can you suspend front speakers from the ceiling?

[benissimo]

Hi

my girlfriend doesn't want our front speakers on the floor, because she thinks someone will kick them over, and she doesn't want to put them into a unit because, well because she doesn't want any furniture there - our projector screen is in the middle of the room.

She's saying we should suspend them from the ceiling in front of and on either side of the projector screen. My gut feeling tells me this is a bad idea. Apart from trailing cables up the wall and along the ceiling I can't help thinking it will look weird and sound terrible.

Am I right? Or is my girlfriend a free-thinking genius?

Thanks!

Ben.

 

[tinkywinkydipsylalapo]

No reason why not, assuming the speakers are designed to perform well in free space (if I understand your description correctly and the speakers are to be hung so they 'float' out in the middle of the room beside the screen).

However, do take your point about the logistics of it, unless you chase the cables into the walls and above the ceiling, then run them down the suspension cables to the speakers. And make sure whatever you use to suspend them is going to be strong enough to hold the speakers.

However, yes, it can be done, though I'm not sure whether these ever took off:

 

[Big Aura]

what sort of speakers are they?

Assuming your speakers are small enough and you use a bracket and your ceiling is strong enough (read - the joists you're attaching the bracket to), then it should work. But it may be odd to have sound coming from so high up. I once had to move my Screen to the left of the left side speaker for a few weeks while some work was being done in the house - the sound field was all to the right and it was a bit disorienting!

 

[Ketan Bharadia]

It'll look unusual, but provided you pick the right speakers and they're mounted rigidly, there should be a problem.

 

[The_Lhc]

It'll look unusual, but provided you pick the right speakers and they're mounted rigidly, there should be a problem.

"shouldn't" presumably...

I used to have my front speakers wall-mounted up near the ceiling, I can't recall it ever sounding odd to me. That was in quite a small bedroom though and I think the centre speaker was on top of the TV at the time (which would help to localise the dialogue properly).

 

[scene]

What about wall mounted?

Could you mount them on the wall, on either side / below your projector screen - you can get some pretty flat speakers (KEF / Monitor Audio spring to mind).

Also - how far off the wall is your projector screen - i.e. is there space behind it? You can get acoustically transparent screens and you could then have them behind your screen

Flat speakers: KEF T-series or Monitor Audio Shadow