Please HELP choosing & installing ceiling surrounds!

flix

I'd like to complete my set up in our family room of 16'x21', which goes 15' further back to the kitchen. Ceiling ht is 9'. The 65" TV is hung on the middle of the 16' wall and flanked by a pair of RTi8's with a CSi3 center. I'd like to have ceiling side and back surrounds due to the lack of wall space for the on-wall surrounds. Here are my questions?

1. Will TC80i be a good match? Am I better off with the cheaper TC60i which has the same 6.5" driver as the RTi8? I'm pretty sure that both of these are timbre matched with the RT8i. Subwoofer will be coming once I know what is right for this large space.

2. I have never done ceiling install. The master bedroom is directly above the family room. The ceiling does not have any insulation. The joists are 16" apart and about 16" tall. I read in this forum that polyfill is important to absorb the unwanted sound from the back of the speakers. In addition, it helps to block some noise to the bedroom above. Do I just fill the entire joist space (16"x16"x16ft)? That will take a lot of polyfill! Does it matter that the polyfill comes to direct contact with the wiring and the back of the speakers? Is it better to line the cavity with some type of sound proof mats that I've seen in car shops?

3. I used to have a 6.1 set-up with only one back speaker at my old house. Do I need 2 back speakers to take advantage of the Bluray audio? Currently, I only have a PS3 and I have no idea if it can output signals to a receiver for 7.1 processing. There is only one wire going to the back. I can pull another wire through but it will be a pain.

4. The current ceiling wires are 16-gauge CL3 rated speaker wires. Are they adequate for these 30' to 40' runs to the TC80i/TC60i's?

Sorry for these primitive questions! Thank you in advance.

soundnation

flix wrote: »

I'd like to complete my set up in our family room of 16'x21', which goes 15' further back to the kitchen. Ceiling ht is 9'. The 65" TV is hung on the middle of the 16' wall and flanked by a pair of RTi8's with a CSi3 center. I'd like to have ceiling side and back surrounds due to the lack of wall space for the on-wall surrounds. Here are my questions?

1. Will TC80i be a good match? Am I better off with the cheaper TC60i which has the same 6.5" driver as the RTi8? I'm pretty sure that both of these are timbre matched with the RT8i. Subwoofer will be coming once I know what is right for this large space.

2. I have never done ceiling install. The master bedroom is directly above the family room. The ceiling does not have any insulation. The joists are 16" apart and about 16" tall. I read in this forum that polyfill is important to absorb the unwanted sound from the back of the speakers. In addition, it helps to block some noise to the bedroom above. Do I just fill the entire joist space (16"x16"x16ft)? That will take a lot of polyfill! Does it matter that the polyfill comes to direct contact with the wiring and the back of the speakers? Is it better to line the cavity with some type of sound proof mats that I've seen in car shops?

3. I used to have a 6.1 set-up with only one back speaker at my old house. Do I need 2 back speakers to take advantage of the Bluray audio? Currently, I only have a PS3 and I have no idea if it can output signals to a receiver for 7.1 processing. There is only one wire going to the back. I can pull another wire through but it will be a pain.

4. The current ceiling wires are 16-gauge CL3 rated speaker wires. Are they adequate for these 30' to 40' runs to the TC80i/TC60i's?

Sorry for these primitive questions! Thank you in advance.

I had the same questions a last week. I bought all of my stuff from Kevin at Z-Tech Electronics in Los Angeles. I was considering the RTi series but ended up going with the LSi series. When he was walking me through the options, he mentioned that the TC series was matched with the RTi series. Email him with these questions and I'm sure he will help you out. Here is his email address..

kz5353@yahoo.com

Let me know how it works out for you.

flix

Soundation,

Thanks for the suggestions. I've read some great advise in this forum and hope someone more experience will post here. I think my questions are relavent to others who are in similar situation.

amulford

flix wrote: »

I'd like to complete my set up in our family room of 16'x21', which goes 15' further back to the kitchen. Ceiling ht is 9'. The 65" TV is hung on the middle of the 16' wall and flanked by a pair of RTi8's with a CSi3 center. I'd like to have ceiling side and back surrounds due to the lack of wall space for the on-wall surrounds. Here are my questions?

1. Will TC80i be a good match? Am I better off with the cheaper TC60i which has the same 6.5" driver as the RTi8? I'm pretty sure that both of these are timbre matched with the RT8i. Subwoofer will be coming once I know what is right for this large space.

2. I have never done ceiling install. The master bedroom is directly above the family room. The ceiling does not have any insulation. The joists are 16" apart and about 16" tall. I read in this forum that polyfill is important to absorb the unwanted sound from the back of the speakers. In addition, it helps to block some noise to the bedroom above. Do I just fill the entire joist space (16"x16"x16ft)? That will take a lot of polyfill! Does it matter that the polyfill comes to direct contact with the wiring and the back of the speakers? Is it better to line the cavity with some type of sound proof mats that I've seen in car shops?

3. I used to have a 6.1 set-up with only one back speaker at my old house. Do I need 2 back speakers to take advantage of the Bluray audio? Currently, I only have a PS3 and I have no idea if it can output signals to a receiver for 7.1 processing. There is only one wire going to the back. I can pull another wire through but it will be a pain.

4. The current ceiling wires are 16-gauge CL3 rated speaker wires. Are they adequate for these 30' to 40' runs to the TC80i/TC60i's?

Sorry for these primitive questions! Thank you in advance.

!. I would use the TC60i's. with that sized space I'd be thinking multiple subs.

2 No, you don't have to fill the whole cavity. And it's OK for the speaker wire to contact it.

3. Most movies matrix rear surrounds but more are coming out with true 7 channel streams. I would/did.

4. Will they transmit signal? Yeah, but I wouldn't use anything less than decent 14 Ga OFC. YMMV.

flix

Thanks for the quick answers. Could someone comment on ceiling installation please? The 2 side surrounds will be sharing the same joist space, and so will the 2 back surrounds. I like to know if I need to sperate the speakers by sealing off the joist space with hard wood or Dynamat. What is a good economical way to keep the speaker back noise from reaching the bedroom upsatirs? Thanks!