Hello!

My home is prewired for 5.1 in-ceiling speakers. I think I'm going to skip on the LCR in-ceiling, and eventually go in-wall. In the meantime, I want to at least be able to use 5.1.

In the attached picture, you can see the prewire for the Left Surround and Right Surround (I think that's what the speakers would be for based on their placement?). They are about 7ft from the center of the couch, in a 9 foot high ceiling. I can't figure out if I should be using HTR-7000's or HTR-8000's, or if I should be using a non-directional speaker. I'm not sure if the angle is sufficient for the directional HTR's with the seating position and ceiling height relative to the speaker position.

Anyone have any advice they can share? Will the HTR-7000's be good? Would HTR-8000's be better? Or should I be using something like the Invisa 650 or 652? Eventually these may become height speakers if I get the back left / right of the wall wired up...in the mean time I would like to have as good a performance as I can in a 5.1 setup like this. Thank you.

Hi TheKenS, The location of the pre-wired in-ceiling surround speakers would actually work well in a 5.1 home theater system. Considering the location of these surrounds would be 7 feet away from the center of the sofa, I would recommend using a set of Invisa HTR7000s or Invisa HTR8000s. The 30 degree angle of these in-ceiling speakers would allow you to aim these speakers directly at the center of the sofa (or main listening position). This would work very well and provide an immersive surround experience. The Invisa HTR7000s would work very well as your surround speakers, however, the Invisa HTR8000s would produce more bass a bit fuller midrange reproduction. I can't say the Invisa HTR8000s would be "necessary", but they would certainly "kick it up a notch".

Using the Invisa 650s would be okay, however, most of their sound wouldn't be directed toward the main listening position. Happy Listening!

Hi TheKenS

I have a pair of 7000's and a pair of 8000's as height speakers. As impressive as the 7000's are, when the 8000's came out I switched some 525's to 8000's to have 7000's and 8000's paired together as heights. Before, the 7000's were doing most of the heavy lifting. With the 8000's added, I was really happy with the added heft the 8000's provided, and the 8" 8000 drivers are amazing, as is the Ref HVFR tweeter. The visceral effect of such heft is real, as is the pure musicality.

Either speaker will sound great, but the 8000 is definitely several notches better. If your budget allows, I would recommend the 8000's, they are truly in a ceiling speaker upper class.

Happy listening!

Rick