Buyer Beware: The Non-Recommendation Speaker Thread (Snake Oil Welcome)

[MidnightSensi]

Sonance Invisible Speakers (SA3 & SA 1.5)

Truly a pain to put in, and sound like complete garbage. They sound like you put a boom box inside of a metal garbage can. Sonance has never been a good "value," but my general experience with them has been they make decorator friendly inwalls of good build quality. These speakers seem to promise the decorators dream but deliver little more than dentist-waiting-room sound quality. At a MSRP of 1400 USD, buyer beware, its hard to return something you drywalled in!!!!

 

[Aquinas]

This post is from 2009, and Sonance has created new invisible speakers series in 2020.

Are these still garbage? Mangolia HiFi (albeit purchased by BestBuy) is pushing these, telling me they sound great. Is it still too good to be true Snake Oil?

 

[lovinthehd]

This post is from 2009, and Sonance has created new invisible speakers series in 2020.

Are these still garbage? Mangolia HiFi (albeit purchased by BestBuy) is pushing these, telling me they sound great. Is it still too good to be true Snake Oil?

Didn't they have them hooked up so you could tell for yourself whether they sound great or not?

 

[Aquinas]

Didn't they have them hooked up so you could tell for yourself whether they sound great or not?

Nope, they didn't. I know. Sketchy.

 

[Kingnoob]

Nope, they didn't. I know. Sketchy.

Yeah I’f you can’t hear them definitely not a safe idea , they didn’t offer to hook them up ? Did you ask a manager or something. There’s way better brands available to settle for junk.
Htd are good if you want on wall Speakers, look theater like.

 

[Aquinas]

So, update. The Sonance guy came into Best Buy and let me listen to the Sonance IS10s, which is a slightly larger version of the one I was quoted.

They sound great. I mean, full bass and crispy highs and everything in between.

Now, please note: I'm NOT an audiophile. I'm a slightly-more-than-amateur musician and use pro audio gear to record at home, so I'm more discerning than your average consumer, but I don't have golden ears or anything. I do not claim any street cred when it comes to nerding out on audio stuff.

All that said, they sounded pretty damn good for being invisible.

 

[johnestan]

So, update. The Sonance guy came into Best Buy and let me listen to the Sonance IS10s, which is a slightly larger version of the one I was quoted.

They sound great. I mean, full bass and crispy highs and everything in between.

Now, please note: I'm NOT an audiophile. I'm a slightly-more-than-amateur musician and use pro audio gear to record at home, so I'm more discerning than your average consumer, but I don't have golden ears or anything. I do not claim any street cred when it comes to nerding out on audio stuff.

All that said, they sounded pretty damn good for being invisible.

What was the quote? I hate when they don't list the price online. I'm thinking about picking up an older model on ebay for surrounds in a small room.

 

[Aquinas]

What was the quote? I hate when they don't list the price online. I'm thinking about picking up an older model on ebay for surrounds in a small room.

$960US each for the IS8, $1350US each for the IS10. I heard the latter in the store. I bought the IS8s though. Haven’t received them yet.

 

[johnestan]

$960US each for the IS8, $1350US each for the IS10. I heard the latter in the store. I bought the IS8s though. Haven’t received them yet.

Thanks! I didn't know that best buy sold these. They are not on their site.