DIY onwall speaker kits?

JoshK · « **on:** 22 Apr 2003, 03:44 pm »

Do any of you know if there are any kits lurking around for onwall speakers? Ideally they would be no more than 6" deep and 9" wide but height not really a problem. I have yet to see such an offering. I am tempted just to buy some quality in wall speakers and then build my own box for them and hang on wall. These would be for HT use only.

JohnR · « **Reply #1 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 04:39 pm »

Is "onwall" the only criterion?

JoshK · « **Reply #2 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 04:41 pm »

Besides size restrictions I noted and the fact that the end product must be able to be made to look pretty, yeah.

JohnR · « **Reply #3 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 04:46 pm »

I'd just bung a TB 3-incher into a box then. Sealed those roll off around 100 to 130, depending on the driver.

JoshK · « **Reply #4 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 04:48 pm »

Ok, well it should sound good too....I thought that was a given I guess.

JohnR · « **Reply #5 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 04:54 pm »

Despite what I told Jason, they do sound decent, considering how easy they are to make

I'm assuming they are surrounds?

If those drivers won't produce enough output, then most any kit should be rebuildable into a box more to your liking. On the cheap side of things, a TB 4" will produce a lot more output at the expense of rageedy top. For a "proper" design you could look at Rick Craig's SL-2... (? is that what it's called) and use different box dimensions. If you're leaving it ported, keep the same internal volume; if you're sealing it, you can make it a fair bit smaller. Unibox will reveal all.

HTH

JohnR · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 05:01 pm »

Oh.

If you're using an existing kit and it has baffle-step compensation in the crossover, then it will probably sound boomy against a wall. That's why the fullrange driver thing is a nice solution for cheap, I reckon, since you can leave out any components at all. In my experience with fullrange drivers so far I feel they need a baffle-step inductor/resistor if used for music and placed out from the wall.

JohnR

JoshK · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 05:04 pm »

Thanks John,

I guess I am still a little poor in my knowledge of box properties. If that makes sense? Yeah I would probably want a bit more output as I tend to do this for all the way around not just the surrounds. So far I haven't decided what I want to do and had considered doing an all tangband driver HT. Not sure though if I would like it long term or not. With the HT aesthetics gets a very high ranking (trade off for the Stereo rig with my wife) and needs to be the least imposing. However, I don't want it to sound like crap.

I have just seen all these inwall speakers from various manuf's and think to myself what if I got these in a kit and built them into wall hangeable boxes.

JohnR · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 05:13 pm »

From what I hear, some of the inwalls are actually pretty decent, but I wouldn't know which ones. If you got the ones in a closed box, then all you would need to do is build a decorative surrounding around it.

I'm wondering if there's anything that can be built into a very narrow (front to back) floorstander...

JoshK · « **Reply #9 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 05:54 pm »

Yeah John, that's the spirit....that is what I have been thinking about to. I asked Dan Wiggins about his designs but he said that would exaggerate standing waves in the enclosure plus I am not sure how shallow the enclosure can be for said drivers (giving enough clearance for magnet).

JohnR · « **Reply #10 on:** 22 Apr 2003, 07:09 pm »

I don't have enough experience to say anything about that... I would have thought that the effects could be mitigated by using absorbent material on the back wall. And if you sealed the box you could stuff it heaps anyway.

Here's an interesting HT project. It's not what you were asking about but it might give you an idea or two:

http://www.lonesaguaro.com/speakers/jordan/jordan.htm

JohnR · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Apr 2003, 02:12 am »

You might want to look at the Seas coax drivers. There's a shielded version or two available. Check the Madisound cattledog.

That solves the problem of driver orientation for the center.

shokunin · « **Reply #12 on:** 30 Apr 2003, 12:31 am »

Triad makes some great inwalls, however, all of their inwalls are already in cabinets. They are not inifinte baffle designs are made primarily for Home Theater, but they do sound pretty good for music.

This website has some of the nicest wall mounted speakers I've ever seen. Also the new Vienna Acoustic Aluminun speakers look reall nice next to plasmas.[/url]