Hi all,

Any advice for installing an inceiling subwoofer? I'm putting in a RBH SI 12 next week. The amp will be in the equipment rack. Any tips for room placement, insulating to keep the sound on the lower level?

Any night mares to avoid?

Thanks

JD

I have experience with a Sonance sub, made for the wall. You want to tighten the screws a bit more if you put it in the ceiling, because in doing so you make the metal grille fit more tightly. I did this when reinstalling the grille, which fell out onto the bed during a loud bit of movie.

I hope this sub has its own enclosure. Lack of control of the actual speaker is the only problem with the Sonance. You probably can't insulate AT ALL to keep the sound down, as low frequencies have the most energy and travel the best through the structure. You could pour a couple of inches of concrete all around it, or weld up a box of 1" steel, but otherwise you really can't do much. Except, of course, to have an actual box behind it instead of nothing!

good choice on the rbh product......

having a sub in the ceiling in theory should be ok but we did that same rbh sub in a ceiling for a guy a few years ago.... low end was very weak. in hind sight we should have put an inwall or infloor in.

thank god the customer just had to have it in the ceiling so we were ok.....it was his idea not mine.

it does hace a back box but it will sound flat in the ceiling.

ed

JD,

I'm assuming this is new construction. That's a big back box to retro in.

Is there attic above? How will the speaker be installed after sheetrock, or be serviced?

Isolate the back box from the structure and the sheetrock. Use isolation mounts made of hardened rubber or neoprene to secure the sub enclosure to the wood structure. Set the box back just behind the sheetrock to no sound is transferred to the sheetrock.

You can find neoprene washers and grommets at Home Depot, or fancier stuff here

[Link: soundproofing.org]?

Go to the bottom of the page and check out the Super Soundproofing Hanging Vibration Isolation Pads- 60 Lb load limit. These may be overkill or not be able to fit in your application, but I've used them before to suspend a similar speaker cabinet like the RBH.

Hell, call one of those soundproofing companies, they might be able to help more.

Remember the most important principle; nothing hard (speaker back box MDF) touches nothing hard (the wooden joists, or the screw that attaches the back box to the joists). I've seen guys do a good job of using soft rubber washers and grommets to isolate, only to tighten the mounting screws too much and have the screws touching the speaker enclosure.

Oh, and insulate! Good luck, tell us how it works out.

1/3 or 1/5 away from wall. In a room with ceilings sub 10', you really shouldn't get much different dispersion with ceiling vs. floor placement.

With just one subwoofer, no matter how small the room and how many watts, you can often get weak or overly strong bass depending on the position. I like in-ceiling because we can use a bigger sub than usually will fit in any walls (we use the Bronze 10" in a lot of secondary rooms on the ceilings...)

-Aaron

Did you have much trouble with sound seeping into the rooms above the RBH product?

Thanks,
JD

This is in an unfinished basement.

The subs dimensions are 14 X 9 X 48". The room above is the living room. I will definately use some type of isolation products if we go into the ceiling.

The other option we have is to place it in the cabinet behind the DLP TV. It would be about 4 feet off the ground and fireing up.

Thanks for all your input, I'll let you know how it goes.

We have done the Triad subs in ceiling for distributed audio and theater.

They perform exactly the same as the In Room version because they are built with the same enclosure volume and the driver is sealed into it better than any other in-wall sub.

Using back boxes with subs on an in-wall frame are hit and miss, because you have to get the drywall to sandwich to the face of the box perfectly, and use silicone or liquid nails to make the seal.

Even with all of the extra work, it is not as solid as the Triads where the driver is secured to the over-braced thick MDF baffle with a full gasket, embedded T-nuts and machine screws.

The IW Bronze/10 has a smaller footprint, but requires nearly all the height of a 2x10 joist cavity, and you will have to trim off nails or anything like that protruding down from a subfloor or hardwood installation if they are present. 2x12 joist cavities or larger are no problem.