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Can In-Walls Compete?

2K views 39 replies 16 participants last post by  rboster 
#1 ·
Hey everybody, I am new to the forum but not new to home audio. I am, however, venturing into what is a new territory for me with trying to make a visually discrete sound system.

I'll go ahead and get straight to the point of asking can in-wall speakers compete with bookshelves and towers? I am having a tough time finding a store that has in-walls properly setup for demoing (they are either at the very top of the wall adjacent the ceiling, not installed in an actual wall, etc.) and obviously buying them and listening at home as a trial is not as easy as bookshelves and towers.

So if you're still reading at this point, here are some of the details that can hopefully be answered by some of you:

-Can in-walls have reasonably flat response from ~60Hz - 20kHz?

-How do in-walls compete with towers and bookshelves as far as ratio (e.g. everything else equal, how would a 2-way in-wall with a 6.5" woofer compare to a 2-way bookshelf with a 6.5" woofer)?

-What kind of in-wall speakers do sound studios use, because those must be good, right?


Any input will be greatly appreciated!
 
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#3 ·
What kind of in-wall speakers do sound studios use
They don't. Some may use speakers that are walled in, but that's something else entirely.
 
#7 ·
The back boxes will compromise the sound even further. They are only useful to stop sound leakage into adjacent rooms.
 
#20 ·
:eek:
Enclosures are a critical part of any speaker system. By just throwing a speaker in a wall without a defined volume of airspace around it, there is no way to accurately predict what it will do (crossover issues anyone?). Does it have 3 feet of air, or 30? Is it sealed, or ported by way of leaks around switchboxes? Are there any wall resonances at play?...home construction materials being acoustically inert is not exactly high on the list of their manufacturer's priorities.

The common misconception is that with more air volume the F3 will just be lower....and that's it, no other parameters would change. Saying that that is the only criteria to cabinet, driver, and crossover design is a disservice to designers. We're up to what, 10 different typed of enclosures now with everything from isobaric to transmission line, to sealed to...

Maybe you can explain how the back boxes would compromise the sound even further?
 
#11 ·
For some reason, you pay more for the wall/ceiling speakers than the equivalent that come with an acoustically tuned enclosure.
Once you mount wall speakers there is no adjusting height or toe in.(some will pivot a little).

I always like to make adjustments,modifications, upgrades, so never saw a practicality in inwalls.
 
#13 ·
If you can push your budget, then the JBLs are about the best you can get. They are an offshoot of the highly regarded JBL M2s. Last year, JBL put them in their Cedia demo instead of the M2s. One of the top three demos of the show. Wisdom may have been better, but their speakers are on another cost level. IIRC the Wisdom demo room was around $500k.
 
#15 ·
The only in-wall installations I've seen and heard that could compete sonically with enclosure systems costing a fraction as much cost north of $25K. Lots of reasons why, mainly being unknowing folks "bought" nice looking installations instead of good sounding sound systems.
Another reason is bad placement too near sidewalls and more often than not HF drivers L/C/R way off plane which is a sure way to ruin all the qualities necessary for a good front soundstage....bad installers are willing to sell and place speakers wherever people want them and I've seen and heard some real dussies.
It's hard enough to engineer and execute a good sounding in-wall system, knowing that once you've done it, it's going to cost a lot of money, time and effort to undo it and there is no such thing as making minor tweaks until you are happy with the results.


With enclosures, you can move them in and out from walls, adjust toe-in and readjust your room equalization accordingly until the system is optimized...and usually at a fraction of the price. Would I ever use in-walls? Maybe, if I was building a $40K plus dedicated theater, but even then I'd have to be convinced not to go with "theater grade" enclosures I could move and adjust behind an acoustic screen.
 
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#16 ·
I had a similar experience, where I was most interested in in-walls but couldn't find a way to demo them. Eventually I started talking to installer types, and wound up purchasing some James Loudspeaker l/c/r that an installer was using in his demo room. They were by far the best in-walls I heard. My other choice was B&W CM6s, but I thought the James sounded so good that I went with them and am very happy. I'd agree that dollar for dollar there's no way around losing some sound quality when you go in-wall, but they can still sound really great. I'm guessing mine sound as good as bookshelf/tower speakers costing maybe 50-60% as much (list prices for new products). So it's a trade off but one I am more than satisfied with.
 
#17 ·
Great info! Thank you. Glad to hear of somebody that found some and is happy with them. What model/s of the James' do you have, and about where do they really start dropping off frequency-wise? I'm concerned about the ability of in-walls to go low enough to not have my subwoofers carrying too much of a load.
 
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