I’m putting in a surround sound setup in my livingroom.The walls are prewired for speakers.Can anyone recommend a good brand speaker designed for inwall installation? My unit will be 5oo watts/channel.I’m looking for realistic sound reproduction,not pure volume.
Cambridge Soundworks has a line of in-wall speakers. Go to this site, then on the left side of the page, select “Home Audio”, then “Speakers”, then you can select “In-wall Speakers”.
I have a pair that they don’t sell anymore, which are OK, but maybe a little muddy. I think the space between the studs is making a resonant cavity. I’ve been meaning to block this off with a 2x4, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. The ones on the web page have larger woofers than my pair have, and probably different tweater as well.
Installation was easy. The hardest part will be getting the wires there. If you can do that, the rest is painless.
I have no affiliation with Cambridge Soundworks beyond owning some of their speakers.
Beware that in-wall speakers can be difficult to get to sound ‘right’, because of the acoustic properties of the material behind the speaker, the drywall, etc. Speaker cabinets are very carefully designed to get the proper acoustic qualities.
It’s important to box the speakers properly when you install them. I put some in-wall speakers in my rec room, and I built a box for each one in the framing by putting 2X4’s across the top and bottom between the studs. Then I filled the space with fiberglass insulation. The speakers themselves had heavy metal frames that eliminated rattling and other vibration problems.
If you’re not comfortable with this, you can get in-wall speakers that have their own enclosures. That’s what I’d recommend.
For brands, consider Paradigm, Energy, Niles, Polk, Acoustic Research, Boston Acoustics, Infinity. Paradigm offers great bang for your buck. They are consistently some of the highest rated speakers around, at some of the lowest prices. I think I paid $500 cdn for a pair of good Paradigm in-wall speakers.