Bathroom Ceiling Speakers

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We're renovating our bathroom, and i want to mount a speaker in the ceiling.

Ultimately i want to stream music from a phone or PC via BT (or AirPlay).

Now if its passive, i can buy an amp & BT module, but are there AIO units? Active speakers with BT perhaps.

It's going to be in a bathroom, so exposed to steam from a shower etc...

Any advice/tips? Want decent SQ, but obviously the room acoustics don't lend to much really...
 
When i renovated, I installed 2 Kef ceiling speakers. These were cable ran to the cupboard next door and terminated to a banana plug faceplate. I then put a Sonos Connect:AMP in there. Would recommend doing this if you have a room next door with a cupboard or something, so you don't need to have the device in the bathroom.

They are absolutely superb, especially with something like Sonos. As I have other zones, including hooked up to TV etc, I can continue listening to live football on say Sky whilst I take a dump, have Five Live on in the morning as I shower etc. Girlfriend loves it too (of course women don't do dumps...)

Total cost was around £450 if I remember, with the Sonos AMP taking up the bulk of the cost.
 
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Interesting.

Haven't gone Sonos yet, instead using AirPlay & Airport Extremes. But i'd be interested in the speaker model you used, diameter and sound quality...
 
I went for KEF Ci50R which are not much bigger than a GU10 down light in size.

They are absolutely fine and SQ is good enough for the bathroom but lack bass. If I was to do it again I would go for their larger speakers instead.

Use them daily and had no problems
 
The Kefs sound good if used with the inceiling sub. That gives them the bass that the little satellite speakers alone are lacking. It's probably better suited to a dining kitchen though as it's a bit OTT for a bathroom.

With the correct speakers though you can have sound that rivals most £150/pr Hi-Fi speakers. Good treble, and decent bass. If that's what you want then 6.5" is where it's at.

I've used 4" for corridors where the sound quality and bass is less important. 5"~5.5" are okay for secondary areas; utility rooms, changing areas etc. They've got the top and midrange but just lack a bit in the bass. At 6.5" you've got the bass cone size where the speaker sounds good for bass even at low volume. It's a much richer tone. This helps a lot in rooms that are naturally bright sounding because there's lots of hard reflective surfaces.

Bathrooms rarely need large stereo inceiling speakers though. Have a look at the Single Point Stereo speakers instead. It's two tweeters for L&R, and a single bass unit all in one housing. It's wired in stereo, so two speaker cables are used.

These are some of my installs with single point stereo speakers in bathrooms.

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About £150~£250 for the speaker is about the right price range to get Hi-Fi performance. I like the Kinetik Labs brand but you won't find them so much on the high street because they're more exclusive for custom install. I scooped the last dozen sets at a good price before the latest model revision. They work lovely with the Sonos amp player and the £50 saving means they'd cost the same as a pair of Ci50Rs. Kef, Monitor Audio, Speakercraft and others all make single point stereo speakers. Each brand has a good/better/best tiered product range. Going for the mid price models in most ranges gets you the best performance for your money.
 
Thanks Lucid, very helpful.

As its a bit of a minefield, what would you suggest upto the £150 mark?

Bathroom is going to floor & wall tiled, so very hard surfaces. Fabric blind on window, and maybe some mat on the floor. its a 6'x6' bathroom, so not very big, but i can't be doign with tinny treble & no mid/bass.

I have seen Yamaha, Polk Audio, Kef & Speakercraft, but as you say they all have different ranges, and i wouldn't know if a base Kef is equivalent to say a middlie Polk...

Need to move quite quickly, so appreciate any advice, even if its to sell me a Kinetik!
 
For what you want I wouldn't buy anything under £150 because I don't think you're getting the right product. Spending another £10/£20 makes a significant difference to the performance.

Here's a quick round-up

Under £150

Monitor Audio Monitor Audio CT165 T2 (£135). Nice tweeters, excellent construction. Bit bass-shy though (60Hz) and at 6 Ohms it need a bit more amp muscle to start working. Verdict 3/5

Q Acoustics P160C ST (£130) Completely and utterly outclassed by the Monitor Audio. Low efficiency. Very bass-light. Under-spec'd tweeters. End of story. Verdict 1/5​

Over £150

Kinetik E160 ICS (£159) - Good spec, Decent efficiency, 8 Ohm impedance, composite woofer and pivoting 1" Hi-Fi silk dome tweeters, joint best bass extension of the group (45Hz), low power requirements, 5 year warranty. Verdict 4.5/5

BluCube CXCL 650 (£165) - Great spec. Decent efficiency, 8 Ohm impedance, Kevlar woofer and pivoting 3/4" titanium tweeters*, joint best bass extension of the group (45Hz), low power requirements, 5 year warranty. *Would be nice to have 1" tweeters. Verdict 5/5

Q Acoustics QI65CP St (£165) Once again, completely outclassed by lower cost alternatives. Low efficiency. Very bass-light. Under-spec'd tweeters. Verdict 1/5

Yamaha NS-ICS600 (£179) - Limited spec details and poor bass response. Not a bad speaker but nothing here to justify the extra cost compared to the Monitor Audio at £135. Verdict 2/5

Monitor Audio CT180-T2 (£180) - Nice tweeters, biggest woofer in the group (8") but oddly not the best bass extension. 6 Ohms impedance means it need a bit more amp muscle to start working. Verdict 4/5​

This isn't everything in the market as I'm sure there's other products out there that aren't on my radar. But it's a reasonable overview.

If it was my money then the BluCube CXCL 650 would get my vote, then the Kinetic.
 
lucid said:
For what you want I wouldn't buy anything under £150 because I don't think you're getting the right product. Spending another £10/£20 makes a significant difference to the performance.

Here's a quick round-up

*snip*
Click to expand...

Lucid, thanks for the write-up. I'm looking for a stereo bathroom speaker and your summary is perfect!
 
Missed the delivery today Lucid, but hoping to pick it up tomorrow, thanks for your time and help!

Lined up an old Pioneer amp my brother had, which was a few hundred pounds in the late 80s/early 90s, so i'll see how that compares before install, if not i'll take your advice.
 
Anotehr thanks you rom me as am lookig for speakers for my main bathroom and en-suite in my new build and htis has helped me tremendously.

Will be going down the Sonos route eventually with an amp for each room, so will have double cable runs for each put in during build.

Also looking to see what you do with regards ot the fire rating too.

Edit:- Just looking at specs for the speaker and found this with regard to fire hoods....
 
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Firestar_3x said:
Lucid, what do you do about the fire rating side of things?
Click to expand...

If this is to do with fire hoods, then what I understand is:

If your ceiling speakers are to be installed to a ceiling where there is another floor above (e.g. installed in a ground floor bathroom where there is a first floor bedroom directly above) then you'll need a fire hood encasing the ceiling speaker, so that in the event of a fire, the fire hoods maintain the fire separation between the floors.

If your ceiling speakers are installed to a ceiling where there is only a roof above, then you don't need a hood because the fire can't spread upwards into another enclosed habitable space.

Please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong, because i don't plan to use a fire hood to my ceiling speaker.
 
The speakers themselves should be fire rated. All the decent brands are. I can't say if the Chinese made no-name brands are though. We know that unscrupulous Chinese manufacturers bend or simply ignore safety standards on other products. Who knows about those cheap Ebay speakers?

Anyway, the speaker should at least provide the same minimum level of fire protection as a single sheet of plasterboard. That means they'll take at least 30 minutes to burn through, same as a 9.5mm/12mm plasterboard ceiling. They should maintain the fire retention integrity of the ceiling.

Beyond that there's some additional requirements depending on whether there is a living space above.

If the speaker are going in the room below a bedroom or other living space then they need a secondary form of fire protection. We use firehoods for this and fit them and the speakers using an intemescent sealant to provide additional protection from smoke, heat and flames.
 
I'd like to add my thanks, never heard of the BluCube range before now. Think I'm going to go for a 650-S for the bathroom in my new build, and 3 of the LCR and 2 of the normal 650 for our lounge. Hope they live up to expectations! Wish I didnt have to wait 4/5months until our house is finished to find out!
 
Guys I'd strongly advise getting in touch with Lucid, he did me a corking deal. Speaker arrived, but am yet to plug it in (even when i do it will still be a month or more before it goes into the ceiling.

Looks the part though, and was very well packed!
 
1pudding1 said:
I'd like to add my thanks, never heard of the BluCube range before now. Think I'm going to go for a 650-S for the bathroom in my new build, and 3 of the LCR and 2 of the normal 650 for our lounge. Hope they live up to expectations! Wish I didnt have to wait 4/5months until our house is finished to find out!
Click to expand...

Are you sure you want to go inceiling for your home cinema?
 
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