Inceiling Speaker Install Audio Concepts Bflat Coax 8quot

Writen by Kyle Kolbe

This weekend I finally got around to finishing my Audio Concepts B-Flat Coax 8" in-ceiling surround speaker install. I detached the B-Flats from their ceiling mount and stuffed fiberglass insulation (the cotton candy kind, rated R13) in the cavity between ceiling joists. According to the B-Flat installation instructions and in-ceiling/wall tips elsewhere, the insulation should improve sound quality. The end result was not what I expected.

Surround satellite speakers in multi-purpose rooms have always been a problem. Where do you run the long lengths of cable? I've tried wireless speaker systems at various frequency and have never heard anything but static. You can try running your speaker cable along your baseboard or even opt for a raceway system like those sold at Cable Organizer. What if you have to jump a doorway, opening to another room or get around a large fireplace's brick façade? In-ceiling and in-wall speaker installs have the highest wife-acceptance-factor (WAF) because of their invisibility. You get to run your speaker cable inside the wall then to the attic and then back down inside a wall to the speaker.

My in-wall speaker needs first arose with the set-up of my living room home theater in my new house. I had the TV and equipment cabinet against the north wall and needed to get surround sound behind the sofa sectional on the east and west walls. To the east I needed to pass a bank of three windows to the wall area behind our chair-and-a-half. The west side was not so simple. The north end of the living room opened up to our dining room, presenting a 10 ft gap to traverse with no moulding or other architecture to hide wires behind. The living room's west wall has about six feet before the kitchen's east entrance. I could hide speaker cable along the east side's baseboard run. I could do the same on the west side if I ran the wire around the dining room, over the north kitchen entrance, then onto the baseboard of the west wall. This amounted to more cable than I was willing to buy and install.

Running in wall speaker wire through my attic looked like the best solution. Unfortunately, I have no desire to venture into the attic with its past or present wasp nest, blown in insulation and cross beam obstacle course. The trap door to the attic is in the ceiling at the south end of the house opposite the living room. I can't imagine stepping from ceiling joist to joist without putting a foot through the ceiling. Could I find a compromise between invisible in wall wiring and easy but ugly along the baseboard wire?

DeCorp Dewire is a "thinner than a business card" ribbon of speaker cable that is first glued to your wall or ceiling and then spackled, sanded and painted over for a virtually invisible cable installation. I measured the two runs to my proposed surround speaker locations on either side of the living room. I ordered the Dewire flat speaker cable, their special spray glue, spackle and banana plug and pin terminations. The Dewire would run straight up my wall, across the ceiling and the down each side wall to connect to the speakers. This the same route the in-wall attic run would make but without the attic.

After some searching of the major home electronics magazines and review sites I found little in the way affordable in-wall speaker recommendations. The Audio Asylum and AVS Forum communities pointed me toward the Audio Concepts B-Flat 8" Coaxial In-wall loudspeakers. For under $200 the B-Flat's promised performance rivaling $1000 in-walls.

After the careful purchase of the surround speakers, the invisible speaker cable and a drywall saw, I failed to ever install the speakers. Other home projects' precedence was my excuse. Really, I just dreaded the thought of gluing the cable to the wall and ceiling, and then plastering over the wire sloppily and making a mess of my wall. My lack of experience with a trowel and spackle knife paralyzed me.

Months passed. I avoided watching any movies that promised a dynamic and exciting surround mix. I was stuck with stereo. My wife and I endured one romantic comedy after another. Then everything changed.

We refinanced our house last summer including an equity line of credit. My wife got to upgrade our kitchen, hallway bathroom and lighting while I got to build a humble front projection home theater in half of our basement's rec room.

In this new home theater I could use the B-Flat in-walls as in-ceilings. An in-ceiling install rated high on the WAF scale. Electricians ran the Dewire flat speaker cable through ceiling and out through the square holes they cut for the B-Flats. I was not using the Dewire as intended (glued to a wall and hidden under spackle and paint just like a drywall seam), but I already invested nearly $200 and the Dewire does the same job as in-wall rated speaker cable.

I installed the B-Flats myself after the electricians finished the more difficult hole cutting and wire running part of the process. I simply tightened the four screw posts at each corner. The screws will rotate a clamp that catches and holds the other side of the drywall or ceiling board until tight. An electric screwdriver will speed the tightening of the long screws. You have to balance the coaxial speaker driver and surround in one hand while you tighten the four screws. The only bad part of this process was the extra heat near the ceiling. I was sweaty. I was careful not to over-tighten the screws as the clamp mechanism was all plastic and the ceiling board can easily be crushed back to ripped paper and drywall dust.

Next I calibrated with the Avia Guide to Home Theater DVD. Avia's 85 db test tones proved stressful for the B-Flats. I detected some clipping when I bumped up the surrounds' levels to reference level. The clipping is not an issue while watching a DVD or playing a video game. I never raise the volume of the Onkyo TX-DS989 AV receiver above -15 db (0 is reference). The initial calibration pushed the surround levels to +6.5 and +7 (the front stereo channels are set to +4)

After stripping out of my insulation protective gear (gloves, painter's cap, safety goggles, respirator and Tyvek cover-alls), I recalibrated the surround sound channel balance. To my surprise, the surround levels needed another decibel to reach reference level. I thought they would need less power with the insulation's damping.

Of course, I have only run the test tones through the B-Flats. I haven't had the chance to listen to any DVDs yet to see if my insulation made a difference. I am hoping what loudness I lost is gained in clarity, tonal accuracy and imaging.

Father, Husband and Geek. My geeky interests have not changed since I was a kid. I still love comic books, anime, role-playing games, console video games, indie rock, imported toys and mecha models, bad American and great British sitcoms, and all the tech that let's me experience these hobbies to their fullest. Now that I'm married with children, I've had to strike a balance between supporting and pleasing my family and feeding my geekery hunger. Lucky for me, my wife is very accomodating and even geeks out with me on occasion (the ladies love Joss Whedon's "Firefly"). My two year old likes anything that moves on the front projection screen and makes noise, so far she is easy to please. Geekwithfamily.com exists to enrich the lives of fellow geeks and the friends and family who put up with them.

Home Theater Installation Two Options

Writen by Lee Dobbins

If you want to update the interior of your home, one of your best options is to install a home theater. But if this sounds like something that interests you, there are a couple of options that you will need to consider. Home theater installation can be done in one of two ways.

First off, if you are looking to save money and are the handy man type, you may want to consider installing your own home theater. This is not a difficult task if you have a little bit of skill, as well as some patience. In most cases, you will be able to complete most jobs with ease. Where you may run into a problem is when you are trying to wire your system. The best way to get around this is by following the directions to a T. This way, you do not get off course and you are ensured of a 100% accurate job upon completion.

When you install your own home theater, you have a lot of options as to what equipment to buy. You can purchase a "home theater in a box" setup which provides you with everything you need. This is a great idea of you don't know what components you want or you simply want the convenience of one stop shopping and the assurance that all your components will fit and work together.

If you prefer to buy the pieces separate then you should do some research before hitting the stores. Perhaps you have a favorite piece you want for your home theater - if this is a must have you should figure that into your budget first and then go looking for the other pieces that will fit into the remainder of your budget. Checking out components at a few different stores before you jump in and buy can help you get a better deal and a better understanding of what you want.

If you do not want to install your own home theater for one reason or the next, you should check into having a professional do the job for you. Most of the time, whoever you buy your equipment from will also be able to set everything up for you. The main advantage of having a professional complete the project is that you know the job will be done correctly. Also, they can make suggestions as to what sort of set up you should use. The only downside to hiring a professional is that you will have to pay for their services.

Overall, home theater installation is not a difficult task. You can either take the job on yourself, or get the help of the professional. Either way, make sure that the job gets done correct, and your room is set up exactly how you envisioned it.

Lee Dobbins writes for http://www.home-theater.home-webzone.com where you can find out more about home theater components and setup as well as home theater installation.

Dont Trust Digital Camcorder Reviews

Writen by Mark Sturge

A couple years ago (ok, more than a few), I became really interested in buying a digital camcorder. Like most people new to the trade, I wanted to purchase the latest digital camcorder that featured the best technology. I always enjoyed looking at the flashy camcorder magazines to check out pictures, and read articles and reviews on the latest camcorders.

However, once I became serious about wanting to buy one, it suddenly occurred to me, as I was reading the magazine reviews, that almost every single one had a positive slant. Virtually every review I read, discussed only the benefits and cool features of the camcorders.

All of these good reviews made me realize that what I was reading was biased information designed as a marketing tool. The content within these articles and reviews was nothing more than eye candy for techies. Essentially, aside from stats (which I could barely make heads or tails of) the magazine reviews actually provided very little information about the quality and practicality of the camcorder.

So, to test my theory on my favorite "flashy magazine", I plugged in the names of the few digital camcorders that interested me into a search engine. Low and behold I found genuine reviews from consumers who had actually purchased the cameras and expressed their real opinions about the product. What did I discover with my research? I learned that my first digital camcorder choice actually only received a "good" video quality rating from most users. This was a much different result compared to the "excellent" rating it was given by the magazine. Naturally, my attitude toward this digital camcorder changed, and I began investigating other models.

What I learned as I began conducting my digital camcorder review research was that while the stats of the camera matter, they aren't the most important part of a review. Until you actually purchase the digital camcorder and compare it to another camcorder, or an older model, you won't know if the digital camcorder is true to its hype. In other words, most of the fancy stats mean squat to the average consumer who knows very little about digital camcorder technology.

Think about it, if you know very little about digital camcorders and a review only provides you with technical details and a product description, how will you know if the camcorder will suit your intended use?

For instance, observe the following example that has been based on an actual digital camcorder review:

The digital camcorder captures fantastic videos and stills. It is compact, lightweight and capable. The Camcorder features a 4x digital zoom, an internal 16MB flash memory with external SD/MMC card slot (supports up to 1 GB) and a 3.2-megapixel CCD image sensor. The digital camcorder has an image resolution of 1280x960, 1600x1200 and 2048x1536, and records MPEG-4 movies. The digital camcorder also has a 1.8" TFT monitor, NTSC/PAL TV out format, and USB 1.1 PC connection.

Did that mean anything to you? Do you know whether or not you need all of those features, or if you have the right equipment to accommodate the camcorder? If you're like me, and technical stats make your eyes cross, here's what you need to do to ensure that the digital camcorder you buy is ideal for your needs.

First and foremost, avoid getting sucked in by all technical flare such as the lab/bench tests, color/lines of resolution etc. Look for quality reviews that will tell you what purpose the camera is ideal for, and the type of person it will likely suit.

Thus, if you are looking for honest camcorder reviews, direct your browser to sites that sell these products such as Amazon.com and find out what people who actually purchased these products had to say about them in the user comments section. Here you will not only receive a consumer "five-star rating", but also find out what they liked and didn't like about the camera.

Mark Sturge is the owner of KMS Productions and webmaster at kmsvideo.com. A site where visitors can find digital camcorder reviews such as the canon xl2 digital camcorder as well as useful hints and tips to better their filming techniques.