advice on rear/side surrounds

Gusterson21

First post here, looking for some opinions on surround rear & side speakers. I just picked up some monitor 60's and a CS2 center and am contemplating the RC85i as side surround and the RC80i as rear surround. The walls these will be going in are an upstairs bonus room, therefore, they are not fully enclosed on the back side. Will these speakers perform well enough in this wall scenario or is it recommended to create a box between the studs with MDF?

Gusterson21

I guess my first post was too vague? Thanks for the help, though....

wutadumsn23

Not too vague, just not too familiar with the in wall/in ceiling speakers. Are the Monitor 30's or Monitor 40's not an option for you. They would be the best options IMHO, good luck and welcome to Club Polk.

-Jeff

Gusterson21

No the 30's or 40's are not an option as the room is already prewired. Looking for advice from anybody that has experience with any of the polk in-wall/in-ceiling speakers. Thanks in advance.

vincent vega

Welcome to the forum. I recently installed two in-wall tc615is and did a fair amount of research on the installation.
The speaker design is infinite baffle which means that an enclosure is not necessary. Various sources told me that enclosing them would make them sound better as would adding some insulation to the cavity. Polk cs told me that the cavity should be one cubic foot. One of the stud bays wouldn't allow me enough height due to blocking so I blocked each bay so that each would have the same volume.
I also stuffed insulation behind each speaker and they sound great. Enjoy your new system.

Gusterson21

Thanks for the reply, vega. Great info as I am leaning towards going with the in-wall/in-ceiling speakers. Will in-wall/in-celing speakers not perform as well as the 30's or 40's? I was under the impression that during HT/gaming use the speakers really produce very little noise. Wondering if I should just go for a smaller set of RC65i's opposed to the RC85i's. System will be used for very little music, 95% HT and gaming.

MrGlobe

I think that a relatively small group of people here have used in-wall speakers compared to the number that routinely use standard speakers.

Gaming and HT use surround sound a lot. Having properly set up surrounds really pulls you into the media

vincent vega

I think you would be fine with the in-walls for surrounds. In-ceiling surrounds or rears are definitely less than desirable. It just won't sound natural with the sound coming from up there.
Your other option would be to skip the rears and keep it 5.1, in which case I would go with the RC85is if they'll fit.

cheddar

Gusterson21 wrote: »

No the 30's or 40's are not an option as the room is already prewired. Looking for advice from anybody that has experience with any of the polk in-wall/in-ceiling speakers. Thanks in advance.

Well, if the room is pre-wired, you could always just terminate to a standard electrical gang box with speaker plate at the wall. Then you could wall mount whatever speaker you wanted in any position and run a short run of wire back to the gang box. Unless you just want the clean look of an in-wall installation.

I terminated all my wire at the wall this way. And even found some great speaker mounts at crutchfield that attach directly to the gang box and make mounting light bookshelf speakers very easy.

Gusterson21

What kind of polk surround speakers are anybody mounting to the wall? And which mounts are you using? Torn between the look of in wall speakers and mounting some sort of bookshelf sized surround speaker. Will the sound of the latter be "that" much more defined than that of the in wall speakers?

cheddar

I recently used these to mount some cheap older r15s to the ceiling. http://www.crutchfield.com/S-cqkUZUh8kWC/p_121AM20W/Pinpoint-AM20-White.html?search=ceiling+mounts&ssi=0 But they can be used as wall mounts too. I like that they attached directly to the electrical gang box where my speaker wires were. So no extra drilling into the ceiling was necessary. And they swivel in good arcs allowing you to point the tweeters for precise placement. The r15s are around 5lbs. But I think they can support a little more.

I used a non-gang box ceiling mount that also allowed you to point the speakers from http://www.standsandmounts.com/ for my lsi/fxs in a different set-up. Supported up to 25lbs. You might be able to find something similar. But I think they discontinued them.

The advantage to ceiling mounts are that you can move the speakers away from the wall eliminating the boominess that you sometimes hear with wall mount speakers. Also, because in-walls are always limited to the space between studs (and where your wires currently are), you just don't have as many selection and placement options with them. So although they have a clean look and can still sound good, I think you'll be able to find other speakers that sound better either because of more flexibility in their design or placement.

comfortablycurt

You'll be fine with in-walls IMO. Surround duty isn't real demanding of a speaker for the most part, and most speakers are able to easily reproduce the surround tracks.

With front speakers, you're better off going with a larger bookshelf or floorstander though. You mentioned the Monitor 60's and CS2, which is a fine combination, so you're definitely on the right track.

The RCi's are timbre matched to the Monitor series, so they'll be a great match.

Gusterson21

Thanks for the replies. I think I am leaning towards going with the RC85i's as the side surrounds and the RC80i's as the rear surrounds. The room is roughly 20 x 14. I plan on running a Onkyo TX-SR607 receiver. Great deal right now, $359-FS. The 607 does not have a pre-out for an exteranl amp, I am asssuming this receiver is powerful enough to run this set-up. I am not "really" worried about using an external amp for additional power as this is my first HT setup & I believe I will be content. See any flaws in my thinking?

comfortablycurt

The 607 will do just fine driving those speakers.

It's nice to have an option to add an amp, but if it's primarily a HT system, I don't see it as being as big of an issue. If you listen to a lot of music though, you may want to consider getting a better AVR with pre-outs.

I'm running a 606 in my HT, and I couldn't imagine ever wanting to watch movies at higher volumes than I'm currently capable of.

That should be an excellent sounding setup. Any plans for a sub yet?


By the way, welcome to Club Polk!:)

Gusterson21

For a sub I am leaning towards a BIC F-12 or a PA-120. Again this will be my first experience with any kind of sub, so I am assuming these two will be good choices and leave some room for upgrades. Thought about an SVS sub but for the 300-350 price difference that might not fit my situation right now. Also, for my down stairs "common" great room set up i need a sub and have been contemplating the Polk wireless sub but can find little reviews on them. Anybody have any experience with wireless subs? There is also a Boston Acoustics wireless sub that has around 50 more watts that i can get for the same price.

cheddar

Any reason you need a wireless sub? A sub produces only the lower frequencies that are harder to localize. So they can be placed close to your equipment even if they aren't right next to your tv. They do get boomier in corners but are much more flexible in where you can place one around the room.

Gusterson21

My actual equipment is in the pantry located at the top shelf in the kitchen. This system only has proficient audio in wall and in ceiling speakers and just need a little something to add some bass. In order to keep from putting anymore holes in the walls and keeping wires well hidden (there is a floor plug underneath couch) this seemed like a no brainer. I just wanted to hear some feedback on the performance of the wireless subs in general.

cheddar

Someone seems to have put a lot of thought into pre-wiring your house. Sounds like it'll save you a lot of trouble in cable management.

Hope someone can help you with the wireless question. I'd be interested in how well they perform too.