2. home-theater
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In wall speakers

A friend of mine is redoing his house and has the opportunity to install in wall speakers throughout his house including his home theater.  He's not an audiophile but still wants decent sound.  An installer was pushing some Episode speakers, and since I'm not familiar with them or really any other in walls, are these good speakers or are there others that are better for the money?  The Espisodes (don't know the model) are quoted at about $225 each.  He doesn't want to go higher than that but would like to spend less if there's something comparable or better sound wise.  I was thinking Def Tech, RBH, Paradigm, Revel, B&W, but like I said I don't have too much experience with in walls so your recommendations would be much appreciated.  Also, I was leaning toward recommending a regular sub instead of an in wall as placement is flexible and thinking he'll get more for his money.  Any thoughts on that as well?  Thanks.
soix
willgolf
936 posts
 
I am looking at in walls for my theater room also.  I had RBH in my last theater room and they were good.  I am looking at Triad and James audio for my new theater room.  They are way more expensive than what his budget allows.  To be honest at the price range he is looking at there really is not a lot of difference in any of the speaker you mentioned.  I don't like the sound of the B&W but those are over his price range also.  Episode would be fine.  .  

mahler123
3,327 posts
 
I use Paradigm in walls for rears.  I don't remember the model number but they were about $200 each.  My rears had formerly been dedicated stand mounts, but my wife objected to having our living room filled with components and since the rears are mainly for ambience I caved.  It is hard to evaluate the speakers because I keep unfavorably comparing them to their more expensive predecessors, and because they are not the main speakers.  When they were new, 4 years ago, I did some fooling around when programming the AVR and played some music using the in walls in 2 channel mode and I was impressed.  I think most normal non audiophiles would find them perfectly suitable.  
tls49's avatar
tls49
1,351 posts
 

Retired now from the audio industry and have many years of experience in distributed audio systems for the home. IMHO, I would be more concerned with the design of the system to power the speakers than the speaker itself. There are numerous ways to accomplish this and quality of sound can vary greatly. Inexpensive decent speakers can sound very good or high quality speakers can sound poorly depending on the system driving them. Do you know anything about the design of the system? What type of amplifier, or amplifiers? This is important because the signal has to be driven over long lengths of wire unless an amp is located in each room, which is not likely the case. How will the volume be adjusted in each room?


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