New home construction -

Pokes28

I'm in the process of building a new house (I don't recommend during covid times) and I plan on moving my entertainment items from my current house to my new house. What feels like a hundred years ago, I bought a full JBL speaker system for 5.1 Had some work on the house and my back speakers got taken down and never put back up. So now I'm running 3.1. I had to replace my receiver last year and I got a new Denon and love the sound. In the new house, I'm planning on using the same speakers I currently have running as they still sound really good, but I want to get some rear ceiling speakers to get back to 5.1. I can't use wall mount speakers as the new house is more open concept between living room, kitchen, and dining with the back of the living room facing the kitchen. So that means ceiling speakers. I've been viewing the RC80i ceiling speakers to complete what I'm putting in. I shortly considered going to 7.1, but honestly, not that big a deal for us.

However a new twist in the story. Since we started working on this, the idea was to spray foam the roof, now we've been told that the preferred method for a house like ours is to spray foam the ceiling rafters. It creates a smaller envelope for HVAC and I'll spend about $10K less on insulation. That means I have to have my speakers in before insulation and I have to have some sort of protective box to keep the spray foam out of the speaker. I can't do it after insulation because then I'd have to cut through the foam and then place the speaker and then figure out a way to insulate so I don't end up with added condensation in the speaker area. I've looked and looked and can't seem to find anything on the recommendations side of things for a box that will work with this speaker. I'd like to get the box in place before insulation so the drywallers will cut the hole I need as they place the drywall.

So I'm looking for suggestions. Are these speakers a good fit for this? Any suggestions on the speaker box to protect the speakers? and are there any "gotchas" that I should be considering? I need to get all of this figured out in the next couple weeks as we hope to be drywalling by the end of next month.

F1nut

One issue with your plan, you'd be in a real pickle when the speakers or cables fail down the road.

txcoastal1

I installed dyabox for my Polk LCi80's 13 years. They are in the attic and I just checked them a couple weeks ago and are still in great shape.

https://www.dynamat.com/products/dynabox/

You can also have use the blue 1/2" carlon flex tube for later access

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-1-2-in-200-ft-Electrical-Nonmetallic-Tubing-Conduit-Coil-Blue-12005-200/202765924?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-100569078-_-202765924-_-N

Pokes28

txcoastal1 wrote: »

I installed dyabox for my Polk LCi80's 13 years. They are in the attic and I just checked them a couple weeks ago and are still in great shape.

https://www.dynamat.com/products/dynabox/

You can also have use the blue 1/2" carlon flex tube for later access

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Carlon-1-2-in-200-ft-Electrical-Nonmetallic-Tubing-Conduit-Coil-Blue-12005-200/202765924?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-100569078-_-202765924-_-N

Are those a flexible rubber type box? I'm worried about the rigidity of the box being able to hold shape when it has 5" of spray foam insulation going over the top of it. I have thought about using smurf tube for the cabling so if something needed replaced it could be done fairly simply. just blow a string through and/or use the existing speaker wire as a pull.

txcoastal1

They are rubber but firm. They can be secure adding stud, plywood etc
Your other option is installing the rough-in rings for the speaker then boxing in before insulation.

You can add a bit of baffle foam when installing the speakers

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