Ceiling speakers

[AkiN]

Hi all

i will be having my house wired in the coming weeks. I've been toying with the idea of putting some speakers in the bathroom and kitchen ceiling. It's just an idea at the moment but I think it'd be pretty cool if I can make it work.

I have had a look online and came across some Bluetooth speakers and was wondering if they would be suitable.

What do you think? I would appreciate any advice. Thank you!

http://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/ceiling-speakers/cat8800003

 

[Lucid]

On their own? No. They don't produce any bass.

They are small satellite speakers; akin to the little surround speakers from a 5.1 movie speaker package. They need a bass unit to fill in the midrange and bass. On their own they'll sound like a louder version of your mobile phone strapped to the ceiling and playing music. All tsk-tsk-tsk.

By the time you've messed about trying to find an in-ceiling bass speaker and added the additional amplification that that would need then you might as well have done the job properly and bought a pair of 6.5" in ceilings instead.

The spec of the speakers is also very poor too. Small units like this shouldn't take much to drive, so the efficiency/sensitivity should be high: 90-100dB. These ones are 82dB. That's appalling even for cheap full-range bookshelf speakers. That's like buying the cheap runabout and then finding out it does 15mpg when everyone else with a supermini is getting 50+mpg.

I like Screwfix for its core range of fixings and screws and such. But when it ventures out of its comfort zone in to more specialised areas such as speakers and aerials then it's obvious to someone like me in the trade that they're peddling crap.

The bottom line is that you can find the same or similar kind of speakers on Ebay for maybe 1/4 of what Screwfix are asking. They'll still be crap, but at least you'll have only thrown away £25 rather than £100. Personally, I'd get some proper 6.5" stereo in-ceiling speakers for the kitchen and a single-point stereo speaker for the bathroom.

 

[nuzuki]

I got some dirt cheap ceiling speakers from ebay for my lounge ceiling. I was going to add some extra in the bathroom but to be honest the sound travels well and I can hear them in the bathroom fine. I think they were 5-10quid for the pair brand new. I had some laminate flooring leftover which I used to make templates for the speakers and put them between the plasterboard and the speakers (using no more nails). A friend of mines dad had a speaker switch setup so he could switch on the speakers in different rooms etc. Its cheap to do but routing the wires can be a pain. I added mine as I was building the house so it wasnt a fiddly afterthought. Im sure there are bluetooth alternatives these days depending on the size of your house.

As lucid said they wont produce alot of bass, although they had adequate bass for my needs. I bi wired them into the stereo so I still have the normal speakers which produce the bass. I then linked the stereo to the TV so the ceiling speakers produce a stealthy surround sound effect.