In ceiling or bookshelf for livingroom 2.1 setup?

mpjmeyer said:

My family and I are building a new house and looking at options for speakers in the living room. I spoke with the builder who said many people are using ceiling speakers to keep the bookshelves clear and just for a cleaner look.

I’m thinking a 2.1 setup as the tv will be mounted above the mantle and don’t want a center. I was originally thinking if putting speakers on the 2nd bookshelf down but the issue is there’s only a 12” space and the speakers I’ve been considering are at least 13”+. Now I’m considering in ceiling speakers (1 towards the front on each vault). What would your thoughts be with this?

I have ceiling speakers in our current theater as Atmos, but never used ceilings for the main fronts without a center channel. Will good ceiling speakers be suffice for this open space or would it look/sound goofy with the off center vault? As you can see in the 2nd photo, there are 2 ceiling speakers in the display, but not sure what the configuration is

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mpjmeyer said:

Most people worry about color combinations, counter tops, what floor they should get, light or dark carpet, etc. and I'm over here giving myself a migraine over the best sound configuration lol. It's actually more frustrating than it sounds as you want to get this figured out before drywallers come in so I'm trying to future proof this as much as possible before that time comes.

After doing extensive research all night, I'm convinced bookshelves are the way to go due to the offset with the vaulted ceilings. Anybody have any experience with KEF LS50 speakers? These seem to have awesome reviews and are shy of 12" in height so they would fit nicely on the 2nd shelf. Hope they could fill the room with sound

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_991LS50BL/KEF-LS50-Black-Edition.html#customer-reviews-tab

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