Living Room In-Wall Speaker Advice?

[DrDev]

So when my wife and I built our house, I managed to secure my own theater room which I am in the process of slowly bringing up to speed as funds are available. However we also had the living room pre-wired for 5.1 channel sound as part of the included package from our builder. And while it's not my home entertainment focus, we find that we seem to spend a lot more of our time watching movies and TV in the living room than in the theater room since we're usually too busy in the evening with the kids to sit and chill with a nice glass of wine in the dedicated theater room.

I have managed to convince her that it's time to add a full 5.1 channel system to our living room to go along with the 50" LCD we bought not long ago, but she has placed some constraints in that the speakers need to be in-wall and "inexpensive". Additionally, the pre-wiring was done when I was out of town and as a result, the plates covering the wiring for fronts and surrounds are located about 10 feet off the ground (TV is just above seated eye level. The left front is about 4 feet to the left of our "center" of the wall and the right front around 6-8 feet to the right of center (haven't measured precisely yet).

Anyone have any suggestions for good quality speakers that might be more forgiving than others in this particular arrangement which also would come close to passing my wife's overly-optimistic estimate of how much I should spend?

I have skimmed over posts in my "in-wall" search on these forums but was curious if there might be aspects to this arrangment and budget limitations which might spark alternative suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any input from the gurus out there.
-Dr. Dev

 

[Haoleb]

unfortunately when builders or electricians prewire stuff like they they usually screw it up. Which is evident with what youve got. I have had good results with Polk inwall speakers, Most of them also have an aimable tweeter so if your speakers are less than ideally placed you can, in a way try to make up for it with the tweeter. Amazon had the best prices when I was shopping for them.

I think the Rc85i is a pretty well rounded speaker for a relatively inexpensive in-wall. Especially if this doesnt have to be your main system.

http://www.amazon.com/Polk-Audio-RC85i-2-Way-Speakers/dp/B00006I5O6/ref=pd_bbs_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1222447584&sr=8-3

 

[bandphan]

are the the trusses running in your favor where you could relocate the wire? Also boosting the speaker could help. For good value priced inceilings check out niles audio, they have good dynamics, with resonable extension, and both the woofers and tweeter pivot. Speakercraft makes the AIM series, but based on your budget, they might be exceeding..

also let your wife know that the sound system at a minimum should equal the tv cost..

 

[mazersteven]

Speakercraft AIM LCR series
http://www.speakercraft.com/#Products:19:AIM LCR 3

 

[DrDev]

Relocating the wire might be an option, but honestly with my time limitations I'd almost rather see if I can just change the balance on the fronts to make up for the crappy contractor placement of the pre-wired plates.

I'll look over the suggestions thrown out above (thanks!) but the TV = sound system cost equation might not fly too far with my wife...some nonsense about having to pay for the kids college eventually...rubbish.

 

[rnatalli]

I'm in the process of selling RBH MC Series inwalls on the cheap as I can't use them. They're some of the best inwalls out there. If you're interested, let me know. Here's the link:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47602