I have chosen to have surround sound wiring and in wall speakers placed in the home that I am building. The room that I am using for my media room is 19 1/2 X 12. I will be placing the TV against the longer wall. The problem is that the wall goes up 5 ft and then slopes, so Im not sure where my center channel would go. I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to have it placed in the sloped wall because that would aim it down. If it goes in the wall then it is likely that the TV will block it because most TVs are 50 inches tall and up. I am thinking of buying a wall mounted plasma TV and then the speaker could be mounted below it. Does anyone have any suggestions? I havent spoken with the installer that the builder contracts the work to about this yet. Hopefully they know what they are doing.

Generally you would like to have your center speaker flush with the TV, I suppose it is possible to mount it on the sloped part of the ceiling depending on what type of speaker you are planning on using. If it will hang from a bracket most brackets can pivot so you could level the speaker a bit.

I like to keep my speakers between 4-7' off the floor. too high you lose sound, too low you lose sound. I suggest taking a look at DOLBY.COM they have a section on speaker placement if you're not clear on what to do.

Based on the information you provided: If you are limited to an in-wall center speaker (and have the money) I would recommend you go with the plasma TV and speaker directly below. If at all possible, try to tilt the speaker's orientation slightly upward to align with the listening position at "ear height."

It sounds as though you would have imaging problems above the TV. I would think that you either would have the signal blocked by the TV as you pointed out, or if you raised the speaker higher the dialog would no longer "feel" as though it were coming from the characters on the screen.

The cheapest solution would be to use a regular free-standing center speaker on top of the existing TV. Since you specified an in-wall installation, I don't know whether this is a viable option.

Hope this helped. -Bruce

Oops! I just realized this was the Installer's forum! Sorry, guys, please feel free to shoot me down if I said something stupid. I don't even begin to claim that I have your expertise.

Thines9,

How about using one of those in-wall "AIM" type of speakers. Check out Niles Audio or SpeakerCraft.

Ed

thines9,

I agree with using some sort of angled in-wall / in-ceiling speaker such as the SpeakerCraft, Niles or Sonance.

Alternatively for complete flexibility why not use one of the KEF Ci 200.2QT speakers which would allow you to angle the speaker at different preset positions according to taste.

[Link: kef.com]

Bruce,
you have good ideas. Anybody who gets shot down gets that because of the ideas, not their status. Whatever status is!

I have solved this problem in the past with a pair of Sonance M200 speakers. I mounted them above the plasma, but there is no reason they could not go below the plasma.

I would not worry about imaging as much as the post above implies. Your "image" is actually that -- the plasma's image. Your brain will have no problem "seeing" the sound coming from the plasma if it is in the general area. Our brains are a lot more forgiving on this stuff than theory is.

About the KEF Ci 200QT -- you can indeed change the angle they go to, but that involves removing the speaker from the wall and adjusting the position of a microswitch. Not hard to do, but it is not as simple as the post implies.