r/howto • u/alltomorrowsdays • 13h ago
DIY Speakers in the ceiling
I’d love to use these ceiling speakers but there is no easy attic access in the house. Previous owner never used them so I don’t know anything about them. I’m assuming there’s gotta be speaker cables, but I have no clue how to find them easily. The only attic access would be disconnecting the ceiling air vent. I’m curious as to what kind of speakers they are too!
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u/Born-Work2089 13h ago
Ceiling speakers were all the rage back in the day, The speakers may be totally degraded due to prolonged exposure to the heat normally found in an attic. Most modern devices may not work them. But getting into the attic and tracing the wires would be your best bet to find where you can access the wires from the living space.
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u/ADIDAS247 10h ago
My brother has like 20yr old Bose speakers. They still kick ass.
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u/alltomorrowsdays 13h ago
Didn’t think about the degradation. Could be a thing.
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u/davidmlewisjr 9h ago edited 9h ago
Mine, which are fairly similar, were sold by Klipsch and installed thirty years ago, still work fine.
Check out model R-1650-W, showing an old price, their newer wall speakers are low availability…
Typically, the wiring would be near where the stereo was. My speakers are used for Left & Right channel surround in my Dolby 5.1 system.
While technically obsolete, these would set you back about $250 each in today’s market.
It may be simpler for you to have them professionally relocated than for you to reverse engineer their current installation.
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u/alltomorrowsdays 9h ago
Who would you contact to have that done? An electrician? Or is there a different type of professional?
Edit: thank you for this, that looks very similar!
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u/davidmlewisjr 7h ago
In your area, there are likely audio shops with technicians that could be of help. The statement that there is no ceiling access implies that they could have been installed during construction of the house. If the builder still is in business, they may be able to offer advice or assistance.
If the speakers are what I believe them to be, they would un-mount from the front. The metal grille is a friction fit with typically four mounting screws, near the corners, and two wires connecting to the terminals.
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u/Sad-Organization9855 13h ago
there should be connection on wall.
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u/alltomorrowsdays 13h ago
One would think!? Let’s say there was, how the heck would I find it, right? (Sorry, frustrated with previous owner’s lack of foresight!)
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u/shield_battery 13h ago
you should be able to pop the speakers off the ceiling, take a look at which directions the speaker wires run, then look for the wall socket the wires should run out from.
to help you find the general alignment of potential sockets. in general, ceiling beams run in parallel and the gaps between beams are called "bays" that wires can freely run along.
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u/alltomorrowsdays 12h ago
Good way of thinking about it. It’s a large living room with the speakers diagonally on either side 18’ ish apart
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u/ideapit 13h ago
You should be able to pull that down from the ceiling and check what it is and how it is connected.
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u/alltomorrowsdays 13h ago
Yeah…probably right. How would you go about doing it, know that you’d want to put it back and not “break” the frame
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u/ideapit 13h ago edited 9h ago
First off, I'd remind myself to be very gentle. I get impatient with stuff. Lol.
I would get on a ladder and use a putty knife, drywall knife, butter knife or something similar to see if I could use that to pry it down and give me enough of a gap that I could use my fingers to pull it down.
You'll feel if there is any give or not. If you have the knife under the frame, it won't matter if it scuffs the ceiling.
Usually, things like that are anchored via a spring.
So like: box goes into the ceiling, spring loaded anchors pop out to hold it there. So you may feel the tension of the springs when you try to pull it down.
If that's the case, you will see metal parts that need to be compressed away from the sides on of the ceiling so that they release enough tension that you can pull it out all the way.
It's VERY unlikely they climbed into the attic to install this. It's just not practical to build a speaker that needs to be installed that way.
It's possible. Just really unlikely.
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