I'm doing a basement renovation and including a home theatre area with a 58" plasma; AND a Panasonic PTAE2000 Cinema Projector on a 106" screen.

 I have an Onkyo TH605 receiver......and a Mirage Omni S8 sub-woofer.  My question is the other 7 speakers.....

 My installer is recommending 7 Omnican 6 speakers in the ceiling.  I have no problem with Omnican 6 for the center and rear; but I'm wondering if three Omnican 6 ceiling speakers across the front is appropriate?  Or should I have more traditional front left, front center, and front right speakers behind thin grillcloth in the cabinetry??

Hi iluvnascar,

Normally I would recommend conventional Mirage omnipolar all around.   If you must, use Omnican for surrounds only.

Using in-ceiling speakers is NEVER going to be as good as conventional "box" (omnipolar included). Omnicans work better than most in-ceiling anyway but sounds that are happening in "front" are inevitably coming from "above" . . . . . a truly confusing scenario.As I said above, in-ceiling speakers are ok when used as surrounds.

However it would not be a wise idea to enclose a Mirage Omnipolar speaker within a cabinet. In this case I would use some more traditional front firing models that would fit. If you are going to conceal them with grille cloth anyway, then don't bother buying high end well finished systems as the money you are spending for that exquisite finish is lost. There are tons of well priced speakers out there.

DON'T take an installers word for it either!! LISTEN yourself! And trust your own ears!!!

Thanks for your comment......

I agree - I wasn't comfortable with seven (7) Omnican ceiling speakers.  After discussion with tech reps at Klitsch.....I decided to go with Omnican for the centre and rear........and a mini-centre and two bookshelf speakers from "Energy".  The rep thought it would be great....

Hi,

Nice little system you put together.  I am sure you will enjoy it a lot.

Just wanted to share my thought on using some OMNICANs across the front with you.  I experienced multiple OMNICAN theater set-ups that simply blew me away (or other OMNIGUIDE based speakers when mounted to the ceiling for that matter).  The OMNICANs work in particular well when you use them in a standard size rooms with relatively low ceilings (8 or 9ft).  I personally had them installed in my basement theater for a while and "projected" them of a 102" screen painted with "goo".  I mounted them about 2.5ft in front of the screen and experimented with several different angles on how to aim the tweeter (you need to rotate the entire speaker).  I was shocked how good they sounded.  Dialog was perfectly centered on the screen and 2-channel stereo was most impressive.  And having had a 2 year old running around at that time it was absolutely priceless to get the speakers out of his reach...    ;)

Cheers,

Martin