In wall mounted speakers / Floor Subwoofer (reviews, sound, wiring, brand)

[skinsguy37]

Just a quick question. Do any of you guys use the "in wall" mounted speakers for your home audio? Do you use the in floor sub-woofer? The Polk-Audio speakers seemed to get good reviews and I was just wondering if it's worth the money to invest in such or to just stick with floor speakers? My wife and I are wanting to keep the living as clutter free as possible, but we do want to be able to use our stereo receiver.

Thanks in advance!

[hoffdano]

In-wall speakers, even good and expensive ones, sound worse than speakers in a box. In-wall suffers from unpredictable vibrations from the wall itself that distort the sound; they suffer from diffraction from the wall; they lock you in to placement; they require in-wall wiring; if they fail and the brand is not available you have difficulty replacing them.

So unless a flush appearance is a top priority, I wouldn't choose them.

As for in-floor subwoofers, they are more rare because almost no one is willing to cut a hole in the floor. I think they have the potential to perform reasonably well simply because the floor is more rigid than walls and bass frequencies are not hurt by diffraction like high frequencies are.

[skinsguy37]

As far as the ones I was looking at you can find them here.

It is something to consider in regards to the wall vibration and distortion. Of course, if I mount external speakers (we're pretty much set that we don't want floor speakers taking up room) we're still going to want to hide the speaker wire. I do want quality sound, but I'm not into the top notch quality - but a clean, no clutter appearance is necessary for us.

[hoffdano]

I would choose on-wall speakers over in-wall. On-wall includes the better soundbars, both powered and passive.

A good example is the Paradigm Millenia series.

[vmaxnc]

Originally Posted by hoffdano

In-wall speakers, even good and expensive ones, sound worse than speakers in a box. In-wall suffers from unpredictable vibrations from the wall itself that distort the sound; they suffer from diffraction from the wall; they lock you in to placement; they require in-wall wiring; if they fail and the brand is not available you have difficulty replacing them.

So unless a flush appearance is a top priority, I wouldn't choose them.

As for in-floor subwoofers, they are more rare because almost no one is willing to cut a hole in the floor. I think they have the potential to perform reasonably well simply because the floor is more rigid than walls and bass frequencies are not hurt by diffraction like high frequencies are.

Originally Posted by hoffdano

I would choose on-wall speakers over in-wall. On-wall includes the better soundbars, both powered and passive.

A good example is the Paradigm Millenia series.

This^^.

Flush mounted speakers are always a compromise over similarly priced freestanding speakers. There are too many variables inside a wall or ceiling that will negatively affect a flush mounted speaker's performance.

I've never been a fan of floor mounted subs. Too many restrictions. If someone wants good (not audiophile) sound in a room, there is usually a way to place a sub so that it works well, and isn't a huge visual distraction. But I have worked with people who were unwilling to accept any intrusion into their decor, including flush mounted speakers, so they went without. So be it.

OP-Bigger is generally better when it comes to speakers, all things being equal. So putting tiny cubes on a wall isn't necessarily an improvement over a speaker like the one you linked to.