In-wall speakers?

[chazutx]

Hello everyone,

I'm building my first home and look forward mostly to setting up a sweet home theater system. I'm having htem pre-wire the surround sound in my family room and I want to get in-wall speakers. I have been looking for a while and was wondering what everyone would recommend for my in-wall speakers? The room is about 16x16 and I'm looking for moderately priced. I looked at the Atlantic Tech. 20THX in-wall system but I think that might be a little out of my price range. However are those top of the line in-wall speakers? What exactly should you look for in any in-wall speakers? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chaz

[Breezer88888]

Hi Chaz,

You're in a great position to be selective since in-walls are more popular now than a few years ago. And since you're building your home, you should take care in insulating your eventual HT room. I don't think you need to get too crazy, I asked my contractor to add some insulation in the walls and ceiling of my basement and the sound doesn't leak unless I crank it up. As for in-walls, you should have a speaker box built into the wall to reinforce the sound. Simple plywood will do, but cault the seams. I've attached below a review I posted on my Polk RC85i speakers. Great speakers!!
Good luck,
Breezer

Summary:
Why aren't there more reviews on this terrific in-wall? The sound is rich and doesn't bleed into the walls (although I have them set into homemade speaker boxes b/c the walls were new). They'll play loud if you want, or beautifully smooth background music if that's the mood you're after.

I bought this as my side surrounds, and the smaller 55i's as my back surrounds (set-up is a pseudo 7.1 HT). I wish I would have installed the 85's for the sides and back. Not to knock the 55's, but when you play them, you'll favor the larger presence of the 8 inch woofer and full inch aim-able tweeter.

Strengths:
Sound in a large basement room
Clamps work very well behind sheetrock
Aim-able full inch tweeter
Attractive and paintable cover

Weaknesses:
None specifically, but as with any in-wall, measure carefully. It's pretty much permanent. The clamps don't like to be unhitched more than once.

Although not terribly important for HT, if you will be depending on them for music, make sure they are matched with your front speakers (preferably Polk RT series).

Similar Products Used:
RC 55 (sorry, I don't have the exact model number in front of me).

Denon 1082 receiver (clone to 3802)
Infinity IL-37c center channel
Infinity RS-5001 tower speakers

[Geoffcin]

Hello everyone,

I'm building my first home and look forward mostly to setting up a sweet home theater system. I'm having htem pre-wire the surround sound in my family room and I want to get in-wall speakers. I have been looking for a while and was wondering what everyone would recommend for my in-wall speakers? The room is about 16x16 and I'm looking for moderately priced. I looked at the Atlantic Tech. 20THX in-wall system but I think that might be a little out of my price range. However are those top of the line in-wall speakers? What exactly should you look for in any in-wall speakers? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chaz

They work incredibly well for what they do, but I would not recommend an all in-wall system unless you have to. In-wall speakers have some serious compromises compared to free standing speakers. Sound & Vision did a pretty comprehensive test of several of the major players in the in-wall speaker market a few months back. I would suggest getting a copy for reference.

Here's a link to my HT project that I finished about a year ago. The in-wall speakers are Cambridge Soundworks IW300.

New theater room project

[Breezer88888]

Hi Chaz,

The devil is in the details in a project such as yours. With in-walls, you've got to lock-down where you will be sitting/listening. And then it would be nice to confine the sound within the designated area, hence the use of speaker boxes . The Sound & Vision article mentioned by Geoffcin is a good one, and I'm sure the top ranked speakers in real world application would be great. But I'll confess to being a little too frugal. Especially when a project plan requires allocation & discussion of dollars(and possibly secretive re-allocation of dollars) with other family members.

Good luck - and pls keep post an update when you get further along.
Breezer

[chazutx]

Thanks for all the info. So do most really not recommend putting my main front speakers in the wall also? If that's the case I won't and have them pre-wire the plugs for them down on the wall. What are others thoughts on having all in-wall speakers?

Thanks again for everyones input.

[Geoffcin]

Thanks for all the info. So do most really not recommend putting my main front speakers in the wall also? If that's the case I won't and have them pre-wire the plugs for them down on the wall. What are others thoughts on having all in-wall speakers?

Thanks again for everyones input.

This will give you a lot more flexibility. The front wall is going to be used for the TV anyway, so you don't gain any space by using in-wall speakers there.