WTB - Thin ON-Wall (Not IN-Wall) Centre Speaker?

[Benedict_Arnold]

Looking for a replacement for my bulky Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 5 centre channel speaker.

This has to go ON the wall, not IN the wall, as Murphy's Law has decreed there's a stud slap-bang in the middle of the wall where the speaker needs to go. And no, I'm not cutting out studs or bridging them to accomodate a speaker and thus void the construction warranty on my new house!

The KEF T301 centre channel speaker (same as the lefts and rights woth just the logo rotated, apparently) fits the bill to a tee, but I'm looking for cheaper alternatives in case I reverse myself and go for a projector and screen rather than a big-ish (up to 100 inch or so - the wall's not really big enough for bigger) 4K TV later this year.

Like I said, the KEF T301 fits the bill nicely, but I'm looking for alternative (cheaper) suggestions.

Features I would like:

* Thin, as in flat-ish against the wall, ideally not sticking out more than 3 or 4 inches from the wall, so it protrudes no further than the bottom of the TV, and doesn't itself become a shelf.

*Wall-mountable, obviously, but what I mean is I don't want something I have to put on a shelf.

* Not tall - 6 to 8 inches maximum.

* 80 to 100 watts RMS.

* Not a "tinny" sound - not expecting thunderous base, but you know what I mean.

* Nice to look at or else 'er indoors will cut my Jacobs off.

* Ideally I'd like to use two, one above the TV and one below. I'm driving the Mezzo 5 bi-wired using a 80 WPC Onkyo stereo power amp in twin mono mode right now, so wiring the two single-wired isn't a problem.

I guess what I'm really looking for is something akin to a soundbar shape-wise, but which I can feed with speaker cables, not a pre-amp or digital signal.

There's plenty of center channel speakers out there, but they all seem to be very deep (as in they would stick out from the wall a lot) and quite heavy, and either very small or very expensive.

Th eonly thought I've had is to use a low-profile in-wall, such as my Yamaha NS-IW960 (3 1/2 inches deep) and build a box out of 4 inch wide wood and a 1/2inch plywood front panel to put it in. How it would sound I have no idea.

Any thoughts / suggestions?

 

[The_Lhc]

Not really, no, my immediate though upon seeing the thread title was T-series, so...

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I can get a open box Yama-ha-ha NS-IW960 for $70, and $20 more should cover the cost of some wood to make a box, so, given I've just been laid off (grr) I might give that a go next week.

Anyone with any thoughts, however, please post 'em up because like all things around here I'm sure my requirements aren't unique!

 

[macdiddy]

I only mention this because I'm certain that someone on here will say that for best sound, your front speakers should be from the same make if not the same range.

*music2*

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I only mention this because I'm certain that someone on here will say that for best sound, your front speakers should be from the same make if not the same range.

*music2*

Possibly quite so, but I bet it was a speaker company owner that came up with that...

FWIW all my speakers, except the "proper stereo" ones (Klipsch) come from the Yama-ha-ha "Natural Sound" range. They're:

a) from Yamaha - a company with a reputation to worry about and who will be there tomorrow if the warranty is needed;

b) quite good audio-wise and very good build-wise;

c) reasonably priced - $200 ish each for in-wall 140 watt woofer-tweeter-woofer fronts, $150 ish a PAIR for 140 watt concentric (round) 2-way in-ceilings, and $200 a PAIR for 150 watt 3-way rears;

and d) very easy to fit into plasterboard - they have lugs which rotate as you tighten the screws which lock in behind the plasterboard, you can modify them to fit in other ways of you need to, and they have push-in or magnetic grilles that can be painted if you want to.

And no, I don't work for Yamaha. In fact, as of this coming Friday I don't work for anyone, but that's another story...

 

[bigboss]

You can use different manufacturer speakers for surrounds, but it is recommended you stick to the same manufacturer for fronts and centre for tonality match.

See this article:

http://www.audiogurus.com/learn/news/using-different-speakers/2695

 

[bigboss]

You can use different manufacturer speakers for surrounds, but it is recommended you stick to the same manufacturer for fronts and centre for tonality match.

See this article:

http://www.audiogurus.com/learn/news/using-different-speakers/2695

 

[bigboss]

Do you get Monitor Audio? Look at Shadow and SoundFrame ranges.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

EVERYBODY gets Monitor Audio these days! Aren't they made in China or somewhere now?

Anyway, yes, the Shadow and Soundframe designs. Nice, but WAY too pricey. I can always stick a picture on my own speakers thanks very much - thinking some young lady with a well developed chest and twin, erm, subwoofers, how's that for 3D?

 

[bigboss]

I can only recommend speakers I've heard, instead of reading off the internet.

Everything is made in China, including the Kef you're considering.

Yamaha doesn't sell speakers in the UK so never heard of it.

 

[bigboss]

When the funds are tight, why are you spending on 2 centre speakers? Just get one of better quality.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

When the funds are tight, why are you spending on 2 centre speakers? Just get one of better quality.

One now, one later, to balance the centre channel vertically into the middle of the picture where it should be - if I go for a projector rather than a big TV I'll be putting two in-wall speakers horizontally symmetrical either side of the problem stud behind an acoustically transparent screen, positioned half-way down the screen. Therefore this might only be a stop-gap solution.

I'm not really interested in spending mega-bucks on centre (or other) speakers for a surround sound system, saving those for a new "proper stereo" later.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

Yamaha doesn't sell speakers in the UK so never heard of it.

Fairy Nuff. I think you're missing out. At the price point they're very good value for money. Better made than the cheaper knock-offs, not as expensive as the Klipsch or other "high end" alternatives, and for surround sound they work just fine. Not audiophile quality for sure, but then who needs audiophile "kabooms" from surround sound? Royal Philharmonic's finest, for sure, but for a flipping Transformers movie surround sound?

You can see the Yamaha specs (and pictures) on the Amazon and / or Yamaha US websites.

 

[Benedict_Arnold]

I got down to it and made some surrounds for my speakers, Yamaha NS-IW960 twin 6.5 inch kevlar mid-range / woofers with a single 1 inch titanium dome tweeter, US$70 each open box on Amazon (full retail being $150 each). 50 watts each RMS, 150 watts maximum. I'm running them off an Onkyo M5010 2-channel power amp I picked up used that gives 75 watts per channel RMS. The centre channel pre-amp output from my receiver is split and fed into both sides of the power amp, giving me, in theory, up to 150 watts on the centre channel. Doing the same for front left and front right with 3 power amps total. Emotiva XPA-3 would have been plan A, but I'm out of work and we've just bought a new house, so maybe when I get back into work. (Explanation - I'm aiming for 11 channels or more, so I need at least one external power amp with most reasonably priced receivers available right now).

I bought some 3.5 inch by 0.75 inch red oak planed timber from Home Depot (our version of B&Q - right down to the orange / red paint scheme) for $15 for each 6 foot length, and fashioned the wood into 25.5 x 9.5 inch boxes with mitered corners - I'm nowhere near up to dovetails. I used some of those steel corner brackets with the triamgular reinforcement back plates for the back corners and regular L-shaped brackets for the front corners. I put some 5/8 inch square planed pine round the inside front edges tor form a lip for the plasterboard anchors included on the speakers to grip onto. I filled the dodgy mitre corners with wood filler (did I mention I never took woodwork at school?), sanded the whole lot down and applied 3 coats of gloss black polyurethane, using the first coat to raise the grain, sanded almost completely away before coat number 2.

The Yamaha speakers come with off white, almost magnolia, coloured grills and surrounds. Since I don't want "white" grills in black boxes, I'm waiting for some speaker cloth to cover the fronts. The white plastic surrounds will be covered with black sticky tape for now. Yes, I could have painted them, but they may up in a wall at some point, and 'er indoors is already making noises like "paint them to match the walls", so I'm doing this to avoid having to re-paint the grills and surrounds later.

When they're finished, and if I can figure out how (somebody please enlighten me), I'll post some pictures, but I will now have two centre channel speakers, one above, and one below, the TV to "focus" the centre channel at the middle middle of the picture. They stand out less than 3.75 inches from the wall, less than the TV on its wall mount, and far less obtrusive than a regular "boxed" centre channel speaker, like my Mordaunt-Short Mezzo 5, for example.

How do they sound? Watch this space.