Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Technical Questions putting m22's in an enclosed wall section

Hi all, I am still in the early-mid stage of shopping for speakers, and am now realizing that I might have made a mistake when designing my cinema room. I am doing all the work myself, so some changes could be made, of course within the limitations of the room itself.

My room measures 17' x 17', although the cinema area will be centered using 13' x 17' of the room, the remaining 4' are part of a corridor leading to another room. The screen will be on the narrow wall. This wall is 12" thick (because of a beam) and I have made enclosures to the sides of the screen to contain the speakers. These enclosures will protrude another 2 inches from the wall into the room, leaving me with 14" net of interior depth, 40 " height starting 6" up from the floor, and a width of 11.5".

I have been looking at using m22's in front with it's matching vp100 center speaker. The rear speakers are gonna be another discussion point

My question is this...
Will the m22's lose little, or alot of their qualities in such an enclosure?

Thanks to all that contribute to this site, It has been a pleasure reading through all the information.
Dan

The M22s won't sound as good in an enclosure because they are rear-ported. Have you considered the W22s? They are designed to be mounted on the wall. You'll probably have to modify the enclosures to accommodate them, but it will result better sound.

I have looked at the w22's, and am still considering them, but if I find an alternative, I would prefer having a full speaker. I guess I should develop my question to include the rear speakers.

I would like to have a powerfull pair of floorstanding speakers for music and a well calibrated setup for movies. Since my enclosure is limited in depth(40" H x 11.5" W x 14" Depth), most powerfull floorstanding speakers take up 16" to 17" depth, I was thinking of placing 2 powerfull floorstanding as rear speakers + 2 m22's in front + center + sub. Does this make sense?

Maybe I could replace the m22's by a pair of m50's? Are the m50's front ported? Can I put those in the enclosures instead? Will the sound be affected negatively by the enclosures?

in general, it i never a good idea to put a speaker (that already has its own carefully designed enclosure) into another enclosure. The M50s are are front and rear-ported.

Thanks for your quick replies!

hmmmmmmmmm....
so I guess i am left with w22's on wall + it's matching center speaker? If I go that route, can I have my powerspeakers in the rear? I have a yamah htr5890 7.1 receiver. Is it feasable to have a setup where my rear speakers are used for music, without having to resort to an external switch of some sort?

The issue with having your towers in the rear is that they will be receiving the surround channels, which typically is not where you need/want large, full range speakers. Sure, it's nice, but it's much better (and sound engineers expect) to have full range speakers in front.

Enter the subwoofer: gets you pretty darn close to full range when properly combined with bookshelf speakers.

If you use those speakers as zone 2 mains, then I believe the Yammi can do it. you'll have to go into the Yamaha's setup and change the speaker assignment each time you switch between movies and music, though.

Have you considered adding a powerful sub to your system and just using the W22s as your mains? I've got M22s and an EP500 and am completely satisfied with their performance in movies and music -- even though I've heard excellent full-sized floorstanders. For my room, sub + bookshelf speakers is the only way to go.

Yes I definitely want a sub for movies, but I was more concerned with music. Will the w22's alone with a sub be comparable to floorstanding speakers? I think the w22's must lose out on the m22's on all aspects because of lack of internal volume?

I will check my manual as far as switching the mains...

Thanks!

I don't think the W22s internal volume is actually that much less than the M22s, given the external box on the back. In any case, with a properly calibrated and crossed over sub, bookshelves+subs can approach the performance of towers. I haven't directly compared such a config, so I can't give you a definitive, "Yes," but...

Dan, welcome. My view is that your proposal for the M22s would be quite workable, assuming that you weren't planning to recess them entirely into the enclosures. If the front of the M22s protruded say 1/2", to minimize reflection/diffraction problems, there should be plenty of room in the enclosure behind the M22 port for it to "breathe".

As Peter does, I also use M22s with the EP500, and this is really excellent for music, and should be likewise in your size room.

I didn't follow the rationale for your proposal to use towers for surround speakers, and would suggest that you use QSs.