ᐅ Installing ceiling speakers

Hello everyone,

I am currently working on a multiroom audio system and plan to integrate it with Loxone.

Specifically, I want to install ceiling speakers for background music, which will be mounted in suspended ceilings.

I often read online that resonance enclosures are needed to allow the sound to distribute properly.

How have you dealt with this? I like the Magnat IC82 speakers.

Are there any ready-made enclosure boxes available for these?

Looking forward to your answers and recommendations.

Sinus1986

No one with experience? You would really be helping me. The IC 62 are also interesting.

Sinus1986 schrieb:

Often, you read on the internet that a resonator body is necessary for sound to distribute effectively.

You also read about the Bielefeld conspiracy on the internet.

In a guitar, the strings vibrate, and part of these vibrations pass through the sound hole into the resonator body. The resonator body is designed to capture and amplify vibrations within a specific frequency range.

In a loudspeaker, the diaphragm vibrates. Here, it is even essential that the air volumes in front of and behind the diaphragm are separated so that the vibration does not cancel itself out partially.

A loudspeaker requires a defined enclosure volume. An in-wall or in-ceiling speaker without its own enclosure in a car uses the entire door or trunk volume; in a suspended ceiling, it uses the entire cavity between the suspended ceiling and the structural ceiling.

What should be vibrating is the speaker diaphragm. What unintentionally vibrates if there is insufficient stiffening is the panel into which the speaker is installed, as well as all other ceiling elements. These include the ceiling surface panels, the profiles holding the panels, the suspension system rails, and of course the sprinkler pipes. The surface structure of the panels also influences how the sound is diffused.

If you have read up on the basics of electroacoustics, you will find it almost unbelievable that the manufacturer of these models calls them "high-end ceiling speakers." "High-end" and "ceiling speakers" is such a contradiction that the world has never seen—neither in Bielefeld nor anywhere on the internet.

Compared to a kitchen radio, the difference is mainly a more powerful bass. Hi-Fi may be possible with high-quality speakers here, but not high-end by any means.

Spatial music reproduction (stereo) relies on considering the "placement of speakers" as a science in itself. It requires clear responsibilities for the left and right channels. "Surround sound" is by no means less demanding; it is even more complex to balance properly.

A suspended ceiling grid is difficult to reconcile with favorable speaker placement, and the downward radiation direction does not match any concert reality. For mono speakers installed by the dozen per hectare of ceiling space, it is practically certain that the saying "too many cooks spoil the broth" holds true.

The frequency response of the transducers—where Magnat usually does not produce low-quality parts—can only alleviate the overall result (that is, "quality" as a whole) to a very limited extent.

For the analog telephone sound that current radio stations dare to broadcast, however, it is sufficient.

And yes: the quality *ahem* can be relatively improved with enclosures, but do not overload the ceiling structure.

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11ant schrieb:
On the internet, you can also read about the Bielefeld conspiracy.

But you’re not seriously suggesting that Bielefeld actually exists... I don’t know anyone who comes from there anyway.

Well, there is this theory that Bielefeld is only visible from a certain distance and angle, specifically from Paderborn. Or, in the case of low tide, only from Brunsbüttel. But don’t ask me for more technical details—I’m not very familiar with the quantum physics of the circle of fifths. Something to do with a North Sea mirage.

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https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

We are installing a total of 5 Magnat IC82 speakers, but not all in the ceiling—some are also placed in the walls where there isn’t enough space in the ceiling. For example, in the children's bathroom, bottom right next to the toilet. We saw this setup at friends’ place, and it works quite well; visitors are often surprised where the background music is coming from. That’s exactly what they are sufficient for: background music, radio, and important announcements from the KNX bus (messages, alarms, etc.).

Regards, Steffen