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OT - In wall home speakers


Tony Bennett

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I am in the process of designing a new home. I will have my home theater with all of the big speakers and what not in the basement. I own a Jolida tube amp that has a wonderful sound but has just been gathering dust. I was thinking I might build in a couple of speakers and set a little sub somewhere in the living room for some music. Im actually going for a living room devoid of a big tv or piano so I have a spot to entertain for a change. Ive never heard a pair of in wall speakers though. Good? No good? Do any of you have some?
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In walls are pretty good for Home Theater applications, where sheer volume is more important than quality sound.

 

Problem is, other than Triad Audio, there's not an in-wall speaker made that doesn't use the wall cavity as its enclosure, which means you can't get consistent response. What it sounds like in the store demo won't translate to your home because your walls are completely different...

 

My personal suggestion is to go with a nice pair of Belle Klipsch. Nothing quite so beautiful as horn-loaded speakers on a nice low-watt tube amp.

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True, also...if you ever want to move your power amp to a different location, you'll have to refish the speaker cables in the wall.

 

Believe it or not, I've got the Bose Speakers 5.1 with the powered subwoofer, and the other 5 are powered by a Kenwood 110w x 5 power amp.

It sounds fantastic as I have my Satellite receiver and DVD player hooked up to it via fibre optic cables.

You can have it cranked and it'll be silent til a loud part comes in....then it scares the crap out of you. haha

 

In wall speakers will sound good, but I prefer portable.

 

That's just my opinion and good luck which ever way you go.

 

Randy S.

"Just play!"
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Believe it or not, I've got the Bose Speakers 5.1 with the powered subwoofer, and the other 5 are powered by a Kenwood 110w x 5 power amp.

 

You're just BEGGING to get my dander up about Bo$e, aren't you? :freak:

 

Those nasty little alarm-clock-speaker equipped cubes, dude, that was just the WRONG place to go... :sick:

 

I guess I need to just give you a pass, ultimately, as you're using a Kenwood HT receiver. That in and of itself indicates both how much you're willing to invest in casual entertainment and how sharp your ears really are...

 

I worked for Best Buy for two years, I know what those crappy Kenwood receivers sound like versus even the marginally better Yamaha receivers BB carries, and it's night and day...

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Tony - I am in the same process right now. I have checked out the high end in wall (and in ceiling) speakers - TRIAD, Speakercraft, and McIntosh. For mid-fi home theater, in wall is fine. But remember, the cost of the TRIADS or McIntosh are very high. (You can get Martin Logan Vantage (L/R) and Stage © for MUCH less than McIntosh, and they sound much better. I do agree that in wall MUST be in their own sealed enclosures otherwise you are just hearing the inside of your wall resonate...

 

My main stereo is Jeff Roland 5 power, JR Consonance preamp, and VonSchweikert VR 7 speakers, VPI/SME IV/Micro Benz turntable etc...That is for the music room. The TV area is separate..

Hammond C3, Leslie 122, Steinway B, Wurlitzer 200A, Rhodes 73,

D6 Clav

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Thanks for the advice, sealed enclosures would seem the way to go. I'm not looking to set the world on fire with this system, but would like it to sound nice. I see definitive offers some as well, I've always like thier product.

 

http://www.definitivetech.com/loudspeakers/inwall_/inwall_reference_.html

 

Def Tech makes some nice products. I haven't checked out their in-wall units, though. Triad Audio's in-walls are what they built their company on.

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Rather than have the speakers built into wall, I'd just have the wiring in place and hidden.

No guitarists were harmed during the making of this message.

 

In general, harmonic complexity is inversely proportional to the ratio between chording and non-chording instruments.

 

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The systems I have heard, that use the wall as the enclosure, sound really bad. No doubt with care that can be fixed, but audio quality is not the main reason they are selling these and so I think you are going to be lucky to find an installer who knows enough to make them sound good.
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The systems I have heard, that use the wall as the enclosure, sound really bad. No doubt with care that can be fixed, but audio quality is not the main reason they are selling these and so I think you are going to be lucky to find an installer who knows enough to make them sound good.

 

That's why he's looking at the sealed units from Def Tech and Triad.

 

As to those orbs, all I can say is they look like round Bose cubes, and knowing what I know about the sheer physics problems surrounding too-big-for-HF-but-too-small-for-midbass drivers like the 3" drivers featured in both the Bose cubes and those orbs (you can tell in the pic they're using same-size drivers in both orbs) tells me that there's just too much convolution involved in that system to make for faithful reproduction of sound.

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