Would You Put Regular Speakers In A Cabinet???

[Parsonsk]

I've been planning on buying in-wall speakers for my new home theater and was recently asked why not buy regular free standing speakers and build them into another cabinet. new cabinet depth about 24"
Up until now i always thought that you NEVER do this...you never put a cabinet speaker in a anoter cabinet.

The plan would be to have my left center and right channels built into the wall with enough space around them for any potenital porting and cover the enclosure with grill cloth. Th argument being is that i could have better sounding speakers and save money...

What are your thoughts on this?

Have you done it?

Do you know anyone who has?


ps i do not have room for regualr floor standing speakers. One way or another i will have "in-wall" speakers

Thanks

[John Holmes]

Up until now i always thought that you NEVER do this...you never put a cabinet speaker in a anoter cabinet.

No need to change your way of thinking now!

Seriously, it is not a good idea to do this. Going with speakers designed to be in-wall and placed in a wall, no problem.

[gd]

Absolutely not.

If home decor is important, buy dedicated in-wall speakers.

If performance is important, buy proper loudspeakers and place them in the room with the breathing space they need, away from the wall... ditch any "Entertainment Center" cabinetry... install room treatments as needed.

And forget about appearing in the next issue of Architectural Digest. :twisted:

[Kevin D]

Just do the same with in-walls. Mount them to the front of the cabinet space (sealed). I wouldn't give it the entire depth of the cabinet, but make the airspace available the same as a 8' 2x4 wall.

We've even mounted in-walls in the cabinet doors. You'll need to permanently attach the doors (again sealed), but you can keep a consistent look across the cabinet.

Kevin D.

[Ovation]

IF you do this (not that I would, but if it has to be done) do NOT use rear ported speakers. A sealed design would be best, but, failing that, front ports. NO REAR PORTS!!!!!!

I would go with in-walls that were designed for that purpose (or even some on-walls--
Totem Acoustics Tribe series are a really good on-wall option).

[DeepEndX]

Don't do it!!! Unless you get in wall speakers, your speakers going to sound supressed, muffled, rattled, and possibly boomy/echo. The sound is not going to come out correctly.

[David Meek]

If you are going to do this, you really should go with in-wall designed speakers. The better ones are designed to compensate (as best they can) for the inherent draw-backs to enclosing a speaker in a wall or piece of furniture. However, if you have to use your existing monitor-type speakers you can do some things to minimize the effects of the mount:

- make the void area around the speakers as small as possible
- make the cabinet walls, ceiling and floor (around the speaker anyway) out of double MDF
- fill the void area with sonically inert stuffing
- push the face of the speaker out from the front of the cabinet as far as possible
- put the speaker on isolation footers to decouple it from the cabinet

All these things are done in order to minimize the interaction between the speaker and the enclosure. Unfortunately, you just can't eliminate the problems in a set-up like this.

[Parsonsk]

I think I’m going to go with true in-walls
The paradigm AMS-LCR's for the fronts and AMS-150R for the ceiling mounted rears.

I really find it frustrating that the dealers here in Calgary don't have in-wall speakers installed in their showrooms. I’m basically going on their hunch on what it might sound like (I’ve been to every sales room in the city). There’s no way to listen to them...now they may have on set up high for their own use but never a true HT set up...