I am interested in installing a music distribution system in my condo. I am looking at a Russound CAM6.6X system with five zones. I was going to look at in ceiling speakers for the system.

My questions are as follows:

1. Does anyone have an opinion on the Russound system? I am looking at having access to XM and access to my ipod collection in each room. Does anyone have any other system suggestions?

2. I want to place the speakers in the ceiling, I live in a condo with a neighbor upstairs. If I place the speaker in the ceiling, will my neighbor start complaining of the noise? The beams in the ceiling are about 18 inches tall to the subfloor of the neighbor. Maybe this is paranoid but I don't want to put in the system and then not use it. I don't listen to my music at loud levels, so it is not like I am trying to blow my neighbors out or anything.

3. Are there any ways to insulate the sound from the neighbors with insulation or other means?

Any suggestions would help and I am new at this as you can probably tell.

Thanks for your inputs.

Regards,

matt

I don’t have any experience with that system, but I am an owner of an 8 zone/4 source Matrix system. I have used PSB ceiling speakers in my home (retail in Canada, about $200+ each) Some zones I have 4 speakers, in one other I have used only 2 speakers.

Here are some ramblings:

Key pads are a must have;
the Pronto remote is only one of others that may work your system (check out Harmony remotes as well);
I am a bit of an audiophile, so I wouldn’t use ceiling speakers for critical stereo listening in your theatre room, nor would I use ceiling speakers in the theatre room for surround sound effect; ceiling speakers (imo) are a bit too light for good bass effect as well in your theatre room.
I don’t missed the bass in the rest of the house so much;
Systems that can draw on more than one source at the same time is great as well.
If you have black/brown outs, get a surge protector.
Consider a media computer to install within your system;

I don’t quite have 18" of room between floors, but this is the set up that I have:
Pink insulation between the floor joists;
Air space, about 6";
Then where I have a dropped ceiling , I have more pink (2") on top of the acoustic tiles.
This seems to be good sound insulation. The only trouble spot is above the excersise room which is not a dropped ceiling. This is under our walk-in closet, and it seems to rattle quite a bit. This room is drywall ceiling and is screwed right to the floor joists, so the transfer of sound is unfortunately quite good.

Hope this helps you out.