Speaker height vs ceiling height

get 7 foot 1 inch speakers, then you can use them to support the ceiling...dual purpose

Why people bother to waste time posting when they have nothing useful to share? Worse when they are cynical about a perfectly genuine question

Ihcho,
I believe if speakers is too near to ceiling , it's similar to placing speakers too near to sidewall. There are a lot of software to help u to check out room mode issues with such close placement to ceiling

Take a joke.
Having said that there are tall speakers that beam in narrow fashion like a Electrostat so there is no easy answer. There is a huge difference in how a Planar, Electrostat and a Dynamic behaves.

Ihcho,
There is no exact answer, If the speakers had an ever so slight tilt downward, you might get away with 5 ft to 5 1/2 ft, but in general I agree with Audioblazer. A boundry must be considered. Again, in general I would say 4 1/2 foot max. Depending on dispersion patterns of the speaker you choose and even how far your seating position is and how loud you listen, this could change.

Height is not nearly as big of factor as length and width are. For someone to say you could not put a 6ft speaker in a 7ft tall room is making a way to blanket statement. IMO.

Thanks all. Looks like things are more complicated than I thought. I would not try anything taller than 5 foot.

Chad,
most room mode calculators treat the ceiling as just another surface . It may absorb more energy than say.....a slab floor or sheetrock wall, but still and all, you must treat it with respect.
Construction makes a big difference.

The mitigation is the order of drivers. Tweeter at top of a TALL speaker may interact more with the ceiling while the woofer at the bottom, may interact more with the floor.

He may be able to get away with a tall line source?

I do not really qualify to address the issue, but intuitively I would certainly leave couple of feet between speakers and ceiling for dynamic speakers. Panels might tolerate less space above them, I guess. And horns...I have no idea.

My basement ceiling is about the same height as yours.
My speakers are 5' with no problems.
Don't think I would try anything taller in a speaker, but I could be wrong.
BTW - Which 6' speakers were you thinking of?

I really do not believe tall speakers are an issue. I have owned 8' tall electrostatic speakers and 6' tall dynamic speakers without any problems. Most of the really tall dynamic speakers place their drivers in a D'Appolito configuration, so the midrange and tweeters are not close to the ceiling anyway. Having the speaker near room bounderies (floor and ceiling) supports bass response and I seldom hear anyone complain about too much bass.

Yes, there can be too much bass, easily. In smaller room.

The size of the cabinet is not the issue; it is the position of the driver within the cabinet relative to the boundary that causes a concern.

Radiation patterns are effected by room boundaries. So radiation pattern should be considered when near ceiling etc. A dipole with figure 8 radiation would work quite well as would line arrays or horns designs.

I would think you want to avoid early reflections of ceiling similar to walls. Usually there is less distance to work with in regards to ceiling and floor than walls even.

I like to keep my speakers as low to the ground as possible but also with adequate elevation from floor. Having drivers as close to listening position elevation or slightly below is probably a good practice in general.

Tall line arrays might be a different story, but good ones that tall will cost a fortune.

Vertical dispersion in lines planars and stats work often in lower rooms. From what my ears say atleast.

Map,
You sure got that right! I heard Audience speakers...the 2+2 at THE in Newport a couple months ago.
5 large, but really special.....

Right in back was the line array of 16 (count 'em.....16) idential drivers. I didn't bother to ask

you know what, take advantage of the situation & use the lower height of your ceiling to make your speakers a line-array-like speaker. Line array speakers use the floor & ceiling to make them appear as an infinite baffle speaker. So, if you get a speaker with a radiation pattern that can make use of the floor & ceiling you'd have a fantastic soundstage height (& depth if you do this right). Line arrays do not have to cost a fortune (but they can). Check out VMPS speakers & those from Selah Audio:
http://www.vmpsaudio.com/
http://www.selahaudio.com/id73.html

I happen to own VMPS FF3 SRE speakers in a drop ceilng basemant and at 68in tall with the ribbon mids they work great in my 14x24 room.