M

Michael Brown

Audiophyte
My better half has simply refused to accept tower speakers for yge last 40 years. We currently have some cheap bose bookshelf L & R w a nice martin slm center channel.

I'm thinking much bigger sound. Thinking about Monoprice THX Ultra 3 way IN WALL speakers for the front and center and the 265IW for sorrounds. Top it off with a Monolith pair of sealed 12" THX subs.

Who has experience wit in wall front sound? Thoughts?
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
My better half has simply refused to accept tower speakers for yge last 40 years. We currently have some cheap bose bookshelf L & R w a nice martin slm center channel.

I'm thinking much bigger sound. Thinking about Monoprice THX Ultra 3 way IN WALL speakers for the front and center and the 265IW for sorrounds. Top it off with a Monolith pair of sealed 12" THX subs.

Who has experience wit in wall front sound? Thoughts?
Is something like this what you had in mind?



Women can have a point!
 
WaynePflughaupt

WaynePflughaupt

Audioholic Samurai
She doesn’t like towers, but she’s fine with - not just one, but two of those huge subs???

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
Those are low fidelity units and open back. My design is a total in wall speaker design without compromise, that includes left, right and properly designed center, plus a very potent in wall sub. Power handing 300 watts each for the front three. So the system can effortlessly fill a very large space, and potent enough to handle a rowdy party scene if required. No sound quality allowances have to be made for it being in wall. There is nothing else around that will deliver what that system does in wall. If you want 5.1 or 7.1 you just put together more of the two ways. You can add subs if you want to, however that sub is highly efficient and fills a large space effortlessly.

The speakers are also easy to build and all the plans are there. The design is still in the computer at the cabinet maker. All the boards could be cut in minutes and shipped if any one wants to do it that way.
 
DigitalDawn

DigitalDawn

Senior Audioholic
My better half has simply refused to accept tower speakers for yge last 40 years. We currently have some cheap bose bookshelf L & R w a nice martin slm center channel.

I'm thinking much bigger sound. Thinking about Monoprice THX Ultra 3 way IN WALL speakers for the front and center and the 265IW for sorrounds. Top it off with a Monolith pair of sealed 12" THX subs.

Who has experience wit in wall front sound? Thoughts?
For a bit more you can have a *great* in-wall speaker from Triad. Triad's in-wall speakers are sealed. And your partner will love the fact that Triad will custom paint match the speaker grills to match your walls.

While not a household name, Triad is a favorite of custom installers and has won numerous industry awards. The company is also a prototype partner for Dolby, helping to design speaker systems for immersive audio.

 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
For a bit more you can have a *great* in-wall speaker from Triad. Triad's in-wall speakers are sealed. And your partner will love the fact that Triad will custom paint match the speaker grills to match your walls.

While not a household name, Triad is a favorite of custom installers and has won numerous industry awards. The company is also a prototype partner for Dolby, helping to design speaker systems for immersive audio.

The problem though with these in walls and ceiling speakers for that matter, people do not publish their data. I can guess why. So no one has any idea if they are any good or not.

My design is here for all to make use of if they wish and its exposed to peer review.

I do not believe there is any system like or comparable to the one I designed. So anyone who builds and installs it can be confident it is state of the art and comparable to some of the best free standing set ups around. In my design I had the goal of not making any allowances to SQ because it is in wall, other then the unavoidable reflection from the flat surface as it has in effect a large front baffle.

The system still sounds very good, and can achieve high and very uniform spl. in a large space. Voice clarity is excellent without shout or sibilance. In fact if I'm on the upstairs landing I can hear every word when my wife is watching TV at very normal volumes. Talking of which my wife is still over the moon with "her" system. She would in fact put emphasis on the "her"!

Really the speaker industry does everything possible to hide the true performance of their products with a few exceptions. I note the in wall and ceiling market to be among the worst offenders. It is just not good enough.

So if anyone builds that design to spec. they can be confident of a very elegant and high performing system.
 
DigitalDawn

DigitalDawn

Senior Audioholic
If Triad is good enough for all the top theater designers, such as Dennis Erskine, Anthony Grimani, and Shawn Byrne, who are well-versed in designing world-class theaters, then they should be good enough for anyone. Keep in mind that these folks are experts in acoustic design and are very knowledgeable in off-axis response. They would simply not specify Triad if they couldn't get consistent and excellent results. Remember, it's their reputations on the line.

In addition, as I mentioned before, Triad is an exclusive Dolby prototype partner. Because Triad can create hand-built speakers with just about any spec imaginable, Dolby gives Triad the specifications and Triad builds speakers for them to test their systems. Also, Triad just won demo of the year at this past CEDIA Expo.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
If Triad is good enough for all the top theater designers, such as Dennis Erskine, Anthony Grimani, and Shawn Byrne, who are well-versed in designing world-class theaters, then they should be good enough for anyone. Keep in mind that these folks are experts in acoustic design and are very knowledgeable in off-axis response. They would simply not specify Triad if they couldn't get consistent and excellent results. Remember, it's their reputations on the line.

In addition, as I mentioned before, Triad is an exclusive Dolby prototype partner. Because Triad can create hand-built speakers with just about any spec imaginable, Dolby gives Triad the specifications and Triad builds speakers for them to test their systems. Also, Triad just won demo of the year at this past CEDIA Expo.
That is all anecdotal. SHOW YOUR DATA. It won't work like my in wall rig does. Not even close.
 
DigitalDawn

DigitalDawn

Senior Audioholic
I don't know. I would have to actually *listen* to your setup. DIY is all well and good, but many folks want to have a professionally finished system as they don't have the time or inclination to do these things for themselves. This doesn't mean that one needs to hire a theater designer, but rather, with the right speakers/amplification and a good room, folks can have a great audio experience.

I see that you put a lot of thought and time into your system and I'm sure it sounds very nice. If you need help with the wire management, please let me know. <big grin>.
 
M

Movie2099

Audioholic General
My better half has simply refused to accept tower speakers for yge last 40 years. We currently have some cheap bose bookshelf L & R w a nice martin slm center channel.

I'm thinking much bigger sound. Thinking about Monoprice THX Ultra 3 way IN WALL speakers for the front and center and the 265IW for sorrounds. Top it off with a Monolith pair of sealed 12" THX subs.

Who has experience wit in wall front sound? Thoughts?
What is your budget? No knock on the monoprice In-walls, but there are not a lot of reviews out there with those speakers so I can't say those are going to be top notch. If that's what you're looking for. I'm going to say from experience, that if you want some high end in-walls for music and movies, you're going to have spend some good change on in-walls. I'd say at the very minimum $1000/per speakers. Other wise you're just getting the run of the mill avg. in-wall speaker. Triads that DigitalDawn recommends are a solid in-wall speaker company. You can't go wrong with them. Martin Logan, Bowers and Wilkins, RBH, KEF and Paradigm, just to name a few, make some very nice in-wall speakers. If you have the budget for something from those manufacturers, I would take a look. I have B&W In-walls and I can tell you with first hand experience that they are amazing. Music and movies have never sounded better.

Just my two cents.
 
TLS Guy

TLS Guy

Seriously, I have no life.
I don't know. I would have to actually *listen* to your setup. DIY is all well and good, but many folks want to have a professionally finished system as they don't have the time or inclination to do these things for themselves. This doesn't mean that one needs to hire a theater designer, but rather, with the right speakers/amplification and a good room, folks can have a great audio experience.

I see that you put a lot of thought and time into your system and I'm sure it sounds very nice. If you need help with the wire management, please let me know. <big grin>.
It is my wife's system. She was the instigator. No speaker boxes allowed. I had not really considered putting a system in that large open space. My wife insisted. As I thought about it and looked around, I saw no integrated product that would meet our requirements on numerous counts.

It was a complex design problem. It was made possible by being new constriction. By filling in the space between the kitchen and fireplace breast it was possible to get everything in wall. That space in only suitable fro 2.1 or 3.1. So 3.1 it was. As always the design and development of the center speaker was the most difficult. In order to be acceptable, this had to be either a coaxial or three way. Sideways MTM has to be ruled out, like a TV above the fireplace, which should never be done under ANY circumstances. For optimal speech discrimination, the midrange unit had to cover the whole of the speech discrimination band, which it does. This solution allowed for the system to be viewed properly gathered by the fireplace. Apart from being a first class system it had to cover the whole frequency band at power.

So a design using sealed enclosures and a TL sub was the solution. The sub is a 10" driver, but with TL loading it is highly efficient and can fill the place effortlessly and with authority with little power. The F3 of all the bass/mids is 80 Hz. So that was how it was modeled. However measurements and listening confirmed that the optimal crossover to the sub was in fact 40 Hz, due to reinforcement from the wall. This was something hard to model. All the bass/mids and midrange are isolated in their own compartments, so they do not drive each other. This should always be done in sealed designs with multiple drivers but seldom is.

My wife, my architect/interior designer daughter and I had some debate about how to finish the speakers. In the end the design for the speaker trim matching the bessel of the TV, and the equipment case trim matching the house trim won out. All the trim I made from aluminum angle. I made all the pieces and had the pieces professionally finished. Black speaker fabric was selected to match the TV. Then a white grill for the output end of the TL pipe. I think it worked out well form an aesthetic standpoint.



Power is 250 watts to each of the speakers and sub for a total of 1000 watts. I have found my wife really cranking it on occasions.

This system created a lot of interest among our friends. Before the Super Bowl, some of our friends asked if they could watch the last one at our place. Well that led to a pretty big bash. Not being huge sports fans, we had never given a Super Bowl party before. My wife and I spent a day cooking, and a good time was had by all. Even with the sound low the commentary was highly intelligible and the system was cranked for some ads as desired.

I don't know what the demand is for in wall systems. I have to tell you I have never visited a home with one installed. I have heard set ups installed in dealers show rooms from time to time and been less than impressed. I have by now though, heard numerous ghastly sound bar systems in homes.

Due to WAF I would have thought in wall systems would be more popular than they seem to be. So that is why I published the details of this system. It is open and free to all to do as they wish with. All the speaker parts are preserved in the C & C machine computer in Albany MN. The owner says he can make the parts available to any who want. The tweeter for the center is NLA, but Hiquaphon have a suitable 3/4" replacement that would require a minimal crossover mod.

What is a real keeper here though is that in wall sub, which gives up nothing to being in wall. For surround systems more of the two way speakers can be added.

Although this is a secondary system for us, we use it a lot, and have been glad we built it. So it is really a complimentary system to our 7.2.4 theater room, which we really enjoy.

You are a long way from here, but if this lock down ever ends and you are in the Twin Cities you can give it all a listen.
 
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