I am looking for surround sound speakers specifically the in-wall types.

Budget is a consideration but sound quality should be pretty good. I also have this thing in my mind....why spend a bundle on surrounds since so very little audio comes out from them anyway.


I am looking at these ones(cheapest from Costco ):
They are THX Select certified so I guess they should be good enough, right ?

Click here (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11222712&whse=bc&Ne=4000000&eCat=bc|79|80|304&N=4001426&Mo=15&No=10&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=304&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&hierPath=79*80*304*&topnav=)



Also they have one with only one tweeter (meant for LCR use)

Click here (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11222779&whse=bc&Ne=4000000&eCat=bc|79|80|304&N=4001426&Mo=15&No=12&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&cat=304&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&hierPath=79*80*304*&topnav=)


I cant find any reviews of these. Has anyone here used them?

I plan to use six of these.....two pairs for side surrounds and one pair in the back. My room is pretty narrow :11' wide...hence some chairs are very close to side walls. Having only one side surround speaker means only one row of chairs can be in the ideal position. Hence I am thinking of installing one pair for each seating row

Thoughts ?

I'm curious as well. I didn't realize that Sonance made an inexpensive line of in-walls...

Yes, that is one of the good things about this "costco brand"............made by Sonance!

But Sonance's line does not have anything exactly same as this speaker. Although they do have an apparantly identical looking woofer in their lines.

I'd probably give them a shot. They sure look cool. I'd love to see similar on-walls from them as well.

I almost went with the ones w/ the dual tweeters, as I wanted something close to a diapole, but I ended up dropping quite a few more $'s on some NHT's that have a pretty good tweeter spread (pics in my construction thread). It was sort of an impulse buy. I have had some "cheap" inwalls before and was unimpressed with the sound quality. So buying speakers w/o hearing them I decided to go with a "better" name.

I wanted some Klipsch inwalls as I like the ones I currently have in the old theater, but they were way too expensive.

The NHT's are probably way outside your budget, but I thought I would share.
Let us know how the HiFi works sound if you go that route. I was real close to buying some, and would be interested on how they perform.

Interesting. Those are nearly the same size as these:

http://www.sonance.com/products/speakers/detail/53

and for the guy in other thread looking for in walls, they have optional fire rated back boxes:

http://www.sonance.com/products/accessories/detail/279

the Ultra II certified Sonance got a good review.


http://www.sonance.com/files/downloads/file/cinultriimag.pdf

Thanks for the replies.

What really interests me is the THX select certification. With that certification how bad could they be. I too have heard bad in-walls and do believe that you get what you pay for.

Nevertheless the THX certification cant be had just like that.

Haviing said that....Costco still have a pretty good return policy. I think I will get some and try them out. I wont install them fully....just test them enough so that if I have to return them they still are resell-able.

Lets see how bad (or good) they are!

as for using a dipole as surrounds.......well I am not sure about that. I dont think they do justice to surround sound effects by overly diffusing the sound. I have tried them.

I do know that THX recommends dipoles.

But do studios really use dipoles while mixing??


Allow me to explain further....
When (say) a jet flies past me, I like to hear it go from the back to front ...........NOT "kinda back" and then to the front....see what I mean ????


Having said that....these ones with dual tweeters are NOT dipoles....they are merely an attempt to increase the dispersion of the high frequencies (which tend to "beam" more)

I think I will get the dual tweeter ones.

Ok here is an update. I finally pulled the trigger on this.

I just recieved 6 of these speakers from Costco. I am planning to install 4 on the sides of the theater and two on the rear wall.

I opened one up yesterday and (frankly I was expecting cheapo speakers) I was surprised that they look very nice and high-quality stuff. The finish is very nice. Similar to very good speakers. The only thing which looks a little cheapo is the sticker on the back of the woofer. The crossover components are all good, the PCB is nice.

I have not heard them yet. I will hook up a couple tonight and test them out. Will keep you all posted!

For 60 bucks each they sure are cheap.

I'm looking forward to hearing a report from you on how they sound. Can you take some pics of the back of them too?

Thanks!

I just installed the in-ceiling speakers for a 7.1 setup in my family room and these speakers are actually quite good. I was floored with the clarity and quality of sound. I have the following:


* HiFi Works In Ceiling Speakers Item# 210941 for the front, center and left speakers.
* HiFi Works Round In Ceiling Surround Speakers Item# 210697 dipoles for the side and rear surrounds.


I also grabbed a Velodyne 10" VRP-Series Subwoofer to use with these speakers and damn...this little system rocks. Now I can't wait till my HT is done. ;)

Edit: Added pics for you. Sorry for the plastic on the speaker but I had to order 2 sets for the front L/C/R and have the extra one just in case. Last night we watched the original Jurassic Park and the sound effects were unbelievable, the panning etc were right on spot. Lastly the sub rocked the house, not bad for a 10".

Setup was done with receiver stage set to small, 0db volume and with my meter each speaker was set to 70db from a spot between 2 large chairs in the back section of the room. All I can say is "amazing" for such a low priced speaker!

Ah! It didn't occur to me that they'd be the round ones instead of the rectangular. Glad to hear they're working well for you! :)

The ones I have are rectangular.
They are meant for be in-walls rather than in ceiling

I'll post the pics soon.

The ones I have are rectangular.
They are meant for be in-walls rather than in ceiling

I'll post the pics soon.

Have you had a chance to install them? How do they sound? Brother in-law is thinking about getting the LCRs and the surrounds for a house he is building.

The speakers are discontinued from the main Sonance line...

They were formerly known as Cinema .5 (dot five).

They were the baby brothers to the Cinema One and Cinema Two THX in-wall HT products.

That price is AT LEAST $100 / ea. less than what they were when they were under the Sonance main line.

Since they have been replaced in the main line, I would imagine that these will be sold under the "off" name brand at the blowout price until the back stock is gone.

These are good sounding speakers, and have a good track record for build quality as well.

Snatch 'em up.

Put the Dynamat DynaBox and EnWall damping system behind them to knock down that hollow cavity resonance and keep the sound from bleeding into adjacent areas....

as for using a dipole as surrounds.......well I am not sure about that. I dont think they do justice to surround sound effects by overly diffusing the sound. I have tried them.

I do know that THX recommends dipoles.

But do studios really use dipoles while mixing??

The flaw in that logic is that the person mixing is in a single fixed location...

In HT, you are providing a diffuse soundfield to approximate the effect over multiple seating locations.

I personally go for direct radiators as surrounds... but then again I put in a lot of speakers.

Why emulate an array, when you can HAVE an array!!

Yes, I have installed 5 out of the 6. They sound pretty good to me. I am just using them for surround sound so I guess their quality is not that critical.

I have played many CDs on them just for testing. They sound fine with full range sound (I did cross them over to a sub at 80 Hz, as usual ). They sure are not very high quality stuff. But for surrounds and non-critical music listening they cant be beat for the price.

More on them below, with the long promised pics!

Have you had a chance to install them? How do they sound? Brother in-law is thinking about getting the LCRs and the surrounds for a house he is building.

Ok folks,
here are the pics and my impressions on these speakers:


The box:
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0794.JPG


The specs on the box
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0797.JPG

80 to 20 +- 3dB…hmmmm we shall see. I will plot their freq response using test tools this weekend. Lets see how good they really are.

Comes with a template and instructions:
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0798.JPG

I was not too impressed with the quality of that sticker, it sure looks cheap…….more so in reality. The pic makes it look nice
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0799.JPG


Look at the front………..looks VERY nice and quality stuff. I can’t nitpick here. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at them!
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0800.JPG


Here is all the stuff which comes in the box. Notice the paint mask (the clear one) It goes right above the speakers and then you can paint right over them…….after you have installed them in the wall.
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0802.JPG

A view from the side
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0803.JPG

Close up of the cross-over….looks pretty good.
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0804.JPG

A peek at the tweeters. Notice how they are glued on!
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0805.JPG

Another view
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0806.JPG

Here is how they look in my theater. That should give you folks an idea of what my 4 speakers for side surrounds look like. One for each row of seating.
(Pardon the mess I still have to finish the HT)
http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0793.JPG

A view from the back of my HT:

http://funkyhuman.com/hosted_images/IMG_0807.JPG

I may need to use an equalizer to make them timbre matched with my huge Magnepan speakers up front.

My impressions later.............gotta get back to work. Something came up :-)

My impressions:

I like the speakers very much. They are excellent speakers for non-critical listening OR surround sound applications. After installing them my surround sound has improved a huge bit ! Earlier I did not hear anything but now it is very nice!

The two side surround speakers is also a very nice thing. It is much better than having only one side surround. It makes for a more diffuse surround experience. Lot of times a baby is crying in the movie and I run up to check on my own baby ! Surround sound is that real with these speakers.

I would still like to measure their response and EQ them to match my fronts. I can hear a slight difference in sound when a sound is panned from the front to back.

I plan to upgrade my surround sound processor to a model which has the new Auddessy EQ circuitery. It has been getting rave reviews.




I would not, however, recommend them for serious listening OR use as the front three speakers in a HT. They are not that high quality. But then again, I am a dyed in the wool audiophile and I really care about sound reproduction. I have pretty high speakers for the fronts, as you may notice in the pics.


Also I have their double tweeter model which is intended for surround sound applications. Maybe the other regular ones with one tweeter........... they may sound different enough to be able to perform well as front speakers.

If you are considering those (the one tweeter model) I suggest installing a pair and listening to them. Maybe you will like them as fronts. Everyone is different !

Please let everyone know your observations.

As I too could not find any solid reviews of these speakers I bit the bullet and got 'em. LCR front channel and two rear surrounds from Costco. The LCR which were not reviewed/purchased by rajdude are much beefier than the rear surrounds. I am not that much of a audiofile (I would like to think I am though) but I think they sound great for a budget buy. I will have photos and a better review soon as I just finished the install. Just thought I'd throw that out there, also I think Costco might soon stop carrying these as I had difficulty ordering three for the LCR.

The speakers are discontinued from the main Sonance line...

They were formerly known as Cinema .5 (dot five).

They were the baby brothers to the Cinema One and Cinema Two THX in-wall HT products.

That price is AT LEAST $100 / ea. less than what they were when they were under the Sonance main line.

Since they have been replaced in the main line, I would imagine that these will be sold under the "off" name brand at the blowout price until the back stock is gone.

These are good sounding speakers, and have a good track record for build quality as well.

Snatch 'em up.

Put the Dynamat DynaBox and EnWall damping system behind them to knock down that hollow cavity resonance and keep the sound from bleeding into adjacent areas....

If these are truly sonance cinema .5 surrounds they are listed on the web for 675.00 to 900.00 a pair!!!.

Product Code: SON-CINEMA.5SUR


Retail Price: $ 800.00
Our Price: $ 675.00 / Pair

There are other websites (smarthome.com) which sell these speakers. It is not a costco-only thing.

final install pics, after painting. I used an airbrush for the grills.... pretty hot and they sound awesome. The LCR front combined with the rears is a great combo. nothing but compliments from everyone that has had the pleasure of listening. Oh, and an included pic of my media cabinet.

Wow, nice to hear from some one putting these cheapos for fronts and raving about them. They must be reasonable, to say the least.

they look purty nice, a little smaller than what i remember them a year ago when they were Hometech THX speakers.....

I just bought a pair from costco.com, seemed like the best price (that being the LCR models). I was going to go with the Klipsch KSW5s but this thread put me over the top. I have Klipsch THX Ultra2s for the front three, the hifi works are going into the back wall, where I have soon to be unmounted pair of crappy KLH, you know the ones that come with a center speaker...ya I know, $1500 worth of speakers up front and $20-$25 worth of speakers for the back two...Well I am not expecting that much from these little inwalls, cause I HOPE to have the Klipsch THX in walls by this time next year for the sides (KS-7800) (current sides are Klipsch SS-1s) and rears (KL-7800) soon after. I got a THX demo disc II from someone here, and it really pointed out how bad the KLH are, I just hope as I said I am moving up a notch or two with out forking out much money at all. I think it was $130 shipped for the pair. Besides if I hate them I will have made large enough holes in the walls :eek: so there would be no going back in my mind, until I have the funds for the Klipsch THX in walls :cool:.

BTW are the hifi works two tweeter model dipoles, in the HF range, being two tweeters single woofer? I thought they are? Or are they just bipoles?

EDIT: how did you paint the frame and grills?

Bump, on how do you paint the grills on inwalls, or should I ask how did you, would you have done it different?

I got them they couldnt sound better for the price and my application...

as far as painting use an airbrush it works great

Although I have not done it ....I know how to do it.


Install the speakers in the walls.
Leave the grills off OR remove the grills if you have already installed the grills
install the plastic paint mask (included with each speaker)
Just paint the wall as you would normally and just paint over the speaker (with the paint mask on). The paint mask protects the speakers' cones. It does not mask the frame of the speaker....the stuff which you see when the grilles are on.
Thin your paint and spray (my preference is spray) the grilles. Thinning is necessary since you dont want to fill up the holes in the grille.
wait for them to dry and install the grills.



That's all !


Not rocket science , right ?:)

Bump, on how do you paint the grills on inwalls, or should I ask how did you, would you have done it different?

Quick question on airbrushing: how much did you thin the (presumably latex) paint? And did you just use water, or something like Floetrol? Thanks in advance!

Not sure about the thinning percentage....I kinda remember that the instructions with the speakers have something.

I'd start with 50%. That should be thin enough. Maybe 2 coats will do it.

Quick question on airbrushing: how much did you thin the (presumably latex) paint? And did you just use water, or something like Floetrol? Thanks in advance!

Any more updates on HiFi Works speakers? I just ordered the round, in-ceiling surround speakers. I plan to use them for all four of the rear surrounds. They are not THX Select like their in-wall brothers, but my house layout only allowed for in-ceiling speakers. Has anyone compared the rectangle In-Wall HiFi Works THX speakers to the round 6.5" HiFi Work In-Ceiling speakers???

I was interested in buying some of the hifi works thx in walls, and saw here that they have pretty good reviews. I was curious on a couple of things, though. I have an onkyo thx 7.1 receiver. I was thinking the lcr's for the fronts, and the SURs as side surrounds. Which should I use as rear surrounds? Also, should the SUR speakers be re-wired, to make them bipople, as I've read of some people doing? Also, if you look on thx.com, it shows that in a 7.1 setup, the rear surrounds should be placed next to each other. But it also shows that if using dolby truehd, they should be separated. Would it be better to place the rears together for now and then patch the holes later, or should I ust plan for Dolby truehd now so when I upgrade my receiver it'll be ready.

Frankly I wont use these for fronts, but that is just my opinion.

I would use the surrounds for the rear surrounds too.

As for keeping the rear surrounds together.....I think that is BS. I kept mine far from each other. My take is....if the rear surround content is there (it is rarely there anyway) it would be mono that this is probably the reason why THX recommends them to be placed close to each other.
Personally I have not seen any professionally designed and installed Home theater with the rear surrounds placed together (as observed in the pics)

As for rewiring the surrounds.....I am not sure if it is really needed.....I have 6 of these for surrounds and they seem to work just fine.




I was interested in buying some of the hifi works thx in walls, and saw here that they have pretty good reviews. I was curious on a couple of things, though. I have an onkyo thx 7.1 receiver. I was thinking the lcr's for the fronts, and the SURs as side surrounds. Which should I use as rear surrounds? Also, should the SUR speakers be re-wired, to make them bipople, as I've read of some people doing? Also, if you look on thx.com, it shows that in a 7.1 setup, the rear surrounds should be placed next to each other. But it also shows that if using dolby truehd, they should be separated. Would it be better to place the rears together for now and then patch the holes later, or should I ust plan for Dolby truehd now so when I upgrade my receiver it'll be ready.

Cool, thanks for the quick reply! Why do you say you wouldn't go with the LCRs for fronts? The room I'm thinking of converting would be pretty small- maybe 30x35. I was interested in these because they're affordable and I could have a voice matched set.

Any more updates on HiFi Works speakers? I just ordered the round, in-ceiling surround speakers. I plan to use them for all four of the rear surrounds. They are not THX Select like their in-wall brothers, but my house layout only allowed for in-ceiling speakers. Has anyone compared the rectangle In-Wall HiFi Works THX speakers to the round 6.5" HiFi Work In-Ceiling speakers???

Where from?

Voice matching is very good, of course. But I wonder if the quality of these speakers are good enough for use as main speakers.

I usually like higher quality speakers for use as fronts....especially the center channel in a HT speaker setup. But this is just MHO.



Furthermore your room is much bigger than what these speakers were designed for. See THX select speakers' specs elsewhere on the 'net.



Cool, thanks for the quick reply! Why do you say you wouldn't go with the LCRs for fronts? The room I'm thinking of converting would be pretty small- maybe 30x35. I was interested in these because they're affordable and I could have a voice matched set.

Now that I measure my own room, I see my estimate was a bit high. I think the room in question is probably closer to 18x20. For my purpose, I think they should perform pretty good- it'd be a huge upgrade from what I have now- 4 MTX 4c speakers in the corners, an MTX mp speaker with 2 4" for the center, and two MTX mp speakers with 1 4" each for surrounds. It's very simple, but sounds decent. But I think this will be a much welcomed upgrade. My sub is a DCM with a 12" front firing, and a 12" passive down firing, and it serves its purpose well. Thanks for the tips!!

I'm in the process of scaling back my theater room a bit... I'm selling my Swans 6.1 mains and moving the 2.1s I currently have in the back up front (you can see pics in the article in my signature). I've been going back and forth and back again on what to do for the rears on a fairly tight budget... bookshelfs on-wall, dipole/bipole on-wall, in-wall... and my mind changes almost hourly. I originally wanted to try a dipole/bipole in-wall but the least expensive I could find was the Premier Acoustic PA-631 which was out of my limited budget at $290/pr.

Through browsing the entire in-wall category on Amazon I came across the HiFi Works brand and the THX line. After some more research I came across thee fact that they are mfg by Sonance which was originally reccomended to me but also quite outside my budget. This thread has almost completely pushed me towards the HFW-THX-SUR... now just a few questions:

1.) Is there a definitive answer to whether these are dipole or bipole out of the box? I'm going to have a rear-wall (actually pitched ceiling) placement so a bipole is prefferable.

2.) If they are dipole out of the box, how difficult is it to rewire as bipole? It looks as simple as swapping the polarity where the leads from the tweeters attach to the PCB, but which tweeter do you switch (i.e. which is out of phase)?

3.) Someone here commented on the LCR being of higher quality than the SUR... any more detailed comments there? I could easily use the LCR in the back if it's a step up in sound quality, but I would really like to experiment with the SUR since I've never had bipole/dipole surrounds and my system is pretty much 100% Home Theater oriented.

Thanks in advance!

These speakers are still there in my HT. They still work fine...........for surrounds.

All these are identical, you can use them in any location L or R

Bipoles/dipoles.......I really dont know.

I would highly recommend any reciever with Audyssey surround (get the one with the very latest modes). That should make these cheapo speakers sound more "timbre matched" to the "better" fronts I would hope people would use.

BTW, I highly recommend Audyssey for all speakers but It works wonders with cheapo speakers....to the point that I consider it is a MUST for those people who have smaller/lesser speakers. I have had first hand experience with Audyssey. (I dont work for them!:cool:) The improvement in cheapo speakers is amazing. Improvement in high-end speakers is lesser (of course)


I did use fiberglass batt type insulation behind and above and below them (inside the wall) That is the recommended way to install them.....did I mention this in the thread?


Good luck!

I talked with a Sonance tech today and they said optimal back-box size for the THX-SUR is 0.262 ft^3, that they are a Bipole design, and that all that would be required to make them Dipole is to wire the front-facing tweeter out-of-phase.