in-ceiling speakers adequate for 7.1 setup?

I will preface my answer with the statement...this is a personal bias....
I do not like the "detached" sound of the front three speakers in or on the ceiling, in your case the L-R fronts....your attention is centered on the TV and you will notice the disconnect with the sound coming from the ceiling. Many others have not found this a problem, but Dolby Labs recommends the front 3 speakers at "seated ear level" (the tweeters actually)

Is there any chance you can get the front 3 speakers centered on the TV...in-walls or on-walls ?? The surrounds can easily be in-ceiling units, as long as they have pivoting tweeters to aim the sound towards the listening position.

Basically I'm with Martin on this one. Unless you plan on mounting your display on the ceiling along with your speakers then laying on the floor and staring up.... it's just plain weird having the front sound stage coming from above the display. Now, the disclaimer here is if you install the "aimable" type in ceiling speakers that basically drop down and fire directly at the listening position, then these sound fine. But, they are WAY more costly than anything from monoprice. For surround duty, IC speakers are fine since there isn't nearly as much information recorded in the surround channels. And, what is.... is more for effect and ambience rather than crisp dialog and main line sound tracks.

Of course the obligatory IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, just my $0.02 and all that. But of course, you did ask.

Looking at your layout, it looks like your L/R speakers will be in the ceiling, but the CC will be somewhere near the display, and not in the ceiling. IMO, this is a particularly bad idea. You want your front 3 speakers to be timbre-matched, (they should "sound" the same), and you want them all at the same height, preferably at ear level. Your concept meets none of these recommendations, (the other downsides of architectural speakers notwithstanding: http://www.cepro.com/article/how_to_...er_systems/D1/)

If you can do three "in-room" speakers, all from the same line/manufacturer, across the front, you will be *much* happier with your result.

Craig

Symmetry???