Most of us are familiar with the old saying that children should be seen and not heard. How might we apply similar thinking to loudspeakers? Just the word loudspeaker suggests something that needs to be heard clearly. But more and more people want their speakers to be the exact opposite of those perfect Victorian children — that is, heard but not seen. While the aesthetic quality of many speakers has improved to the point where they can be treated like pieces of modern sculpture, many homeowners and decorators still insist on seeing nothing at all — which helps explain the ever increasing popularity of in-wall, in-ceiling, and other types of stealth loudspeakers.
In-wall speakers for a home theater can be a good solution in some situations. However, mounting locations are often limited by the presence of windows, doors, wall studs, and other obstructions. A more flexible option is in-cabinet speakers, designed to fit inside the furniture that houses the rest of your A/V gear, typically behind openings covered with speaker grille cloth. If the design is done properly, this approach lets you keep the front speakers in their optimum locations, while using larger speakers that aren't limited in size by a 4-inch-deep drywall cavity.
Niles has long been at the forefront of the custom installation market. So it comes as no surprise that the company's first stab at creating a truly top-performance home-theater speaker system includes in-wall, on-wall, and in-cabinet models that can be mixed and matched to create a complete package. The StageFronts come in two basic performance levels, 50 Series and 70 Series, although the differences have more to do with their maximum output capabilities than with their sonic qualities.
In practice, most systems of this type end up using a combination of in-cabinet speakers up front and in- or on-wall speakers for the surround locations. With that in mind, we put together a 7.1-channel package using three top-of-the-range in-cabinet PRO2870LCRs for the front left, center, and right speakers, a pair of the in-wall IW770FXs for the side surrounds, and a pair of the on-wall PRO770FXs for the back surrounds. Subwoofer duties were handled by two PRO15SWs, each a massive standalone or in-cabinet sub with a built-in 1,000-watt amplifier.
Even though the PRO2870LCR is intended to be hidden away inside a cabinet, it's a real no-holds-barred beast of a speaker that would look perfectly at home as a midfield monitor in a pro recording studio. This speaker can pack a tremendous dynamic punch with its twin carbon-fiber cone woofers, yet the boxy but compact dimensions allow it to fit neatly on a standard-component-width shelf.
With an asymmetric speaker like the PRO2870, you ideally want the midrange and the tweeter to be vertically aligned and positioned toward the inside. So Niles lets you rotate the midrange/tweeter mounting plate to optimize each speaker for the left, center, or right position. Furthermore, the pod holding these drivers can be tilted up and down to help ensure phase coherence and an even image height across the front soundstage. Additionally, each speaker has level controls for the tweeter and the midrange, plus a pair of switches: one to adjust the overall pod level, and another to fine-tune the bass alignment for near-wall placement.
Get the picture? Niles has made this lineup highly tunable, allowing installers to optimize the sound and meet the placement demands of any room setup.
With that in mind, the in-wall IW770FX is one of the most adjustable surround speakers I've ever encountered. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to imagine anyone who wouldn't be able to find a setting to match their listening preferences. Unlike many lesser speakers that use the wall cavity as a crude cabinet, this is a complete in-wall ported enclosure, incorporating what is essentially two speakers in one. It's a direct-radiating two-way using a 7-inch woofer and a 1-inch dome tweeter on the bottom, with a four-driver, angled dipole/bipole array on top. A fader lets you adjust the balance between the direct drivers and the upper array, while a switch lets you select the phase of one set of the upper drivers for either a bipole or dipole effect. In a really slick move, Niles has also given the dipole/bipole switch a 12-volt trigger input, so you can set up your surround processor or control system to automatically switch the array to dipole with certain sources, and bipole with others, something that should work well for going between surround movies and music.
Combining many of the features seen in the PRO2870 and the IW770, the PRO770FX on-wall speaker has a three-way forward-firing array, along with pairs of sideways-firing mids and tweeters. The forward-facing midrange and tweeter are mounted in a swiveling pod like that of the LCR, although with a soft dome midrange driver rather than the cone. Again, we have the dipole/bipole switching options for the sideways-firing drivers, including a 12-volt remote trigger relay like that of the in-wall version.
Because the compact main speakers have been designed more for high output than for deep bass, the role of the subwoofer is particularly important in this system. To cover this critical region, we have the PRO15SW, a seriously hefty 1,000-watt brute, although still able to fit within the confines of a standard A/V shelf. Given the sub's wide slot port that runs across the bottom of the front panel, one install option would be to place it on the floor within a cabinet, with the port venting through a cloth-covered panel on the cabinet footer. While the defeatable crossover and infinitely adjustable phase control are nice features, what makes the PRO15SW stand out is its dual level controls, with separate settings available for music and movie listening. As with the bipole/dipole switch on the surround speakers, this can be triggered automatically.
Due to its unique setup requirements, this system was auditioned in the Sound & Vision testing studio. And although we didn't go so far as to build the front channels into a cabinet, we did go to considerable effort to ensure that the test conditions reflected what might be encountered in many high-performance home theaters. The three front speakers were kept equidistant from the front wall and pointed straight ahead without any toe-in, ending up some 29 inches from the wall, with the outside edge of the left and right speakers about 3 feet from the side walls.
Even in-wall speakers that have a full enclosure need to be mounted flush into a wall to perform as intended. So Executive Editor Rob Sabin built a pair of custom floor-to-ceiling drywall enclosures for the side surrounds that mimicked as closely as possible the conditions encountered in a true in-wall installation. Making life a little easier were the on-wall back surrounds, which we just hung on the diffuser panels that line the rear wall.
The studio is in an office building in New York City, and getting smooth bass response can be tricky because of the acoustic isolation treatments. But with experimentation, we found that by using one sub against the left wall, firing forward but pulled 5 feet into the room, the linearity and tunefulness of the bottom octave could be improved significantly. Adding another sub near the opposite corner, but at a much lower level, improved things a little further still — though that second sub wasn't really required here.
Once the positions were sorted out, I tweaked the various adjustments to get the best timbral match among the speakers. In the well-damped S&V room, I found I could goose up the tweeter levels quite a bit to eke out a little more detail. And for music listening, I started with the surrounds in dipole mode.
Music Performance
To get my bearings straight with this somewhat less-than-conventional setup, I stuck mostly with well-worn favorites I know inside and out — so don't blame me if some of the choices seem a bit predictable! Starting out in stereo with Miles Davis's Kind of Blue on SACD, I was immediately impressed by how well this system could deliver a stereo image, with fine focus and impressive depth and width to the soundstage. Tonally, there was plenty of bloom in the lower midrange, while the upper octaves were clean and clear if ultimately just a bit soft in the sparkle and detail departments.
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The Short Form |
| Price $12,100 (as tested) / nilesaudio.com / 781-762-6300 |
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Snapshot
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| A hideaway speaker package that requires no excuses, the StageFront provides an excellent, stealthy way to bring high-performance home-theater sound to a decorator-sensitive home. |
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Plus
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| •Wide array of adjustments to tweak the sound for personal taste and room •Capable of very high-output levels without distress •Separate movie and music modes can be triggered automatically |
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Minus
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| •Huge subwoofer requires space and careful positioning •Limited bass from the main speakers makes sub crossover settings critical |
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Key Features
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| PRO2870LCR ($1,500 each) •1-in soft dome tweeter; 4-in midrange; (2) 8-in woofers; 19 in high; 57 lb IW770FX ($2,400/pair) •(3) 1-in soft dome tweeters; (2) 4-in midranges; 7-in woofer; 12 in wide; 43 lb PRO770FX ($1,600/pair) •(3) 1-in soft dome tweeters; 1¼-in dome midrange; (2) 4-in midranges; 7-in woofer; 16 in high; 41 lb PRO15SW ($1,800) •15-in carbon fiber driver; 1,000-watt amplifier; 17½ x 25 x 19¼ in; 110 lb |
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Test Bench
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| At left/right, the PRO2870 exhibited a depression between 800 Hz and 3 kHz, and highs fell off at about 1 dB/octave. At center, it was largely free of off-axis lobing. The IW770FX, measured as a dipole, had a notable upper-bass peak; interestingly, the traditional dipole null only showed up in bipole mode. The back surround's rolled highs are normal in this position. The sub's dynamics were superb; it did 90 dB SPL at 20 Hz, and 115+/dB at any frequency above 25 Hz. — Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results |
With P J Harvey's "Missed," from her Rid of Me CD, I liked the way the tweeters sounded open and uncolored, without the cupped-hands effect you often hear with horn-mounted drivers like these. While the maximum volume potential was never in question, dynamically the system was occasionally a bit too polite-sounding, softening a little of the slam and edge that I know are in the Harvey recording. The crossover between the speakers and the subwoofer was a tricky area as well, and at times I felt that a slightly smaller and perhaps more agile sub would give the system a touch more midbass punch, albeit at the expense of its maximum volume capability. Installers might also welcome a more compact model that could lend itself more easily to hidden multi-sub setups.
Movie Performance
After switching the surrounds to bipole and loading up Peter Jackson's King Kong on HD DVD, it soon became clear that this system really comes into its element with movie soundtracks. The overall balance remained on the warm side, but the center channel did a great job of resolving nuances in the dialogue while all hell was breaking loose around it. The PRO15SW is certainly capable of moving plenty of air, providing a solid foundation for the surrounding effects in the engine-room scenes on the boat.
With the bone-crushing low-bass and dynamic effects on the DTS soundtrack of The Haunting, I was able to raise the volume to an uncomfortable level without any signs of distress from the speakers. Similarly, the available dynamics on Mission: Impossible III could be startling, although the system's fist-in-a-velvet-glove presentation never made me shy away from increasing the volume. As you'd expect with a 7.1-channel rig, surround envelopment was a strong suit, helped here by the close timbral match I achieved through the speakers' available adjustments.
Bottom Line
With StageFront, Niles has shown us that installing a great audio system that can placate even the fussiest decorators doesn't necessarily mean you're limited to in-wall or (heaven help us) in-ceiling speakers. Niles has wisely chosen to tip the overall sonic balance slightly toward the warm and forgiving side of neutral. Still, this punchy and dynamic system has plenty of flexibility built in, allowing just about anyone to have top-notch home theater sound that's truly heard but not seen. If only raising children to be the opposite could be quite so simple.
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