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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
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?


jedinite24's avatar
jedinite24
1,503 posts
 
Hi Soix,

I'm pursuing an in-wall system as well and from what I've been told from various people who have gone the in-wall route for HT RBH speakers are the bees knees. Be sure to talk to an installer or dealer of RBH for best pricing though. They have good speakers that fit that $225 per speaker budget.

Also what tls49 says in his post are very valid. Get those details about system design and amplification room size etc. I got caught up in looking at Martin Logan in walls but then found they are 4 ohm nominal and my receiver couldn't handle that kind of speaker.

Good luck.
soix OP
9,651 posts
 
Thanks for all the good thoughts guys.  I hadn't really heard of Episode speakers before, probably because they're sold exclusively through installers.  I was surprised to find consistently good reviews of them from a wide variety of sources, and they seem to offer good value as well.  Likewise I've seen nothing but good things regarding RBH in-walls as well, so I have no problem recommending either to my friend.  I'm sure he'll be more than happy either way.  Incidentally, the installer is quoting the 700 series speakers for the LCRs for about $650, which seems pretty competitive.  For that price I thought he'd be quoting the 300 series.  Then again he's probably charging full boat for labor.  TANSTAAFL as usual. 

Very good point about power.  He gets a substantial discount on Sony electronics so that's likely the route he'll go, so once he picks speakers I'll make sure they're powered adequately.  He wants each room to have its own volume control so I think he'll have to do separate amplifiers, but all other rooms other than his home theater room are strictly for low-level and non-critical ambient music so power not quite as critical.

Anyway, any further thoughts are welcome and thanks for all the input so far. 
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