how do i install In-ceiling speakers?

[Apkesh]

hi, I am not sure if this is the right group to ask, but since everyone sounds like a pro at what they do, I thought I'll try.

I've purchased 2 sets of In-ceiling speakers I'd like to install in the kitchen. We live in a "typical" Canadian suburban house with basement, ground level (where the kitchen and the living room are) and second floor. I'd like to know how I'd bring the speaker wire from the living room where the stereo is to the kitchen ceiling. Has anyone done this sort of thing? Where I am not sure is the 'fishing' the line part. How do I bring the wire up to the kitchen ceiling when the roof is stud construction?

Thanks. apkesh

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I've been to Canada often and find no house to be any more typical tha the wide variety here in the US. The second floor is going to make the job much more difficult, maybe impossible.

You could go down from the LR to the basement and over to the kitchen. Is there any way up along plumbing lines to route the wires? Getting from the wall to the ceiling is the hard part as the framing will usually make a solid barrier inside the wall. Perhaps you should consider putting the speaker sntot he wall?

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Considered wireless method? Tony

[Mark]

You don't, unless you're willing to start making holes in your ceilings and walls.

[Happy Homeowner]

try fishing the wire along a chimney opening or vent pipe (stack) worst case scenario make small holes in the inside corners of wall to ceiling and wall to floor. or maybe remove a kitchen cabinet to access the wall to make holes to hide the wires behind it.

[I-zheet M'drurz]

Being that it's speaker wire, you won't have a whole lot more degradation of signal if you use a few extra feet of wire to get from point A to point B. IOW, consider an alternate, easier route. Gravity is your friend, it's a lot easier to drop down from both destinations and route it through the basement. Of course, getting to -anywhere- from a ceiling is not going to be easy...

You need to figure out which way the ceiling joists run, go between two of them to the nearest wall, find a way around/through the top plate on the studs into the vertical gap between 2 studs, and then you might run into a fire block that will need to be drilled through. -Then- you need to break through the floor, which is usually possible from underneath, assuming you can find "landmarks" and take good measurments, else you end up drilling holes in your exposed floor.

You will end up opening some holes in the walls that will need to be restored. If you're good at it, they will be few and small. If you're not so good, they will be many and/or big. Sorry, but there is no easy way.

[Bill]

Ok, I'm going to take a completely different tack. Why do you want ceiling mounted speakers? I am not trying to be insulting, but if you put in ceiling mounted speakers you aren't thinking very far ahead. How long do you expect to be using the system you are installing them for, 30 or 40 years? If so then go ahead, otherwise you are doing a lot of work that will just have to be ripped out in a few years when you do a significant upgrade. I keep seeing them doing that sort of thing on home shows, and I have never figured out why they are wasting the money. You will probably never get the audio quality with ceiling mounted speakers that you will with discrete speaker boxes.

Bill Gill

[Jim Sullivan]

One option would be to use your cold air return(s) to bring the wire up or down. I've pulled a cable wire from the basement by going up the cold air return to the attic and then down another cold air return from the attic. If you can position the speakers so that they're both in the same joist space, that will help reduce the effort. Use closets, cupboards, etc to your advantage. A patch in the back of a cupboard doesn't need to be perfect.

Finally, the concern about audio quality is in the ear of the listener. The house we're currently in has multiple in-ceiling speakers. Yes, the sound isn't the quality of my father's Boston Acoutics, but I can't really tell the difference. I do like the convenience of having one location for the music source and 7 different areas (master bedroom, bonus room, family room, kitchen, den, main hall, back deck) to listen to it.