The Best Installation For Inceiling Speakers

As surround sound and home theater has become ubiquitous in many homes, the popularity of installing speakers in the wall and the ceiling has increased. In-ceiling speakers are also often placed in restaurants and offices, particularly dentist and doctor's offices. Installing the speakers themselves is fairly simple.

Wiring

The first step with installing speakers in the ceiling is wiring for the installation. Many new homes come pre-wired for in-wall or in-ceiling speakers. However, if the space is not pre-wired, you will need to have the wire installed. It is best to use UL rated wire that is labeled CL2 or CL3. The wire itself can be bought in different gauges; for speakers, 12 gauge is probably the best choice.

Speakers

In-ceiling speakers should always be round to give the most even dispersion of sound. The speakers can usually be purchased with six inch or eight inch woofers, with the tweeter found in the middle of the driver. For a home theater install, in-ceiling speakers are commonly used for the rears of a system. The speakers should be located slightly behind the main listening position. Once you have the location picked out, use a stud finder to make sure no studs will interfere with the planned location. If there are, use the stud finder to relocate where the speakers will go. After you have verified that there are no studs that will interfere, drill a small pilot hole in the ceiling and push a piece of wire through it, moving the wire around to verify there is enough depth and width for the speaker.

Installation tools and tricks

Once the wire has been run and you have chosen your speakers and figured out the location, installation is relatively simple. You'll need a dry wall knife to cut into the dry wall. The speakers come with a mounting guide that gives you a pattern to trace for cut into the ceiling. Trace the pattern, then cut into the drywall and remove it. Remove the grill from the speaker, then pull the speaker wire through and connect it to the terminals on the speaker. Place the speaker in the drywall and put the frame in around the speaker. Test the sound coming from the speaker, then replace the speaker grills.

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