Monoprice in-wall, in-ceiling speakers - Page 4

I was thinking the same. I want to set up these in my bedroom to co-ordinate with a flat panel. Despite seeing many magazines where the left and right channels "box" a panel along with the center to form a U, I do know that to get a better sound envelope you should separate the left and right to form an equilateral triangle with your listening position.

My question then is are these in-walls aimable so that I can point the left and right to face my bed? (No, I would never use in-ceiling speakers for mains or a center.)

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Of course, the answer is staring me in the face:

Just ordered 2 of the 8" ceiling speakers for the rear surround in my 5.1 living room HT setup (no side walls in the living room as it is open).

Also ordered 2 of the 8" wall speakers for a stereo bathroom setup (through my Niles whole house distributor).

I'll be sure to post an update on how these puppies sound. I'm extremely excited given the price!

In prepping for my 7.1 upgrade from 5.1 I went w/ 2 pair of the 8 inch in-wall. These replaced 1 pair of Parts Express Dayton 6.5 in-walls that are now discontinued but cost $90+ and shipping costs back in 2004: http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/pshow...TOKEN=59657047

Main differences between the two:

+Monos are way Cheaper (Half the cost!)
+Monos handle more power (80/120 vs 50/80)
+Mono 8inch woofer vs 6.5inch

I replaced one of the 6.5s w/ the 8 so I could do some A/B comparison. Honestly I couldn't tell that huge of a difference. The 8 had a bit more bass and sounded like it could go louder though.

I then spent the next 4 hours cutting the holes and running the wires for the new pair. So now I'm officially rocking 7.1

I demo'd them for maybe 30 min. My brief review is as follows:

Previously whenever I listened to music I could only stand it if the amp was in Stereo mode, pushing some lovely Boston Acoustic VR-M60s.

Now w/ the rear stage upgraded to the Monos I can say that listening in 7.1 PLIIx Music is actually VERY nice!!! Very full, sounds like I'm at a club lol (I demo'd hip-hop and also 70s classic rock.)

Overall I don't think I'd want these as "Zone music producers" or whatever house radio systems are called. But for rear stage support these puppies are awesome!!! And at these price points.. IT'S A NO BRAINER!!!

I can't wait to demo a 7.1 movie tonight I've already got Open Range qued up ready to play as well

You might want to go ahead and buy the pair, that way you will have a spare if one goes out. Monoprice always states that the product may vary so having a spare could be good if you need one later on and they use a different supplier....

I just purchased the full set of monoprice 8" in-wall (3) and in-ceiling (2) speakers to outfit my living room. I will use the RCA RT2600 receiver I purchased 4 years ago. It pumps out 100W per speaker at 8 ohms, so we'll see what it can do with these.

I am hoping for a nice upgrade from the RCA 100W 3.5" bookcase speakers that came with the receiver.

I plan to install this next weekend. Will let you know my thoughts.

I just came across these speakers on Monoprice while pricing out a Plasma Mount. I have a dedicated HT with Elemental Design Speakers and SVS Sub. So, I'm looking at the 6.5" Monoprice In Walls to go with a 50" Plasma Panasonic in the Family Room. It will be mostly for HD DirecTV viewing and 'some' movies.

I've mostly read on this thread about the 8" In Walls. How are the 6.5"? I don't want to have a system sound like a tin box (like I assume the built in Plasma speakers will sound), but don't need them to sound OUTSTANDING either.

Anyone familiar with the 6.5" rectangle in walls from Monoprice?

I bought multiple pairs of the Phoenix AT-6's which I have been quite pleased with. They are an easy install and have real crossovers and poly cones unlike the more expensive Niles speakers I had. Sound is quite pleasing for audio distribution, and the price (<$40) makes it a no brainer.

I installed 2 of the 8" in-ceiling speakers for my surrounds and let me tell you --- they sound great! Certainly not "audiophile" quality but they get loud and stay clear. Perfect for surround!!!

I have them connected to my Denon 3806 receiver. The previous owner had some sort of Sony Dreamsystem HTIB speakers mounted on the ceiling. They were an eyesore! These look and sound SOOOOOOO much better.

An installation caveat --- when you remove the cutout for the template remove both the large circular disc at the center AND the small strip that remains. Otherwise after you mark your area you will have to go back and remove a little more to make it fit. And you might want to cut on the outside of the line after you mark it correctly. These things are a piece of cake to install!!!!

Overall I rank them as follows:

Highs 8/10
Mids 9/10
Bass 5/10
Ease of installation 10/10
Value 10/10

An incredible deal for $50!!!

...good to hear.

I have a pair of 8"s I bought right after they came back into stock, and that's my project for the 4th.

I totally agree with your assessment here. That is, the bass is quite lacking and they are a great value for $50 speakers. These are just fine for rear surrounds, but I would not recommend them for fronts.

I compared the following speakers on a Denon 3803:

• Monoprice 8 Inches 2-Way In-Wall Speakers (Pair) - 80W
• Celestion MP1 4 1/2" Satellites 10-150W 90dB
• white van 10" 3-way floorstanding loudspeakers

The Monoprice speakers had distortion and/or clipping at near maximum volume on music with heavy bass. The Celestion sounded clearer and Monoprice a little hollow in the midrange (please note: I haven't mounted these in-walls instead they were boxed in some shipping cardboard box for my testing), Although my floorstanding were no name brand speakers, it handled all the test songs effortlessly and without clipping.

I'm thinking of returning these. PM me if you want them for cost and locally here in the Bay Area.

I have my rears set as "small" so I didn't get any clipping. Of course I didn't get any bass either.

Watched a movie last night and these things sound great for rears --- definitely not up to par for a front or center but then again what do you expect for $50?

Finally got pics of my mono 8s I reviewed on post 93 . Room is 22x22ft btw.





Rest of my HT pics:

http://picsorban.com/upload/ht705a.jpg
http://picsorban.com/upload/ht705b.jpg
http://picsorban.com/upload/ht705c.jpg
http://picsorban.com/upload/ht705d.jpg
http://picsorban.com/upload/ht705e.jpg

Ugh... flashes really bring out the worst of your house, the imperfections (paint, soot, etc) aren't that bad under regular light

wow looks nice mike

i have a pair of the 8" in walls coming, installing them as zone 2 for my dining room which happens to share a wall with the living room, right behind my tv as a matter of fact.

Here is a pic of my mono's installed. 8" in front and 8" in back. Ignore the holes in the ceiling and walls where I ran the cables. That was my best option. Installation of the speakers themselves took several cutting attempts as noted above by Assassin, but once the cutouts were done, installation went quickly.

Painted the in-walls to match the walls. Noticeable, but yet appealing.

As far as sound quality, the in-walls have deep sound. I am never sure what perfect sound is, but these can get loud and rock the walls. They are bright in sound, but with enough bass to please anyone. The in-ceilings, not so much but do the job as surrounds.

The in-ceilings' tweeters are directional, by turning the whole speaker, which is great. All speakers also have a felt cover that goes behind the grill so you cannot see the cone, unlike assassin's picture above also.

Played Star Wars III as the first test and there is nothing like hearing the THX opening on a new setup. Made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and me and my wife had huge grins.

The sound is really impressive and I am super pleased with the purchase. For ~$200 installed and some joint compound, a little paint and some sweat, These are a great bang for the buck.

Let me know your thoughts and questions.

I'm also looking to use these In-Walls for my 5.1 setup in the family room. I just wanted something that sounded better than the TV speakers on my Plasma to arrive this week. Would you suggest going with the 8" opposed to the 6.5" if using as your main speakers? About everything I've read is on the 8" speakers, but was thinking of going with the 6.5".

This is also my family room, which is really the theater room. The 8" hits a slightly lower frequency (may/may not be noticeable) and has higher watts. I matched this with my receiver which was 42Hz-20,000Hz and 100 Watts per speaker. I figured since I have the receiver to drive the 8", I should go with it. The additional cost per speaker was nominal and I didn't want to think that I could of gone bigger and didn't. Look at your receiver's specs and see if you should go bigger. Also think about how the increased dimension may skew the WAF (I read somewhere as the Wife Affect Factor), if any. Like anything, I always go bigger if it is worth it, at least for the Wow! factor.

Differences -
6.5":
Frequency Response: 61Hz - 20,000 Hz
Power Handling Capacity: 60 Watts Nominal, 120 Maximum

8":
Frequency Response: 52Hz - 20,000 Hz
Power Handling Capacity: 80 Watts Nominal, 120 Maximum

Thanks. I may go with the 8s. Again, not looking for anything massive, but more for the nice look of InWalls that sound better than the TV speakers. I do my movie watching in the HT. I'll go with the 8s so I don't have buyer's remorse later.

After listening to these things for over a week I cannot express what a deal they are for around $50!!! I would definitely buy again!!!!

How well would these work in an out door porch? The porch is some what enclosed so there is no direct moisture but they would be exposed to the cold or hot weather. If these wouldn't are there any recommendations.

Based on the info in this thread, I ordered 2 pairs of the 8-inch in-ceiling and 2 pairs of the 8-inch in-walls for the 7.1 system that's going into our family room addition.

Once I get them I'll run some on and off-axis frequency response sweeps with them mounted on an infinite baffle to see if the crossover was designed well. The drivers look to be of reasonably good quality so I might find the time to modify the crossovers (or redo them completely) if I see any glaring issues.

I'll work on the in-walls first since it will be easier to fix if I observe a problem. The ceiling coaxial speakers will almost certainly have problems with reflections off the back of the tweeters so those might be a bit more challenging.

Jbowe,

That's a nice setup. You need two more in-ceilings to get you 7 channels. Or maybe they didn't show up in the picture...

By the way, I'm curious as to why you placed the center-channel speaker on it's "side". There will likely be lobing issues with the response being different for the viewers on the left and the right.

If placed vertically you can avoid most of the lobing problems. Since you have the center channel ABOVE the screen, it would make sense to mount the speaker up-side down in order to get the acoustic center closer to the screen.

Thought about going 7.1, but do not currently have the receiver for it and 5.1 is sufficient for my current needs. Damn, I knew someone would bring that up. Maybe I should go ahead and buy the speakers for future installment and that match.

The center channel is sideways for nothing more than the reason of aesthetics. The wife acceptance factor played into that decision. I don't think lobing will be a huge issue since "I" always sit myself in the middle of the couch. That speaker is mainly used for voice, so I figured it wouldn't matter much anyway.

I also mounted the speaker higher than I actually planned, but it will allow for an upgrade in screen size in the future. I just bought my Sammy 61" DLP in March, but feel I could go larger in 5 years...

We've watched a lot of TV the last week and the height of the speaker does not seem to be a problem.

I think I need a good in-wall sub though.

Okay, I just bought an additional 2 in-ceiling speakers for 7.1 capability. Figured I should run the wires while I have the opportunity and had to buy some more cable so may as well take advantage of the shipping and order the speakers too. I'm going with the 6.5" speakers for back surrounds and the ceiling is my only option.

Anyone see a problem with mixing the 8" side-rear surrounds with the 6.5" back surrounds?

Can anyone offer opinions on which pair of in-wall speakers I should buy for my front 5.1 home theatre speakers?

Monoprice 8" rectangles

or

JBL HTI8 8"


MSRP of $599 and a sale price of $169 makes the JBL's look like a heck of a deal, but you can never trust those.

I currently have 2 Tru Audio 5.5" in-wall speakers as my rear surrounds, if it matters. I just need to decide if the JBL's are worth ~$100 more or if I should be happy with some saved cash.

Thanks for any input!

Here are the links to the two speakers I am talking about.

Monoprice:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/pr...#specification

or

JBL:
http://www.jr.com/jbl/pe/JBL_HTI8/

Thanks again.

I got my four pairs of 8" inwalls and inceiling speakers yesterday. The crossover for the ceiling and wall speakers are the same. There's polyswitch type protection on the tweeter of both kinds of speakers.

The crossover components are reasonably good. The tweeter and woofer circuits are both bare-bones second order. The component mix is good to ok. There is a mylar cap, but also a electrolytic for the other leg. There is a ferrite core inductor along with a air core for the complementary network. The in-ceiling has only air-core inductors.

I did some VERY preliminary tests and it looks like there is probably an impedance rise in the crossover region around 2.3kHz. When I finally get to doing some real measurements, I will like add a zobel network to the woofer to see the effect after I do some frequency response sweeps. Both speakers have 0,-3dB,and -6dB switches for tweeter level adjustments.

The crossover otherwise looks reasonable. Since these are infinite baffle designs, there isn't a need for any baffle-step correction which helps keep things simple.

I'm looking forward to someone hooking them up as main speakers so we can get a better idea how they sound! Did anyone check it?

The in-walls are my main speakers (L, C and R) and sound excellent. I need to adjust the tweeter levels David Gilmour's guitar solo's are not as crisp as I would like.

I'm no audiophile, but these do the job for watching movies. I've installed the monoprice speakers for all 7. Wish they had an in-wall sub.

If you are considering these to save money, they are a no-brainer. If you are a true audiophile you should probably go for something that costs much more. I can't see how these are any lower sound quality than the lower-end Polks and Phoenix's.

I've measured the impedance of the 8inch in wall monoprice speakers and have attached the results.

The good news is that it doesn't fall below aroun 6ohms at 7khz. The bad news is that there is close to a 30ohm (!) peak at the crossover frequency around 2.5kHz as I suspected earlier. A lot of amplifiers will voltage-limit into such high-impedance loads when trying to drive power. In the middle of the midrange is probably the worst place it can possibly happen.

A crossover mod is in order... I'll look into it. More to follow...

Dang, I just came across this thread, and I really like the looks of those Monoprice in-walls. I just found out that my existing in-walls (Cambridge, I think) are shot. They came with the house, and I have no idea how old they really are, and they never really sounded that great anyway.

I might just go for these as long as the hole sizes are close to the same. I need to measure when I get home.

Thanks for the info guys....