant than quality.
9) Take a few common CDs to the shop you visit; listen to songs on at least three/ four different pairs of stereo speakers.
10) Ensure that the salesperson demonstrates all the pairs at equal volumes.
11) If possible, ensure that the salesman is using electronic equipment which is similar to what you have.
12) If stereo speakers sound good in the shop, arrange for listening to them at your home using your own system. You may ask the seller to provide you appropriate cables in case you do not already have one.
13) Follow these simple steps to choose the right pair of stereo speakers for you.

If you are searching for more information on stereo speakers, you may visit TIC Corporation. They are one of America’s most renowned exterior outdoor audio manufacturers, and offer outdoor speaker products at an extremely economical price.

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Suspended Ceiling Installation