I’m not sure you’d be making a huge sacrifice but I have a hard time imagining any in wall speaker will match the performance of a similar bookshelf speaker no matter who the manufacture. The specs look mostly the same however, the in wall rolls off 10dB higher than the bookshelf. Proximity to the wall may make up for this. Also missing are any graphs of the frequency response for the in wall. I have a feeling your going to be a guinea pig unless you can wait for some reviews to come out.
Personally I would avoid an in wall speaker unless I had no other choice. Even if they can make it sonically identical to the bookshelf version once you mount it your done, unless you want to cut more holes to move them. Also no chance of using toe-in or moving them in any simple way to tweak the imaging. Just like using a horizontal center is IMO a compromise solution for fitting a speaker where you need it I believe the same about in wall speakers.
I’m not so sure the bookshelf speakers shoved right up against a wall would sound all that great either but at least with them you have the option of moving them around easily or even swapping them out to another location should you ever wish to change them out. I also imagine bookshelf speakers would have a better resale potential should you ever want to get rid of them.
If it’s in walls you must use I imagine Axiom’s will be as good relative to the competition as their other speaker but I wouldn’t expect the same performance from in wall as stand alone speakers.
Cheers,
Dean
