In-wall suggestions

[Scott_fx]

Hey guys,

I've been struggling over a ht setup in my non-ideal family/living room. and I have a few options i'm considering. My main limitation is the space that i have under my tv. I have a wall mounted plasma above a soon to be built mantle over my fireplace. I have coved ceilings and only about 5 or so inches between the mantle and the tv. So i'm at a loss on how to set up a 5.1 surround. i'm going to be testing out some of zaph's full range and also a tb small cube variant (cube is 5" square). I think zaph's will be the winner by not sure if it's going to fit.
I was wondering if there were any good in wall diy designs out there. Would the zaph speakers work if i mounted them in the wall? is there an option of a wall mounted line array with 3" drivers? (not terribly expensive either) or am i just hosed here?

if all else fails i'm going to go take a listen to the speakercraft time in ceiling speakers and go with those but they just seem so expensive for a compromised (in ceiling) setup.

thanks in advance.

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[pinkmouse]

I can't say I've ever seen any particular diy in-wall projects out there, but it should certainly be achievable. You need to be looking at projects that are designed to be used up against a wall, (i.e. no baffle step correction in the crossover), and using drivers that don't require huge boxes and have good off axis response as you won't be able to point them towards the listening position. I hope that gives you more ideas for searching.

[Scott_fx]

thanks for the input i ahve been doing some searching and have a few ideas...nothing concrete though.


i've also done some searching about possible infinite baffle setups but came up with nothing. what should i be looking for in a speaker that can run in an i/b setup...is it possible?


just to add to my original post, i'll have an I/B sub setup using two 15" dayton i/b subs

[pinkmouse]

Just about any driver can run in IB, but personally I would be looking at an enclosure that fits between the studs. I just don't like the idea of the backwave rattling around in a big boomy drywall enclosure, not to mention all the dust etc. that could get into the driver. If your subs can run up to 100hz, then the enclosures likely don't even need to be particularly big.

[cheapskate]

B&W have a whole range of in wall custom speakers:

http://www.bowers-wilkins.com/display.aspx?infid=770

I have no idea of how expensive they are but they might provide some inspiration.
It looks like you might have to download each info pdf on each one to get an idea of what they are - why they don't
just let you view them on the site beats me.

I presume you are talking about a paneled timber frame wall? Perhaps you could construct very shallow boxes with a wide shallow bevel around the outside that you then insert into cut-outs in the panel. they would protrude slightly but give you extra depth.

If the wall is concrete block or brick you could get a diamond tipped core drill bit to make circular holes you mount the drivers into. There are some surface mount car audio tweeters available but phase alignment could be a problem.