Choosing The Best Architectural Speakers For Your Home Theatre
The selection of home theatre speakers on the market is certainly very wide with all kinds of sizes, shapes, and pricing. One category we get a lot of questions on is all about speakers that mount in your walls and/ or ceiling. These go by in-wall speakers, in-ceiling speakers, built-in speakers, or are sometimes just called architectural speakers. These types of speakers are used quite often in home theatres for good reason.
This article will give you some insight into different types of built-in speakers and the best use case for each one. While some of these are great for music listening, we are going to focus on how to pick the best in-wall & in-ceiling speakers for your home theatre system.
In-Ceiling Speakers
You might think all ceiling speakers are the same. Heck, they all pretty much look the same once they’re installed. However, if you pull the speaker grill off and look behind the curtain, you’ll discover some big differences that are important to know when choosing inceiling speakers for your home theatre.
General Use In-Ceiling Speakers
These are typically round, although some may have a square grill option. General use in-ceiling speakers will have a single woofer that faces straight down and a tweeter centred in the speaker that also points straight down.
This type of speaker may have a woofer that is anywhere from 4” to 10” in diameter, with the majority of them having a 6”-8” woofer and a dome tweeter. These standard inceiling speakers are typically used for traditional music listening in a room or throughout numerous rooms in a home.
Since high frequencies that come from the tweeter are directional, we do not typically recommend this type of speaker for use in a home theatre where speakers often need to be pointed toward the listener versus just playing straight down.
If you were trying to save a little money, this type of speaker could be used in a single in-ceiling Dolby Atmos set up. We do recommend you get the same brand as your main speakers and, if possible, go within the same series.
In-Ceiling Speakers with a Tweeter You Can Aim
At first glance, even with the grills off and the speaker drivers exposed, these may appear to be identical to the general
use type mentioned above. Actually, they are, with one big exception: you can move the tweeter to aim it.
With all of the new formats of surround sound being based on object-based surround rather than dispersed sound effects, you want to have speakers that focus the sound.
To use this type of speaker in a home theatre system, simply aim the tweeter down at the main seating area and you will be all set.
In-Ceiling Speakers Where the Drivers are Mounted At an Angle
While aiming the tweeter is a step in the right direction, being able to aim all of the speaker drivers at the primary seating position is much better!
These come in both round and square designs and some even have a woofer, midrange, and tweeter driver. If it is a two way design, both the woofer and tweeter will be mounted at an angle inside the enclosure, usually 30-35 degrees. Usually, with a threeway design, it is not possible to aim the woofer, so it will fire downward, but bass is not very directional, which makes that perfectly OK.
The round ones work especially well for Dolby Atmos height channels as you can rotate the whole speaker to aim it perfectly at your primary seats. If you are doing a 5.1 or 7.1 system, this type can work great for your surround speakers. You can use our free home theatre design tool to figure out exactly where each speaker should go in your own room.
These types of angled speakers are definitely our favourite for Dolby Atmos height speakers!
In-Wall Speakers
The name tells it all for this type of speaker design. Here we find anywhere from some very basic types to models that rival or exceed the performance of some of the best traditional box speakers.
Basic In-Wall Speakers
These are rectangular in shape and are generally a two-way design with a woofer and tweeter. For Dolby Atmosbased surround systems, these can work fantastic as your main surrounds and rear surround speakers. We cover the best way to position them in our separate guide to speaker configurations.
You could also use them as your main front three speakers on either side and below or above a flat panel TV or projection screen, or they could go behind an acoustically transparent projection screen. If you are going to use them as your main front three speakers, we do recommend you get at least ones that have a 6” woofer or larger.
Purpose Designed LCR In-Wall Speakers
LCR stands for Left Centre Right, which means these are designed to be used as your main front three speakers in a home theatre system.
While the basic in-wall speakers normally have a woofer and tweeter, all of the LCR type models have at least a dual woofer system, with many more having 3, 4, and 5-way designs with multiple speaker drivers. Many of these will come with a back box made specifically for the speaker to assure it performs best in the wall.
Another advantage the better in-wall LCR speakers offer is perfect acoustic matching. With tower or bookshelf speakers, the centre channel can usually be matched up very well, but it is hard to use the exact same speaker in your centre as you do for your left and right speakers. If you do in-wall LCRs behind an acoustically transparent screen, all three can be exactly the same. And if you want to match things up even more, the same speakers can also be used as your surround speakers.
As you can probably tell, LCRs are our favourite architectural speakers, and rightly so. Some of the LCR models available today sound just amazing!
While aiming the tweeter is a step in the right direction, being able to aim all of the speaker drivers at the primary seating position is much better!