I'm posting this under Theater Construction because my question really deals with the best options for mounting the speakers themselves, hopefully that is ok. You'll notice from my pictures that there is about 4ft behind the screen wall to mount the front speakers. The budget is around $1200 for a 5.1 (I'll get the side surrounds later) and I haven't purchased them yet. My initial thought was to make cutouts for each speaker and make something from behind to stabilize each one. I did find a post or two on here that mentioned this could negatively affect the sound quality and gave lots of technical reasons why. After looking at lots of pictures of your theaters, it appears people either put them on stands in the theater, which I am really trying to avoid, or they build custom floor to ceiling enclosures of some kind to enclose the speakers. This is definitely a possibility down the road but at this point I need to make due. Oh, the screen size will be 106" which should leave enough room on both sides for the left and right. Center will go underneath.

In the attached picture, my riser is not completed yet and is at the wrong end of the theater. It belongs over where I'm taking the picture.

Any thoughts or ideas on mounting would be greatly appreciated!

Tom

I have a thread on in-cabinet speakers in the speaker forum. CHeck it out, it lists all speaker that are built for cabinets. Some are expensive, some are relatively cheap.

Esentially, people will post that most speakers are not designed to be put in cabinets and they are partially correct.

Im doing mine into the wall.....

http://www.penngray.com/HTRoom/HT%20Wall%201.JPG

Any speakers that have Baffle Compensation (Google it) will sound different when put into a cabinet. Different doesnt mean bad. I have had Klipsch and Paradigms in cabinets in the past and there simply isnt enough different to care. Both are front ported speakers though. If anything I wouldnt put rear-ported speakers in cabinets, although if you really want to, then put foam or a sock on the rear port. You will eliminate the low end freq on the speaker but your mid and highs will be still okay.

Thanks Penngray...I'll look up more about the baffle compensation.

Here are the speakers I auditioned that I liked:

Center (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7973525&type=product&id=1157067061166)
Fronts (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7973552&type=product&id=1157067061370)

It looks like the ports are on the front for the center and the rear for the other two. I am definitely at a loss for what to buy and how to mount them. :(

The good news is the projector, screen, receiver and lighting are all done!

With 4 feet behind the screen wall, have you considered the "standard" AVS method of building a false, fabric-covered wall to hang the screen? Sounds like you would have plenty of space behind that to put any speakers you wanted, in just about any configuration, on any kind of stand.

You mention trying to avoid building "custom floor to ceiling enclosures" to save time and money, but the reality is that it's just not that complicated. Basically, it's a simply framed partition wall that gets a surface of stretched acoustically transparent fabric instead of sheetrock. The area behind this gets drywalled normally, and then will often get a layer of duct insulation to prevent the sound from bouncing around.

And that's pretty much it. Allows you to use any speakers you want, hidden with virtually no degradation in sound quality, and that clean, pro look. There are so many great examples of this method in action on the forum, but you can quickly hit my build link and scan thru pages 3-4 to see what I'm talking about.

Here are the speakers I auditioned that I liked:

I have the Klipsch RB-81s in a room, I have always like them! btw, klipsch speakers are not rear-ported, are those rear-ported? I havent checked out the ones at BB in a long time.

btw, $1200 is pretty low for 5.1 but if I had that as a budget I would buy the following from elemental design.

http://www.edesignaudio.com/htpackage.php

5.1 System Contents

A6 - 6T6 - MTM PairA3 - 5TC - Bookshelf PairA6 - 5T5 - MTM Pair Please select the main speakers for your 5.1 system
A6 - 5T5 - MTM SingleA6 - 6T6 - MTM Single Please select the center channel speaker for your 5.1 system
A6 - 6T6 - MTM PairA3 - 5TC - Bookshelf PairA6 - 5T5 - MTM Pair Please select the rear speakers for your 5.1 system
A3 - 300 SubwooferA3 - 250 SubwooferA2 - 250 SubwooferA7 - 700 SubwooferA5 - 350 SubwooferA7 - 450 SubwooferA7 - 900 SubwooferA2 - 300 SubwooferA7S - 450 Subwoofer Please select the subwoofer for your 5.1 system

its under $1200 and eD has great subs!!! and the MTM will be better then those cheap klipsch. I honestly think that is a great start for you!!!

Also you dont need a AT (acoustical Transparent) screen just build the frame @ 4 feet from the wall, put the screen on it and place the speakers at the sides and below behind AT material like GOM fabric. You can use any speaker with this method also.