Hi Everyone,

We are re-modeling our kitchen later this year and I'm working on the sound upgrade. There is very little space on walls or counters to hold speakers, and my wife does not want speakers decorating her new kitchen. So...I'm looking at ceiling speaker options. The current kitchen has just 2 ceiling speakers for the entire room and these do a terrible job of filling the room - they are spaced widely apart and provide no stereo image at all. At most every location in the kitchen, one hears the nearest speaker, but not both.

I'm currently considering using angled ceiling speakers like the HTR 7000, with 4 or 5 set around the perimeter of the kitchen and all pointing in toward the most-used locations, like stove, sink, and prep areas. I am attaching a sketch of the kitchen with speaker locations (blue circles) and directivity of the speakers (green triangles) indicated. I will run the sound with a used Denon receiver I have, calibrate the room with Audyssey, and run streaming music or CDs with the receiver in multi-channel stereo mode. I will also have a subwoofer hidden in a cabinet to fill in the low end.

I'm looking for feedback on this idea before I have to finalize the wiring diagrams for this space. Does this sound like a good idea (pun intended)? Are there better locations than What I have on the drawing? Would the HTR 7000's be up to the task?

Thanks,
Burr

Hi Burr,

Good luck with the remodel. It sounds like an exciting project.

I can't tell you whether that will work or not but my guess would be that you will never get a true stereo image no matter how hard you would try. At best, when in the exact right spot you might get a headphone effect but not true imaging like you might expect from a standard two channel floor standing system.

When we build our house, I had the same thought process as you are going through now. What I decided to do was to put the SP 652's strategically so that the sound would be fairly uniform throughout the area without attempting to achieve a true stereo image. I believe this has turned out really well as we still very much enjoy the exceptional sound of the 652's without worrying about being in the sweet spot. In your case, putting the subwoofer in place will make for a truly exceptional sound I would guess. (I don't have a subwoofer.)

I do have the HTR7000's in my bedroom in a way that is more a traditional stereo setup. They are aimed at my head and the sound is quite good but it is still generally obvious the sound is coming from the ceiling. They are excellent speakers also with a little more bass than the 652s. By the way, I also have the HTR7000's (4 of them) in my home theater in an atmos configuration and they are great for this!

Anyway, this is just my two cents. Sorry if this is not helpful and best of luck with your project!!

Best regards,
Jim

burr1885 wrote: I'm looking for feedback on this idea before I have to finalize the wiring diagrams for this space. Does this sound like a good idea (pun intended)? Are there better locations than What I have on the drawing? Would the HTR 7000's be up to the task?

The HTR 7000 is intended for applications with a fixed listening position so that the geometry can be worked out to get the correct result, not really intended as a distributed audio speaker. They can make a great in-ceiling stereo music system if properly positioned for a set listening area. Also, as pointed out, getting "stereo" in distributed audio is difficult unless you have very specific listening areas that you can define and place speakers accordingly. If you want to try, the Invisa 650 is a great distributed audio in-ceiling speaker. The alternative Invisa 652 is a good choice if not...

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies and suggestions. I'm going to give this one more thought and see what else is out there.

Regards,
burr