In-ceiling Surrounds

JohnLocke88

Hey guys. So it's been a while since I made my last Polk upgrade, but I'm back at it again...

So here's the deal, next year I'm moving back in with the folks to save some money on rent for my last year of college. The setup I'm looking into will consist of my RTi8s, and CSi5 up front. This is all going into a 10 x 10 bedroom with 8 ft ceilings, so it's going to be a bit cramped in terms of available positions for rear speakers. I've gotten the parental go ahead to put in "in-ceiling" speakers, provided that I leave them there when I leave again in a year. (Something about not wanting two big holes in the guest bedroom ceiling...what's with that )

Anyway, I've been looking into Polk's in-ceiling speaker line up and It would seem that the best match for the RTi line up is the "RC" series? Seems TC might be the monitor line and the LC series the LSI line.

Is this logic correct?

If anyone with a similar setup would mind chiming in, it'd be appreciated. Or if anyone wants to tell to bugger off and do the research myself, that's cool too.

Thanks.

dorokusai

TCxxi series.

mufsoman

You can see what I've got from my signature. The TCxxi for the back surrounds are great. I bought 2" thick fiberglass insulation sheets from Home Depot (2' x 4') and made a 5 sided "box" from it and put that in the ceiling before installing the speakers to help minimize sound echo and drift to the rest of the house. Good luck.

JohnLocke88

mufsoman wrote: »

You can see what I've got from my signature. The TCxxi for the back surrounds are great. I bought 2" thick fiberglass insulation sheets from Home Depot (2' x 4') and made a 5 sided "box" from it and put that in the ceiling before installing the speakers to help minimize sound echo and drift to the rest of the house. Good luck.

Thanks for the tip. I have an uncle that used to do custom home theater installs, so I'll probably enlist his help.

Second question, I've always been intrigued with 7.1. Is it possible, or better yet, advantageous to use in ceilings for surrounds, and then (in the wall directly behind the seating area (in this case, my bed) to use in wall (rectangular) speakers? Or is having the surrounds and rear surrounds so close together just a waste of time/space/money?

mufsoman

I used the TC80i's because I have a bar area directly behind the HT area in our finished basement. Bookshelf speakers or towers are not an option in my configuration. Sound is good, but I do need to set the db for the back's much higher to get the sound balanced.

Most bluerays are still 5.1, but there are some 7.1 too. Transporter 3 had some great 7.1 sound mixing. Explosions litteraly moved from the front to surrounds to debri falling in the backs. It was cool. However, a small room and the fact there's limited 7.1 material and 5.1 stretched to 7.1 is OK in my opinion, but not fantastic, I would recommend to keep it at 5.1. Another opportunity for me was that I got a pair of TC80i's for $125 each when Tweeter closed, so it was a great deal. I feel sorry for your parents when you crank that sound system in your bedroom......

I don't want to get too far off topic from the thread, but are you happy with your Csi5 matching with the Rti8's? I'm still thinking of unloading the LsiC and changing to a Csi5 or Csi A6.

JohnLocke88

mufsoman wrote: »

I used the TC80i's because I have a bar area directly behind the HT area in our finished basement. Bookshelf speakers or towers are not an option in my configuration. Sound is good, but I do need to set the db for the back's much higher to get the sound balanced.

Most bluerays are still 5.1, but there are some 7.1 too. Transporter 3 had some great 7.1 sound mixing. Explosions litteraly moved from the front to surrounds to debri falling in the backs. It was cool. However, a small room and the fact there's limited 7.1 material and 5.1 stretched to 7.1 is OK in my opinion, but not fantastic, I would recommend to keep it at 5.1. Another opportunity for me was that I got a pair of TC80i's for $125 each when Tweeter closed, so it was a great deal. I feel sorry for your parents when you crank that sound system in your bedroom......

I don't want to get too far off topic from the thread, but are you happy with your Csi5 matching with the Rti8's? I'm still thinking of unloading the LsiC and changing to a Csi5 or Csi A6.

Sorry for the late reply, been busy with the final weeks of this school year (never doing 18 units again).

Yah, I'm very happy with the CSi5 and the RTi8s. Too be honest, I'm only dealing with about a 10 ft across front sound stage, but the center blends perfect with the RTi8s.

Update: I just found a good deal on some TC80I's. Hopefully going to be picking them up next weekend. Will update the thread with pictures once installation begins.