I am currently building my dedicated home theater room to accomodate the W series fronts as well as QS8 surrounds. I have been researching inwall and onwall speakers for quite some time and the offerings seem to change quite frequently.
The option for these types of speakers came about from the need for sound without seeing (hence the terminology of "Architectural" taht is thrown around). The problem with most is that lack of an enclosure. There are many offerings that either have an enclosure included or have plans for building an enclosure in a new construction. As examples, Monitor Audio has their CP line and Triad has their line now with enclosures. These speakers are
quite a bit more expensive and usually incorporate a more complex crossover topology to account for the boundary effect that is the bain of inwall speakers. Axiom has somewhat alleviated this problem with their offering of the on/inwall W series. Since the drivers are protruding from the wall by a few inches, this reduces the boundary effect and gives a less coloured and "more accurate" sound. Their crossover can be more simple and theoretically reduces the potential for altering the original source signal.
These types of speakers are very difficult to audition and I am hoping that once I am finished with my modest theater that I can add myself to the list of places for people to audition the speakers. You can also get a haircut while you're over!
Since it is human nature to look for the best bang for the buck, you can hardly go wrong with these speakers.
Dennis had audtioned the speakers out of wall and sad the sound even improved when installed (likely Axiom designed the speakers response to take advantage of the wall mounted installation). Incidentally Dennis, you have to update your profile
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