Audiosource in-wall/in-ceiling (1 Viewer)

[Ray_H]

My first post but I've spent hours reading and have learned a ton from everyone!!
I have an A/V receiver (DD, DTS, etc.), the Sony sub that everyone seems to be talking about (haven't put the fill material in it yet), DVD player, monitor, and the rest of the standard movie/music gear.
The only place that we can set up a viewing area is in our living room. I do have an office but it's only about 10x10 and houses my computer and filing cabinets.
My wife is very picky about clutter and to her 6 speakers would be too much clutter. She told me the only way that she would be happy with a surround system is if I used in-wall and in-ceiling speakers (sub is okay).
A friend of mine purchased Link Removed in-walls and in-ceiling speakers that he was going to install but he got scared about cutting holes and they are still in the box.
The mains are these:
Audiosource IW8S Three-Way In-Wall Speakers
8 inch polypropylene woofer
2.5 inch midrange
1 inch dome swivel tweeter
100-watt power handling
28 Hz - 24 kHz frequency response
90 dB sensitivity
14.5 x 10.67 x 3.5 inches, 9 lbs.
The surrounds are these:
IC8S Ceiling Speakers
8 inch polypropylene woofer
1 inch center mounted swivel tweeter
100-watt power handling
28 Hz - 24 kHz frequency response
90 dB sensitivity
10.25 inches diameter x 4 inches, 7 lbs.
He is willing to sell these to me for less than he paid. $130 for four of the mains and $40 for the surrounds.
I understand that I'm not going to get sound near the same quality as speakers on stands that I can adjust. This is a compromise - my wife will let me spend the money as long as it doesn't interfere with her decorating. Plus I like how she has the house set up!
Both the ceiling and the wall are insulted so I'm thinking that this should help the sound a bit. Is that right?
I know nothing about the quality of these speakers, how would they compare to other in-walls (I've seen some that are MUCH more expensive)?
If I do install these should I set the receiver cross over to 80 or 100?
And to put this in perspective:
After I get slammed for thinking about in-wall/ceiling speakers. Will the sound be an improvement over the two 2.5 inch speakers in my TV?

 

[Wayne Ernst]

I've dealt with in-wall speakers before. The sound is O.K., but not the greatest. However, I had a similar predicament as yours - the WAF. Black ash speakers wouldn't cut it in our family room. I ended up purchasing in-wall speakers (NXG w/6.5" woofer and 1" tweeter). I then built cabinets out of MDF and rounded off the corners. I then mounted the in-wall speakers into the boxes after I stuffed them with polyfill. The cabinets and grilles were painted the same color as our walls. I then attached the front main speakers and rear surrounds to the walls after concealing the 12 gauge wire into the walls. For the center channel, I followed the same concept, but did not mount it to the wall. It sits on a shelf above my Wega TV. There's enough clearance between the center channel speaker and also the shelf blocks the magnet from messing up the picture on my TV screen.

I'm very happy with the sound that gets produced from these speakers. The best thing I ever did was pull the in-wall speakers out of the walls and build these cabinets. The difference is like night and day.

 

[Ray_H]

Thanks for the reply.

By the way, these look like several other speakers out there. They must be mass produced and distributors slap their name on them.

They are identical to home theater direct level 3.

Although they list a frequency response of 28 Hz - 24 kHz, they don't have the usual (+-3 dB) after it. I am assuming that the + or - dB means that through the freq range, the speaker changes only + or - the decibel listed.

By not listing this in the specs I'm guessing it's pretty bad...

Ray