Solance speakers

stuckinla2000 said:

I am putting together a home theater/media room. My knowledge on speakers in none. So, I hired an AV company to come and help design and give input. They basically said that Solance speakers were a great home theater speaker. I feel like they are a bit pricey they are like 500 a speaker. but I have nothing to compare them to, I have never purchased good speakers before. I don't want something crappy but I also don't want to over pay.

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Pay the "AV company" for INSTALLATION LABOR only.

Buy everything else yourself. Invest a few hours to research this stuff, it's hardly rocket science and NO, you do not always "get what you pay for" --- the point of diminishing returns hits fast and hard.

First of all, are you 100% SURE you absolutely must have in-walls even for the critical front 3 that do 80% of the HT output? (In-walls for rear surrounds are fine.) Here are some things to consider:

In-walls are really ideal moneymakers for audio BUSINESSES, when you think about it.

1. The per unit profit margins on "high end" in-walls are bound to be much higher since they often cost the same or more than comparably-performing freestanding speakers which include cabinets (esp. the pretty furniture-grade cabinets of supposedly "higher end" freestanding speakers).

2. It's much much harder (pretty much IMPOSSIBLE in most cases) for a consumer to go out and comparatively listen to different in-wall speakers before buying, so no need to worry about sound quality or price competition, esp. if the customer was referred by a builder or realtor who's already won the customer's trust (who of course receives a nice "finder's fee" that is automatically added to the customer's bill).

3. Once the in-walls have been paid for and installed, it's a much much bigger hassle to have them removed and returned for a refund (if a refund policy is even offered on in-walls post-installation). As a result, the customer will bend over backwards to live with the in-walls they've bought without ever hearing---especially when they realize that they'd be left with big gaping holes in their drywall, which they'll probably have to fix in order to fit whatever replacement in-walls they go with---and if they switch to freestanding or on-wall speakers they'll have to both patch and repaint the whole wall if not the whole room. To put it bluntly: the customer is basically STUCK with whatever they've already paid a big chunk of change for.

On-wall or freestanding speakers, if you get them home and don't like the way they sound, straight back into the box they go---you either drop them back at the shop or a UPS/Fedex depot, just like that.

LOL, if I were getting into the audio business I'd be pushing in-walls and Bose speakers all day long, too.