Recommendations for Ceiling Speakers


So, I moved into a new home that has been pre-wired for ceiling speakers in my living room and media room.  I have a few questions:  The LR has 10' ceilings, windows on one wall, and open to the kitchen and dining room.  Due to the layout and Mom's wishes, I can't use floor speakers in the LR.  We primarily watch TV in the LR.  I would appreciate recommendations for ceiling speakers.  I really don't want to use a soundbar if I can avoid it.

My media room is 12 1/2' x 18' with 10' ceilings.  The room has a platform towards the back that is 100" wide and 6+' deep.  It holds a couch and two chairs.  The entrance is just left of the platform.  I want to purchase at least two new floor standing speakers, perhaps a center speaker and want to know whether I can use the ceiling rears as my surround speakers.  Due to the doorway and the limited space remaining on the platform, I don't have room for stand mounted surround speakers.  Finally, can the front ceiling speakers be used as atmos type speakers?  The current ceiling speakers in the media room are Pioneer Elites 130 W, 6 ohm.  I suspect they are 7 years old; the age of the house.

Thanks
Dave
128x128djtunes
We are a professional Theater design company. To answer your questions, you can get fabulous sound with in-ceiling speakers providing you are using the right ones.

We have done several complete in-ceiling theaters that our clients loved.

Our standard design protocall for 90% of our Home Theaters is to use conventional box loudspeakers for left, right and center, speakers, with in-ceiling loudspeakers for the rear effects channels as well as for Atmos useage.

Using in ceiling loudspeakers for rears is very desirable as your rear effects should be diffusive, and by mounting the speakers in the ceiling does a great job of putting the speakers in the optimum position for this application.

For the Rev Run Theater we used all KEF THX loudpeakers and the sound was fantastic. So for the people who think you can't get great theater sound with in ceiling loudspeakers don't belive them.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/58319891@N08/albums/72157650239108910

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ



i have Totem in our Sunroom, excellent sound and they make inwall subs also....
room is canteliver over Puget Sound with 32’ of glass windowed wall, so speakers blocking verbotten by war department....
ours run on moderate NAD power w Bluesound source and they rock with finesse IMO.......hard to improve on tge sunset, but they do
After a familyroom remodel my better half “recommended “ we do away with the idea of floorstanders or bookshelf on stands therefore my search began for a competent in ceiling setup. Ultimately ended up with B&W 7 series as mains, 6 series for rears, CC6s2 for center, JL Audio e-112 built in to custom cabinet. Power is Yamaha RX-A3060. Source is streamed Tidal and Oppo UDP-203. Room size is 14’ wide, 35’ long, 8’ ceilings. Both music and movies sound darn good for an invisible system. 
If it was me, I would choose JBL's ceiling speaker because JBL was so famous for the good music speakers. JBL's ceiling loudspeakers for extremely good sound, warm bass. In addition, you can refer to some of TOA's ceiling speaker models as here: https://khangphudataudio.com/loa-am-tran-toa. However, TOA loudspeaker models tend to favor more workshops.