Installing a pair of Sonos in-wall architectural speakers in a small room for streaming music using the Sonos amp. They will be in an inside wall with no insulation in the wall. Asked Sonos technical support if I should sound treat the wall cavity with insulation etc. To improve the sound and was told, no, leave the cavity empty. Erin had a review of in-wall speakers and found the ones without their own speaker box sounded and tested better. That’s the Sonos speakers setup. I’m having an electrician install them along with some other work so it’s not a DIY where I can experiment With treatment etc. Will use the Sonos Trueplay function on the app to calibrate once they’ve installed but can’t mess with them once they’re in the wall. Anyone have experience with the Sonos in-wall speakers? Did you put in a hollow wall or with insulation? How do they sound?
There is virtually no useful data on those speakers. The problem is that due to design, all installations will have significantly different performance.
Problems of this design are bleeding from the wall space to regions of the house you don't want. The problem is that you can't know the effect of a back box, without knowing the T/S parameters of the bass mid driver.
My instincts are to put Poly fill or fiberglass insulation in the wall space the speaker is placed in. That will reduce bleed, but more importantly it will significantly reduce reflections from the wall behind the speaker being reflected through the cone and causing peaks and nulls in the response.
I don't think I would personally cut holes in the sheet rock with very limited idea of the results.
I do have an in wall system, but I modelled it as part of the design, and yes, the speakers are enclosed. I also made measurements.
So I think it really comes down to what level of performance you are looking for. If it is something just to watch TV programs with, it may fit the bill. If you are intending the system for critical listening with high fidelity results, then this in not the way to go about it. So your expectations are critical to whether you will be happy or not.
I would advise a sub and a fairly high crossover, at 100 to 120 Hz. That will help a lot, as most of your major problems are likely to be below 120 Hz.