Question about on-wall speakers

[nightflier]

I'm going to install a pair of these for a friend this weekend. He's leaning towards the DefTech Mythos but that's not set in stone. But I was wondering about the drywall being rather thin next to the plasma and it would seem that the speakers will rattle the walls. I do intend to find studs for attaching the speakers but do I need to brace whole drywall area behind the speaker? I wanted to avoid built-ins because he wants to keep the speakers when he moves; especially if he's thinking of spending as much as he said he would. Floor-standers or mounted bookshelves are too large for the room he's working with (he has kids and dogs too). Any recommendations from someone who's done this?

[LMB]

I have my Boston Accoustics Micro 130's attached to the ceiling with their brackets
Great for Music and movies
See if DefTech has ceiling brackets

Have fun

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Pioneer Elite 55txi
Pioneer Elite 47ai
Pioneer Elite PD-F27
Boston 130 micros
Boston VRC
Velodyne SPL-800
Panamax 5100 line conditioner
Mitsubishi 46807

[Woochifer]

On-wall speakers generally are pretty well braced against external vibrations. Their main drawback is that their smaller cabinet volume limits their low end extension. So long as you secure them to the studs, they should work fine. The Def Tech Mythos is decent for the money, but I found the Vienna Acoustics on-wall models preferable.

[nightflier]

Well, they are installed and they sound very good. At the store, we almost bought the Martin Logan Frescos, but in the end their odd shape was too much (and the price was a bit above our budget). Certainly if you want a clean look, the DefTech's are hard to beat. Interestingly, I can't tell the difference between the center channel (the Mythos 2) and the L/R speakers (Mythos 6). I wonder if they are the same. We purchased the Gems for the rears.

I should also note that nothing we listened to sounded acceptable w/o a sub. These tiny wall-mount speakers really don't produce much bass. The same was true of other brands, including the MLs, and even the Mythos floorstanders. This makes blending the sub sort of tricky. We didn't purchase a new sub and so we're using an old Klipsch KSW-12 that is recessed inside of a cubby hole at the front of the room. I certainly didn't like the sound of this sub-in-the-hole, but given the living room and the lifestyle, there really isn't much else that we can do here. Besides, the conduit and wiring was already there, so we just left that alone.

Anyhow, to make a long story short, the wall behind the speaker does not seem to affect the sound. I would dare say that the lack of bass in these speakers is a contributing factor, but that's why we have the sub. The mids and highs on the Mythos are quite remarkable. I'm a wood & weight kind of guy when it comes to speakers and I really didn't think these little speakers would do the trick, but for movies (and a few new surround CDs) they are adequate. To my ears, they certainly don't sound better than the Infinity Primus speakers that were in the room before, but those were way too big and ugly (the kids had had their way with them a few times too many).

P.S. They did not have the Vienna on-wall speakers unfortunately; I would have liked to hear them.