Are HSU's the right speaker for this room?

[SpeakerPwnd]

I've read that speaker placement is very important for the HSU's to sound good. I want to keep the current wiring and placement of my speakers but I'm afraid that my system will sound terrible. Is it possible to keep this same setup and still get a nice sounding 5.1 system?? Also which speakers would you recommend.


Rough layout of my room.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/2494/layoutgl.png

You can see the previous owners acoustimass speakers that I would like to replace.

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/7862/photobdc.jpg

Facing the other direction (towards the kitchen)

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/7927/photo1vrv.jpg


Thank you for all your input.

[shadyJ]

Up between the ceiling and the wall will never be a great spot for speakers, typically speakers sound better the further away they are from surfaces. I'm thinking Hsu HB-1s will be less affected due to the controlled directivity of their horn design, however it will still be a less than optimal placement.

One thing you should know is that the Hsu's are quite a bit larger and heavier than the Bose speakers. Against the brightness of the room they will certainly stand out, and probably block the windows partially as well with those current mounts, even if you mounted them horizontally. If I had to guess, I would say those mounts are not made for the 15 lbs weight of the HB-1 speakers, and if they are not screwed into the ceiling studs there is no way they will hold the Hsus. I strongly recommend you do a mockup of the dimensions of the Hsu speakers and see how they would fit in.

Personally, I think they would be so visually intrusive in the places that you want to put them in that I wouldn't do it. If you want good sound while still maintaining a clean look in the room, what I would do is get a larger TV cabinet which has enough room for the TV and bookshelf speakers to be placed next to it. Also make sure it has enough room in a lower compartment for the center channel speaker. Also I would just keep your rear speakers as they are, surround speakers don't have to do much, the Bose probably don't do too badly in that role, and the Hsus would really stick out if you tried to put them on those ceiling mounts.

I hate to advise against getting the Hsu speakers, they really are quite good, but you need to understand how large and heavy they are for your intended placement, and how much they would contrast with the bright colors of the room. The problem is to get good sound you will need something better than satellite speakers, but any good speaker would be rather large and sub-optimally placed for where you want to put them.