Which Angstrom Ambienti Series in-Wall Speakers?

[Lax]

Hi Everyone,

after doing some research for in-wall speakers, It appears that I’m leaning towards Angstrom Ambienti Series in-Wall speakers[/URL] (as they are reasonable price & local for me, Markham,ON), but i’m trying to decide which Angstrom in-Walls speakers should I go with,

Please suggest, which configuration will result a better sound quality. Also share your experience if anyone of you have them.

Left: AV-8W
Right: AV-8W
Center: AV-5.25 LCR

Left: AV-5.25 LCR
Right: AV-5.25 LCR
Center: AV-5.25 LCR

Left: AV-6.5W
Right: AV-6.5W
Center: AV-5.25 LCR

The room dimension is L:25.5ft / W: 10.5ft / H:8ft, there are two openings, one to kitchen & one to hallway / Stairs. please chip-in, thank you.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I have a pair of AV-6.5W's in my kitchen for stereo use and am quite happy with them, all things considered. The dealer I bought them from also carried Paradigm CS-160 in-walls. They were all mounted in the same wall in their demo room and I judged the sound quality from the Ambientis to be superior (They didn't have other Ambienti models mounted, so I couldn't directly compare all the models you listed). I have difficulty putting my judgement of sound quality into words, but to my ear, the Ambientis had a deeper bass response and sound staging was better. They also cost about 50% more than the Paradigms. But, I was willing to pony up the extra cash for what I judged to be a better speaker. In the end, "sound quality" is quite subjective and it would be dishonest of me to guarantee that you will like any of the speakers you listed. You have to listen to them yourself.

Does your dealer have all the models in your list mounted in a demonstration room? That would be the only way to compare sound quality directly. Since they are all from the same model range, I would guess - and this is only a guess - that the sound quality would be quite similar. The only appreciable difference would probably be the bass response as a consequence of the different mid-range/woofer sizes. The speakers' specifications, as listed on Angstrom's website, include a frequency response range, but don't indicate a tolerance, so it's difficult to say what a realistic frequency response is for each speaker.

Hope this helps!

 

[Lax]

i'm thinking to go with 7.1 , should i pick in-wall for surround? or in-ceiling?
rear only can go in ceiling... plz chip in.

 

[GO-NAD!]

i'm thinking to go with 7.1 , should i pick in-wall for surround? or in-ceiling?
rear only can go in ceiling... plz chip in.

My home theatre system has free-standing speakers, so I can't speak from personal experience. Going with in-wall for your front speakers, as you've already planned to do, is a no-brainer. But, for surrounds and rear surrounds, you could go with in-wall or in-ceiling. You say that your rears can only be in-ceiling? If it were me, I'd be leaning towards in-wall all around, if possible. The left and right surrounds should be relatively close to your listening position, so the tweeters would not have to be pivoted too far off-axis. However, although the in-ceilings have aimable tweeters, I think you may have to place the rear surrounds closer to your listening position than would be desireable. The further back you place them, the more you have to pivot the tweeters in order to aim them towards the listening position. This creates a larger divergence of the frequency arcs emanating from each driver. At some point that divergence may seriously affect the sound quality coming from those speakers.

So, in a nutshell:

For left/right surrounds, I would choose whichever type is easier to install. For the rear surrounds, I'd be very leery of using in-ceiling speakers and would install in-wall speakers if at all possible.

Please note - I am not an expert on in-wall/in-ceiling speakers and what I've stated is just conjecture on my part. I hope someone with more experience and knowledge in this area will jump in and give you a better informed opinion. I'm sorry that I can't give you a definitive answer....