Muso vs Sonos + ceiling speakers

Posted by: louism on 31 May 2015

Having the kitchen extended. Will be approx 7m x 6m space, with concrete floors and a ceiling 2.8m high.

Initially thinking of just putting some good quality ceiling speakers in (don't know how many, don't know which ones to choose) and running them off my Sonos which I use for a few rooms in the house (other than my main listening, for which I have a SuperUniti and Spender A5's).

The kitchen wouldn't be for serious listening, but most ceiling speaker systems I've heard sound awful.

Advice welcome!

Posted on: 31 May 2015 by Audioneophyte

I use tape out of my pre. And into a Harmon Kardon amp into room splitter into inroomvolume controls into in ceiling Polk audio 8inch two way speakers....

 

the he source makes the difference... In this case NDS to 552...  But your su as a source is superior to the muso... And that difference will go a long way to sound improvement....

 

good luck!

Posted on: 01 June 2015 by ChrisG

Hi

 

In our kitchen I have two pairs of B&W CCM 664 ceiling speakers running from two Sonos Connect Amps with FLAC files as source ripped from my CD collection and it sounds great. The 664's are £400 per pair so they should sound respectable, the Muso should better them but I love the Sonos interface and it's ultra reliable and the spread of sound from the two pairs of speakers is wonderful. THe B&W speakers are supplied with a housing which is fitted to the ceiling and the speaker module itself plugs into it, all very neat. If I was doing it again I would probably use the 8" speakers not the 6" 664 for more bass, oh and add a back box for each speaker.

 

Have fun!

 

Chris

Posted on: 01 June 2015 by louism
Originally Posted by ChrisG:

Hi

 

In our kitchen I have two pairs of B&W CCM 664 ceiling speakers running from two Sonos Connect Amps with FLAC files as source ripped from my CD collection and it sounds great. The 664's are £400 per pair so they should sound respectable, the Muso should better them but I love the Sonos interface and it's ultra reliable and the spread of sound from the two pairs of speakers is wonderful. THe B&W speakers are supplied with a housing which is fitted to the ceiling and the speaker module itself plugs into it, all very neat. If I was doing it again I would probably use the 8" speakers not the 6" 664 for more bass, oh and add a back box for each speaker.

 

Have fun!

 

Chris

 

Thank you Chris.

What's a back box?

 

L

Posted on: 01 June 2015 by ChrisSU

I've never heard them myself, but I'm aware that one or two forum members like Eclipse speakers (TD307, 508, 510 etc.) I've been thinking about a second system and happened to notice that these can be wall or ceiling mounted - maybe worth investigating if you're OK with their unconventional looks. 

Posted on: 02 June 2015 by ChrisG

louism

 

A back box is an enclosure than acts like the box that a conventional speaker is mounted in. It provides the in ceiling speaker with it's own volume of air to push against. Not totally necessary when you have only the space between the floor above and the kitchen ceiling, separated by the supporting joists, but it does tend to isolate the speaker from bleeding too much sound into the room above. You can get flexible rubber "back boxes" which can be folded up and inserted through the ceiling hole where they will expand and provide the speaker with it's own enclosure. B&W also supply a rigid version which  is screwed into the ceiling joists. If the room was say a bedroom in an upper floor with only the attic above, you would need something like this to enclose the speaker otherwise there would be no loading for the speaker cone. Hope that makes sense??

 

Chris