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Home Theater Update - In-Wall Speakers


I was at our local Best Buy on Sunday - not really looking for anything in particular. Nest thermostats, AirPlay stereos, maybe a new TV for the office.

ASIDE: Back in college, I worked at a Best Buy for a month around the holidays. It was excruciatingly boring, and I quit as soon as I left for home at Christmas break. I have no trouble spending hours in a Best Buy on my own, but the minute they start paying me to be there, I'm crawling up the walls to get out. 

I walked into the Magnolia room - after all, I was just browsing, and they have the best stuff in Best Buy - and I noticed a display of in-wall speaker systems. 

"Aha!", I thought. "This is the solution for the living room home theater - expand the built-in shelving, and incorporate in-wall speakers!" There's going to be an open space where the mantle overhangs, directly to the left and right of the TV... this could work. 

The first ones I looked at were out of my price range - I really can't throw down $459 for a pair of SpeakerCrafts, at this point. I'd rather stick with my Bose system - which will also work with expanded built-ins. 

But Magnolia had some decent-priced stuff, too - a pair of Pioneer Elite 8" speakers for $300, and a pair of Russound 8" speakers for $90, or a pair of Yamaha 6 1/2" speakers for $180.  

The problem is, speaker quality can vary wildly, and I have no idea what I'm looking for. With HDMI cables, the cheap ones are just as good as the expensive ones. But with speakers, you generally get what you pay for, right?  


I figure I'd like these speakers to be white squares - like these speakers from Monoprice. ($86/pair, and they're made of Kevlar, which seems nice...) That way they'll blend in with the white built-in shelves. 

While I'm at it, I suppose I'd also like to get some built-in surround speakers - they'd have to be built-ins, because they'd be on the wall behind the sofa

But that's going to take some real doing, and it's less important in the living room home theater. We may have a Left-Center-Right-subwoofer setup in the living room for good. And that's okay.

But they need to be durable. I need to make sure these speakers can handle the output from my stereo... I'd hate to talk everyone into this in-wall speaker plan, cut up the drywall and install these things, only to have them blow out and sound terrible.  

Comments

  1. Is this speaker working best as compare to home theater speaker. I am using home theater speaker from last many years.

    ReplyDelete

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