Do’s and Don’ts of In-Wall Speaker Installs

High-quality audio is meant to be heard, not seen. But often times a bulky speaker system can be a distraction from the sound.

As a result, customers often sacrifice quality for the sake of appearance.

"It's not that they don't care about audio anymore, it's just that they've kind of moved on aesthetically," says Jon Herron, VP of sales at Wisdom Audio. "If they could have their cake and eat it too, that would be great. But if it's a choice between the appearance of the home that they've already purchased and the performance of the system that some installer is proposing, guess which one wins? It's not that hard to figure out."

Wisdom Audio developed the Sage Series of high-end architectural speakers to combat this dilemma. In addition to on-wall and freestanding systems, the series also includes award-winning in-wall systems.

"We created the Sage Series in recognition of the fact that there is a segment of the market out there that would like to have very high performance, and in years gone by would have bought big, imposing, floor-standing loudspeakers in order to get the results sonically that they'd like," says Herron. "But fewer and fewer of those people are willing to put up with the compromise to their décor just for the sake of the performance of the audio."

Wisdom Audio will feature the Sage Series speaker systems at EHX Spring 2010 (March 25-27 in Orlando, Florida). Herron shares the ins-and-outs of in-wall speaker installations.

Getting Started

Herron says prior to installing an in-wall speaker system, it is important to verify the solidity of the structure. Wisdom Audio's floorstanding speakers get down to 40Hz, while its in-wall subwoofers can go to 20Hz and below.

"Because our speakers do real bass, if you can, you need to make sure the wall is reasonably solid. If it's a poorly built or flimsily built wall, the wall itself is going to be shaking; that's not going to help the performance," says Herron.

"Normal 16-inch on-center wooden studs and standard dry wall actually works pretty well. If you want to get fancy with custom-built walls, or double-sheet rock, then you can do even more. But standard construction, as long as it's not really flimsy and sub-par, which is unlikely in the sort of luxury homes that our stuff is likely to go into, works pretty well. You just want to make sure everything is nice and tight."

Solid Developments

Wisdom Audio developed the SE Box solid wall enclosure for installations that involve materials such as concrete or masonry. Installers can nail the extruded-aluminum SE box directly to the concrete forms and run conduit and pre-wire before the concrete is poured. The form comes off to reveal perfect cavities in the concrete, where the standard in-wall speakers are mounted.

"All of our speakers have enclosed back boxes and you just take the standard in-wall speaker that you would otherwise be clamping to the dry wall," says Herron. "And instead of clamping it to the dry wall, you screw it directly into this SE Box, the solid wall enclosure around which the concrete was formed."