Fancy in-wall speakers? Design advice for minimalist homes

We admit it: we find big speakers made of wood and woven Kevlar cluttering a living room a beautiful sight. We get embarrassingly excited about a good AV/Hi-fi in someone's home, beautifully cable-managed and set up to perfection. However, we believe you can get the same sound with less. Most people want a neat and tidy way to get great audio that’s minimalist and unobtrusive.

So maybe you’re all for the minimalist lifestyle or you're tight on space and need to be efficient with your audio setup. For the right application - particularly home-theatre - in-wall speakers are a solid choice and come with a host of benefits.

Any sound benefits?

There’s definitely some. Since speakers radiate sound in a 360°pattern - sound waves from freestanding speakers will interact with surfaces all around them – including behind the speaker. This can cause some undesirable low frequency cancellations. By ‘baffling’ a speaker in a wall, it will eliminate reflections from that wall and help to avoid unwanted peaks and dips in response.

Additionally, baffling a speaker induces the ‘boundary effect’ which results in a 6dB (decibel) increase in bass frequencies – a significant amount. You can filter these frequencies out which greatly increases headroom, lowers speaker distortion and actually reduces the amount of power the speakers draw. It’s a neat solution that creates a marginally lower energy bill. However if not filtered, the sound can be perceived as ‘boomy’ or ‘muddy’.

How do they look?

Aesthetically, they’re far less intrusive and will give a low-profile and neat solution that’s nevertheless stylish for your space. Your speakers will quite literally be part of the room, making your setup look seamless and well hidden.

Additionally, nearly all in-wall speakers’ use some sort of perforated or expanded metal grill that can be painted to match the room’s décor. You can customise them to your taste.

However, all this comes at a real cost — one you’ve probably already figured out. In-wall speakers inherently come with the associated bother of planning, DIY , and running cables through your walls. Design is key when installing in-wall speakers; they will look superb when done right. You need to be sure you’re setting up in the perfect place and that your living room isn’t partial to a yearly case of Feng Shui. Because it’s going to be awfully tedious to relocate your speakers a couple feet when it involves cutting plasterboard, filling old holes, and painting.

If you’re looking for a more straightforward solution this may be more of a daunting DIY project than you’d be willing to consider. Likelihood is you want something compact but powerful. Something simple in design and delivered to your front door — straight off the shelf.

Is there a simple solution?

Short answer? Yes.

If you’re going for a minimalist look, naturally you won’t want lots of components. A simple one-box wonder with astounding sound is going to be a great solution for the majority of consumers. You just And there’s more options on the market than you’d think.

Consider the Orbitsound ONE P70w, for example; it’s one of the smallest multipurpose audio solutions on the market, measuring in at 700mm wide and 173mm deep. We’ve kept it discrete and unobtrusive with a sophisticated all-in-one design. It combines an all-steel and wood construction for a look that’s timeless and simple to look the part in any room.

Now to be fair, this isn’t unique to the P70w. There are other products out there that keep it simple and compact. However, the other products don’t have Airsound: our patented technology that gives width and space to sound with no requirement for a listener to be in the ‘sweet spot‘. It’s a sound that sounds the same no matter where you are in the room. That’s something traditional stereo setups can’t achieve.

How does it work?

The system makes use of side firing ‘spatial’ speakers. When combined with the front speakers and a 5.25” subwoofer, it creates an immersive sound stage that delivers crisp, balanced audio to any space. It’s all designed to work together as a cohesive unit.

You also get versatility in the ONE P70w. It’s capable of three listening orientations. Combined with the Airsound driver and customisable hardware configurations, this allow you to put the speaker anywhere in the placement in the room and still achieve high frequency performance.

The ONE P70w can lie flat, stand vertically on a shelf or be wall-mounted above or below a TV. The integrated display can then be flipped to accommodate the chosen listening position.

This means users can easily move the P70w within a home depending on purpose, be it a dinner party, TV binge, or romantic night in. The ONE is the perfect solution for consumers who want great sounding, no-fuss audio at an affordable price. Plug-in, play, and create the vibe you want in the space you love to be in.

We’re proud of the ONE P70w and we’re confident it provides a versatile, cost effective, and hassle free solution for minimal homes looking for a high performance speaker system. Interested in looking into it yourself? Feel free to check out the P70w here and see what all the fuss is about.