In-wall and
in-ceiling speakers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but they are
all basically designed to do the same thing:
They are designed to give you good
sound in a given room without having to see the speaker, or at least very
much of it.
In-wall and in-ceiling speakers come in a variety of
price ranges too. The general rule of thumb is that you get what you pay
for. Cheap ones sound cheap and expensive ones usually sound great.
There are two basic types of in-wall and in-ceiling
speakers. Backed or “boxed” and un-backed or “non-boxed”. This refers
to whether or not the speaker actually has a box for the speaker to work,
or if it relies on the cavity space created by your wall to work in. The
first is usually more expensive, but definitely sounds better by virtue
of the fact that the speaker sounds fairly close the same way wherever
you put it (the room acoustics do play a part), but this type is more
predictable. The other type is less predictable and thus not as desirable.
For instance, if you install them in a ceiling or an
attic and there is not closed space for them to work in, the speaker will
probably sound awful unless it was made for that (I.E. in-ceiling).
Most in-wall and in-ceiling speakers are designed to
be economical and thus have no back box. There are a few exceptions (See
California Audio Technologies). They all generally come in white and
are painted to match the room, and they come in round or square to match
what you are doing.
The above speaker is a KEF dipole speaker and thus
could not be round to match the light. In a normal situation you would
try to match either a light or a vent. That way they stay hidden.
In severe cases or where speakers need to stay hidden,
there are even motorized speakers which will pivot down out of the ceiling
when you turn on the system. We try to avoid this by good planning but
sometimes it is just impossible
(See "Family Room with motorized speakers").
