Monoprice in-wall, in-ceiling speakers - Page 3

grills snap into the round ones.. I dont have the squares.. I painted mine to match my ceiling. came out good but certainly if you dont brush or roll use only a little paint each coat as the holes get clogged.

Thanks again! I'll let you guys know how they sound and such.

I used spray paint on mine, it didnt clog the holes.

Usually audiophiles are talking about very expensive speakers that truly were engineered and designed perfectly.

In this thread, we are talking about speakers that cost less than $25 each, so I agree that experimenting is the best way.

I didn't box em, they sound great. For how cheap they were. Too bad my reciever sucks. That'll come later i guess. Thanks so much everybody. And thanks monoprice for making such nice cheap speakers.

Incredible deal happening with the new Yahama V663, its back ordered but if you call JR.com and ask for the AVS deal, haggle with them!! its a great deal for a great new receiver.

Yeah. I still don't have that type of cash. Thanks though.

The round "Ceiling" flush mounts are typically installed in ceiling applications because they tie in better. Most likely you will have round recessed lighting or fixtures nearby, so they blend in. The rectangle shaped "In Wall" speakers will tie in better with the windows or doorways they will be located next to. I often install "In wall" speakers when there will be no round lighting nearby, and they are near sky lights "again keeping like shaped objects" together.... It seems to make the interior decorators happier.
Acoustically it really makes no difference.

What's the AVS deal?

Those of you who've boxed in these speakers or ones like these, what is the best thing to use and where would you get it? Wood? Home Depot?

Also, how would you affix the enclosure to the frame?

Wayne

I am sorry and this is a completely legitimate question but it seems you are asking people where to buy wood? That made me chuckle. Yes Home Depot will sell wood.

I am about to drop in on this deal and get an Onkyo 505 for the living room for $189 refurbed from shoponkyo.com

I doubt the yamaha is any better than that pricewise!

Yeah, I know Home Depot sells wood. I guess I was trying to ask if there is some other structural material that is best used, can it be purchased through Home Depot for instance or is there a better place?

Wayne

1/2" to 3/4" particle board or plywood would work and can be found pretty cheaply at HD or other large home improvement stores. Best yet would be MDF which is what many of the most exotic / expensive floor standing and bookshelf speakers are constructed from while veneering the exterior with hardwoods or other surfaces for cosmetics. It offers the most consistent density and provides ideal dampening qualities.

As far as the advise to not build enclosures behind ceiling or in wall flush mount speakers, it really doesn't matter if they are $50 or $500 versions. The crucial thing is knowing what size of an enclosure to build to work with the bass driver "woofer" the speaker utilizes.
If you have ever gotten into building speakers, you know that when you buy a bass driver, it will come with a list of specifications.
Calculations from these specifications will let you know the best internal volume the enclosure should be for that driver to work at it's best. If using a ported design, it will let you know the length and diameter the port needs to be. Rarely are these specifications given with flush mount or ceiling mount speakers. I have never seen them with speakers in the mid to lower price points.
There are test procedures that can help you to obtain the specifications of a driver.

http://www.bcae1.com/spboxad3.htm

or

http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...number=390-804

The main thing is they design open backed speakers such as these to be of a "Free Air" design allowing them to work fairly well with a wide variance of enclosure space behind them. Be it 2 cu. ft. in a short wall to 1000 cu. ft. of attic space, insulated or non insulated. So the advise often given to not build enclosures is based on the fact that without knowing the ideal size of an enclosure to build with the driver your working with, you may get less that desired results than without the enclosure. With many installation locations, you have no option of altering the enclosure once drywall is installed.

Thank you very much for that informative and detailed response. I'm not an audiophile but I do want decent speakers and I want them to sound good. We're moving into a new home in less than a month and the wall where the front and center speakers would go is drywalled with a cement wall right behind it which separates us from the people in the unit next to us. This concrete wall goes all the way up from the basement floor to the ceiling on the upper level so it pretty much is a wall that separates the entire home from our neighbors from the basement floor almost up to the roof.

The room where these speakers would go is in the recroom in the basement. I'm wondering if I would really have to enclose the front three speakers given that there is a concrete wall directly behind the drywall only separated by the normal 2 x 4 studs?

The rear surrounds would go on a wall opposite the main speaker wall of course and this wall is a shared wall between the back of the recroom and the hobby room adjacent to it. It again is a typical indoor wall installation.

I guess I don't really want the hassle of having to enclose these speakers given that I already will have some work to do with wall cutouts and wire fishing since this is unfortunately a retrofit. We could have had the builder rough all of this in but I didn't at the time think that I would consider in wall speakers.

Anyway whatever advice you may have for me would be much appreciated. Please tell me not to enclose the speakers.

Wayne

Thanks for the very informative thread.

I am considering inexpensive in-wall/in-ceiling speakers for a 5.1 system in a 17x17 area and in-ceiling speakers for a whole house system. Looking at the Monoprice, Dayton and Proficient. Since this thread has been going for a little while now, does anyone have any new advice for me on these three brands? I am worried about the Monoprice in-walls for a center channel versus a 2 driver version.

Or, do I rethink this budget and go with the Polk TC series?

I personally wouldn't go with the monoprice speakers for ht. Ive got both the monoprice and the proficient 645's side by side and the proficients do sound a bit better and more full. The monoprice lack in areas and imo should be mainly used in whole house systems.

Daton does not make their speakers. They outsource to Mitec I believe. They are the same as these: http://outdoorspeakerstore.com/user/...il.php?pid=172
but just a bit different design.

AMAAudioDude

Has anyone tried these similarly low priced Phoenix Gold 6.5 inch in-ceiling speakers? The specs. actually have better frequency range, power handling and sensitivity - plus cheaper price. The reviews listed are good, but I'd trust a review from someone here more. I'd like to use these for whole house back ground audio only and not in my main home theater setup.

Just search amazon for "Phoenix Gold ATc6 6.5-inch In-Ceiling Speakers"

Here are the listed specs:
- Two-way speakers with frequency response of 40 Hz to 20 kHz
- Power handling of 200 watts
- Sensitivity of 90 dB
- Moisture-resistant polypropylene woofers and paintable grill

They were covered a bit in this thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ighlight=ATC-6

Almost nobody makes their own speakers. The majority are made in a handful of plants in Asia for most of the US brands. This is especially true in this price range.

For speakers (with rare exception), you get what you pay for. All these low-priced speakers probably sound fine for low-level background music. If this is your only expectation, I'd buy the one that is most convenient for you to purchase.

Carl

Thanks, just what I was needing to know.

Well I bought 10 (5 pairs) of the monoprice 6 inch in-wall speakers which I plan on using in a HT setup. Before you criticize let me explain.

My mother and father in law are not HT enthusiasts. They have an old 32" crt TV which I gave them 5 years ago and a 20 year old onkyo 2 channel reciever. I end up spending a fair amount of time over there and it is almost painful to watch ball games and or movies there. For fathers day I am building my father in law a budget HT. They have an ideal room in their basement which will be light controlled.

I am installing a budget projector package ($999 for the mitsu 1500 hc, 92"fixed screen, projector mount and cables).

The audio will be handled by my old onkyo 605 (seems a good time to upgrade to the 805 for my house.

My old Toshiba hd d2 for dvds and hd-dvds.

He can buy his own blueray player!

Finally the monoprice in-wall 6 inch speakers. I plan on using 4 (wired in series/parallel combo to keep the impedance at 8 ohms) for the center channel speaker. one pair for fronts, one pair for rears and one pair for rear surrounds. I have pretty much decided to build in wall enclosures for all 10 speakers because I want them to sound as good as possible if I'm doing all this work. I'll get my father in law to build the enclosures out of 1/2" MDF. 14" by 36" inch enclosures should be good for the 6" drivers.

I will post pictures and report back on sound quality when the project is done. The only thing I have not decided on is how to arrange the 4 speakers for the center channel. The budget screen is not perforated so putting the speakers behind the screen is not ideal. I am thinking on putting two below and 2 to the sides or on top.
Anyone have any suggestions on this or any other aspect of this setup. Obviously I am not looking for suggestions such as "buy better speakers". they are already purchased and I am not running a charity here. The system is already costing me about $2000. I am kind of doing this as an experiment to see how good these can sound if done right. He can always replace them with higher quality in-walls if he wants (not likely, like I said he is not a HT enthusiast).

I believe the IC speakers can be aimed, and would probably line all 4 up across the bottom of the screen, if that is not possible, I would set two on top and two on the bottom as to keep the voices as close to the center of the screen as possible. then angle them both to meet at the most important listening position.

has anyone else noticed the monoprice 6" in ceiling speakers have a pink tinge to them? They sound just fine for whole house audio by the way and i'd recommend them. However, the pink color is kind of weird.

I only have two installed but I really didn't notice any pink tinge.

Does anyone think they will come out with new construction brackets for these Monoprice speakers? Or, are there any other manufacturers that fit the Monoprice speakers?

I was wondering that the other day, whether or not they would make new-work brackets. You're best bet is to contact Monoprice directly and show your interest in them.

Until then, it's not a big deal. Just rough-in the speaker wire and leave a coil stapled to the closest stud. When everything is done you could cut the speaker in and retrieve the wire, just make sure to keep accurate measurements.

Do you mean the grilles or the plastic trim piece?

I didnt notice any pink... I did paint them to match my ceiling but didnt notice anything before that.

Didnt notice a pink tinge to mine..... I painted mine to match the ceiling color since my ceilings are painted.

I am going to buy the 8" in-walls for the rear surrounds, and would like to use one for the center as well. Anyone who has already purchased these for the center channel and has an extra want to part with it for $25?

Or anyone else want to split a pair?