Need some advice!

[sbinkley]

I know there is a lot of good advice on here so I am hoping you can share some with me. We are moving into a new house and I need to upgrade my speakers. The wall that the tv goes on is right when you come down the stairs, so floorstanding speakers are out. Also, the back side of the tv wall is unfinished as it is the utility room (I plan to keep all components in there and run an IR repeater to control everything). Will in-wall speakers even work if there is no sheetrock on the other side of the wall?

Ideally, I would like one of two scenarios. First, if in-walls will work then I am considering doing the front and center as in-walls with a set of surround speakers for the rear (non in-wall). The other option is doing all on-wall speakers. I just want to get the best sound for the money and am also worried in-walls won't get me that. The room is just shy of 16' wide by 20' deep with 8' ceilings.

I have really been looking into a 5.1 RSL CG23 system, but with the wall mounts the speakers will stick out about 11" which seems like a lot to me and I am worried it will look odd. My absolute budget is $2000 for the 5.1 system and hoping to stay a little under. I know it isn't a huge budget, but I would like to see what you recommend. I really appreciate any and all advice!

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

In-wall speakers rely on the wall cavity to act as the speaker “box,” so an open-backed wall will sound thin with no bass.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[sbinkley]

In-wall speakers rely on the wall cavity to act as the speaker “box,” so an open-backed wall will sound thin with no bass.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

Thank you for that! Would it not be as big of deal if I plan on having a good subwoofer, or would the sound not reach as well?

 

[lovinthehd]

I'm wondering in a room that large why you can't use floor standing/bookshelf speakers? Maybe pics of the room? That wall you're worried about might be ideal for an IB (infinite baffle) sub, tho! There are in-wall speakers that have their own boxes I believe. Not an in-wall user myself, prefer speakers I can move around.

 

[sbinkley]

Unfortunately right when you come down the stairs is the tv wall so you would be walking into floor standing speakers and aesthetically it wouldn’t look good.

 

[lovinthehd]

Unfortunately right when you come down the stairs is the tv wall so you would be walking into floor standing speakers and aesthetically it wouldn’t look good.

So the bottom of the stairs is basically right in front of the tv? Why that wall for the tv then? Still having trouble picturing this. In my house audio trumps aesthetics, tho

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

Thank you for that! Would it not be as big of deal if I plan on having a good subwoofer, or would the sound not reach as well?

The speakers would midrange-city (and above). They would not extend low enough to blend with a sub.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[DigitalDawn]

Check out Triad Speakers. We use them exclusively for all our theaters and speaker installations.

Triad is a Portland-based company that hand builds speakers in just about every configuration you can imagine. They will even color match the speakers and grills to match the paint on your walls.

Triad has In-Wall and angled InCeiling speakers with sealed enclosures and subwoofers that work amazingly well for spaces in which you have no floor space, or when you wish to hide the speakers from view. The company has speakers in many different price ranges, starting at $350 per speaker.

Let me know if we can help.

Regards,
Dawn