Photos by Tony Cordoza
The next time you go to the movies, take a look around for the speakers. Where’d they go? Pull back the screen and you’ll find the front left, center, and right speakers stashed behind it, while the side and rear arrays are mounted high up on the walls. The idea is to make the audio system unobtrusive, and it works.
The average home theater, by contrast, is more like a showcase for gear. Stacks of black boxes and amps, tower speakers positioned several feet out from walls, a huge, bulky HDTV — you’re lucky to find a place to sit down. High-performance it may be, but high style it ain’t.
Taking a fashion tip from flat-panel plasma and LCD TVs, speaker manufacturers are starting to offer thin alternatives to traditional boxy designs. Most of these speakers are made to mate with flat TVs and can be mounted either directly on the wall beside them or on slim stands. To survey the trend, we called in a septet of stylish, wall-mountable surround sound systems from B&W (the FPM system, $4,650), Canton (CD 50 system, $1,749), Definitive Technology (Mythos, $3,694), Jamo (D 400PDD, $2,994), MartinLogan (Fresco system, $5,970), and Polk Audio (RM7600, $1,826). And for a little more spice, we added an on-wall system from Sonance (SilverScreen 50, $2,235), a company best known for its in-wall and architectural speakers.
Audiophiles are quick to point out the problems that can come with placing speakers on a wall. These include poor imaging and a bloated lower midrange, not to mention rattling from the mounting hardware. We didn’t attach the speakers to the wall during testing, instead simulating that setup by placing them on stands set flush against it. Most of the companies here offer optional stands for their speakers, so you can place them alongside a flat-panel TV that’s on a table or stand — the exact type of installation we have in our lab. With most systems, this option will definitely give better performance than wall mounting.
PDF: Fast Facts
Canton CD 50 System
If you thought on-wall speakers had to be either big or expensive, this system is Canton’s attempt to prove you wrong. The least expensive system of the group, this compact assemblage consists of three CD 50s, a model that allows for horizontal or vertical placement and can serve as a front, surround, or center speaker; a pair of CD 10 satellites, which can do double-duty as left/right front or surround speakers; and an AS 25 SC subwoofer. The speakers’ silver-metallic finish gives them a space-age look that’s right at home with a plasma or LCD TV.
Housed in a wedge-shaped aluminum cabinet, the CD 50’s considerable heft seems at odds with its compact size. The speaker comes with hardware for wall mounting — the placement for which it appears to have been designed. Its little brother, the CD 10, has the same kind of aluminum cabinet and can be attached to the wall with the supplied mounting hardware or placed on Canton’s optional LS 90 stands ($62.50 each). The silvery AS 25 SC sub looks pretty big next to the rest of the system, but in the world of subwoofers its size is actually modest.
System setup was uneventful except for the strain of inserting my cables’ spade-lug connectors into the tiny speaker terminals on the CD 50s and CD 10s. These were obviously designed to take bare wire, so match your cables accordingly. Because the CD 10s are so small, I mounted them on high stands — higher than the 3-foot LS 90 stands — against the room’s back wall to help optimize their dispersion.
The abandoned-church scene from the new DVD of X-2: X-Men United offered a good test of the system’s capabilities. Dialogue was clear, and sound effects came across in a precise, pinpoint manner. For example, when Storm and Jean first enter the cavernous church, the sound of a startled flock of pigeons taking off created a believable representation of the large space. But in the earlier scene in a museum where Jean’s telepathy goes into overdrive and she starts reading too many people’s thoughts, the voices coming from the surround channels always seemed to be emanating from a particular speaker, which tended to collapse the rear soundstage.
The last time I reviewed a Canton system, I learned that the company makes excellent subwoofers. This time out was no different. The AS 25 SC easily weathered my sub torture test, Squarepusher’s “The Exploding Psychology” (from their CD Go Plastic), hitting all the lows and tracking its machine-gun transients without missing a beat. It also put in a solid, tuneful performance on guitarist Bill Frisell’s “Blues Dream” from the Bill Frisell with Dave Holland and Elvin Jones CD. But this track also revealed the fairly rough integration between the sub and the CD 50s. The system’s midrange was noticeably lean, with guitar and ride cymbals lacking a sense of natural openness and ambience.
Switching to the multichannel Super Audio CD reissue of Steely Dan’s Gaucho confirmed my diagnosis. The high-hat cymbals — which already sound bright and crisp on the recording — were too crisp and dry. It seemed like the system was voiced to cut through the most muffled of living-room environments, one full of big pillows, shag rugs, that sort of stuff. But the bass guitar and kick drum on “Hey Nineteen” sounded very punchy and clean — yet another testament to the awesome AS 25 SC subwoofer.
With a total price of $1,749, Canton’s CD 50 system is an affordable, slick-looking entry into on-wall speakers. It has a great subwoofer and performs well with movie soundtracks, but music lovers may want to hold out for something better.
Polk Audio RM7600 System
With their black speaker grilles, glossy black finish, and big, bad subwoofer, Polk Audio’s RM7600 system looks a lot like a normal home theater rig. Aside from tapered cabinets, the main concession to two-dimensionality here was to slim the depth of the satellite speaker down to 5 1/2 inches, which makes it an inch or so deeper than most of the other models in this group.
The four RM4300 satellites and RM4600 center speaker have brackets on their back panels, which you use to attach the speakers to the wall using the included template (no additional hardware is supplied). The bracket does double duty as a Polk Power Port — a cone-shaped structure that juts into the speaker’s back-firing port and helps break up the air turbulence that can cause port noise, or “chuffing.”
Setting up Polk’s PSW505 subwoofer was a bit more confusing than it should have been due to a seeming contradiction between Polk’s manual, which suggests that you use the LFE input for a filtered signal coming from your preamp, and the sub’s back panel, which labels the LFE input “Unfiltered.” But I plugged into the LFE jack and experienced no problems.
Getting on to business with X-2, I cued up a clip where Magneto is accosted in his prison cell by the ruthless Stryker. This scene really showed off the system’s dynamic capabilities. First came subtle layers like piped-in Muzak, a vague ambient background rumble, and Magneto’s expectant breathing, all of which were rendered with excellent clarity. In contrast to the softer sounds, a jarring, full-frequency whack of the prison guard’s nightstick against Magneto’s head nearly made me leap from my seat. And in a following scene where Logan enters the vault-like Cerebro, the surround speakers created a convincing environmental ambience. When all is said and done, Polk’s beefy on-wall speakers can be cranked up loud without showing strain, and they don’t make any undue compromises when they’re used in home theater applications.
With acoustic folk songs like Richard Thompson’s “King of Bohemia” (from his CD Mirror Blue), the Polk system displayed good high-frequency detail without sounding bright. But positioning the speakers near the wall gave their sound a slightly chesty quality — something that plagued all of the models reviewed here except for MartinLogan’s Fresco. Squarepusher’s decidedly less folky “The Exploding Psychology” showed off both the RM4300’s excellent imaging and the PSW505 sub’s wide range. Low-end extension was very good, and the sub generally sounded authoritative, although some overhang occasionally made the bass sound a little thick.
The most standard-looking system of the bunch, Polk’s RM7600 package offers an on-wall placement option without a big sacrifice in performance. If you’re inclined to avoid on-wall speakers that look or sound wimpy, this is the system for you. At $1,826, the RM7600 is also the best bargain here by a long shot, so if you’ve already blown a lot of cash on a plasma TV, that’s all the more reason to consider it.
Sonance SilverScreen 50 System
Some manufacturers create on-wall systems by simply reducing the depth of their standard speaker cabinets and throwing in some mounting hardware. Sonance’s SilverScreen 50 speaker, on the other hand, was designed from the ground up for on-wall installation. Only 3 3/4 inches deep, the SilverScreen 50’s cabinet extends about the same distance out from the wall as a plasma TV. It comes with the company’s Invisimount wall bracket, or you can order optional stands for $20 each. But I don’t recommend using Sonance’s stands. Even after I attached them firmly to the speaker, they rattled during playback — at first I thought that the speakers were damaged!
The SilverScreen 50 is a very plain looking speaker. Its neutral silver finish should blend in with most environments, and the detachable grille can be painted for an even more precise match. While the cabinet is fairly wide at 8 1/4 inches, making the speaker big enough to easily accommodate 5 1/4-inch woofers pays off in bass performance exceeding that of many other on-walls.
The Sonance system created a great sense of envelopment during the scene in X-2 in Professor Xavier’s Cerebro machine. I could almost feel the doors closing behind me as Cerebro kicked into gear, and the voices of the phantom mutants that Xavier tracks with it swirled from the front to the back of the room in an unbroken trajectory. Dialogue coming from the center speaker had decent clarity, but Patrick Stewart’s musical, Shakespearean voice sounded slightly duller than over the other center speakers in this group.
Some of the same sonic qualities that I noted on X-2 also came across with music. On Mogwai’s “I Know You Are but What Am I?” from their CD Happy Songs for Happy People, the SilverScreens cast a wide image, with relatively full sound and a good tonal balance, but there wasn’t much depth or dimensionality. I could hear the sound of a piano being struck but didn’t get the sense of fingers on the keys. The Son of SUB’s relatively modest output also limited the system’s overall loudness. I could hear the low bass notes on Bill Frisell’s rendition of “Moon River,” but when I cranked the system up, the sound became murky and congested. It made me wish I had The SUB itself instead of its offspring.
For on-wall speakers from a company that specializes in in-walls, Sonance’s $2,235 SilverScreen 50 system delivers surprisingly decent performance. Its looks are unexceptional, but if you just want shallow speakers that hang on the wall and unobtrusively pump out sound, that’s not an issue. Do yourself a favor, though: take a pass on the speaker stands, and if you plan to crank things up, consider upgrading to The Sub ($825).
PDF: Fast Facts
Jamo D 400PDD System
I don’t know exactly what it is, but something about Jamo’s D 400PDD system reminds me of Ikea. Maybe it’s the Scandinavian connection (Jamo’s headquarters are in Denmark). Or maybe it’s the pictographic approach the company takes in its instruction manuals. Or maybe it’s the combination of wood, metal, and laminate speaker finishes — cool and contemporary, like a nice Ikea cabinet. But one thing I wish Jamo did share with Ikea was its naming scheme. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with D 400PDD, I’d be happier hearing a system named Flärke or Callax.
Like the Polk Audio rig, Jamo’s D 400 satellites and D 4CEN center speaker look like pretty standard speakers that have had their cabinet depth halved to accommodate wall mounting. But with their black grilles, curved front baffles, and metal-trimmed wood-veneer finishes, the Jamo speakers are a pleasure to look at. Metal slots on their back panels let them hang directly on screw ends protruding from the wall. This doesn’t strike me as the sturdiest mounting solution, so you may want to consider placing the speakers on stands.
The finish on the slim, streamlined D 4SUB subwoofer matches that of the rest of the system. A very convenient volume dial sits on the top surface where it can be adjusted without disturbing the sub’s placement. The back panel doesn’t have any speaker-level ins or outs, but it has both a standard stereo line-level input and one labeled Boundary Gain Compensation with a –10-dB filter at 20 Hz, which reduces boominess when the sub is placed too close to a wall.
In the scene from X-2 where the telepathic Jean is surrounded by “voices,” the Jamo system did a great job establishing the ambience of the museum space. And when voices kicked in, they came across clearly, with a distinct sense of separation and spatial positioning. But I never had a sense that the dialogue was “locked” to a certain speaker — the soundstage was impressively wide in both the front and the rear of the room.
Storm and Jean’s resonating voices in the church scene also sounded huge on the Jamos. After meeting resistance in her efforts to apprehend would-be presidential assassin Kurt Wagner, Storm conjures up a lightning bolt and directs it at the bat-like mutant. The impact of the bolt knocking batboy Kurt off his perch wasn’t as violent as on some of the other, more expensive systems, but it was still pretty dramatic.
Although you may think maximum output is the way to go with subwoofers, the D 4SUB sounded much better in our room when I used the Boundary Gain Compensation hookup. The acoustic-bass solo on Bill Frisell’s “Moon River” was tight and well-defined, and there was good integration between the satellites and sub. The D 400 satellites displayed good detail, but they also sounded a bit dark. On tracks like Steely Dan’s “Hey Nineteen,” however, this proved to be a good thing. Instead of sounding bright, the high-hat cymbals were evenly balanced with the rest of the instruments in the mix. As with X-2, the sense of envelopment was excellent, and Donald Fagen’s cynical, laconic voice sounded natural coming through the center speaker.
Jamo’s D 400PDD system offers slick Scandinavian design and lush, laid-back sonics at a reasonable $3,000 price. Pair it with a plasma TV and an Ikea couch, and you’ll be living the good life in no time.
Definitive Technology Mythos System
As a manufacturer of bipolar speakers, Definitive Technology is used to engaging the wall — in most cases by bouncing sound from a speaker’s rear-panel drivers off it, a technique that enhances image spaciousness. But its newest system — a $3,700 rig consisting of four Mythos Two satellites, a Mythos Three center speaker, and a SuperCube I subwoofer — was designed to hang on the wall. This is a big step for the company, which mostly relies on bipolar technology to deliver its trademark “big” sound. So did Def Tech pull it off?
Aside from the MartinLogan and B&W systems, the Mythos is the most radical design departure here — especially coming from a company that’s not known for updating the look of its speakers. At around 4 1/2 inches wide (or high in the case of the center speaker) and 4 1/2 inches deep, the Mythos Two and Three are strikingly slim and delicate. The handsome polished-aluminum cabinets taper in toward the back and can be wall-mounted using the supplied brackets. The Mythos Two also comes with an elegant glass base for placing it on a table or stand.
The SuperCube I subwoofer is surprisingly compact for a box containing a 10-inch driver, two 10-inch passive radiators, a 1,500-watt amp, and a full range of connections and controls. But at 75 pounds, it also seems like a black hole that’s swallowed up a universe or two — especially in the glossy piano-black finish.
If I had any concern that the compact Definitive Technology system could deliver larger-than-life sound, it was put to rest by watching X-2. In the sequence where Logan joins Xavier in Cerebro, the speakers convincingly recreated the cavernous, reverberant space — the seamless continuity between the front and surround channels made me feel like I was in the machine with them. Subtle sound effects like Logan snuffing out a cigar on his hand (then quickly healing himself, of course) came across very clearly. But then, so did more dramatic effects like the shutting of Cerebro’s massive doors — a gut-grabbing slam that owed its impact to the SuperCube I sub.
Moving on to something intimate, I played my Richard Thompson reference track. The Mythos Twos displayed great detail on the song, capturing the scrape of fingers across a guitar fretboard and the gentle overtones of the strings. As with many of the other systems, Thompson’s vocals sounded slightly chesty and reinforced, but it was nothing that moving the speakers a foot or so out from the wall — a luxury afforded by my setup — couldn’t tame. I was also impressed by how good Mogwai’s “I Know You Are but What Am I?” sounded. For speakers that sat relatively close together, the Mythos Twos’ presentation was surprisingly wide. Overall, the sound was warm and lush, but I could also hear the distinct layers of piano, drums, and synthesizers.
You’ve got to hand it to Definitive Technology for tackling the on-wall speaker challenge with technical ingenuity and flair. The Mythos system doesn’t look much like any of the company’s other speakers, but its sound is up there with the best of them. So I guess the answer is, yes, Def Tech did pull it off.
PDF: Fast Facts
B&W FPM System
B&W’s new FPM (Flat Panel Monitor) series of speakers is probably the best example I’ve seen of a company trying to get into a “flat” mindset and succeeding. The series consists of the FPM 4, 5, and 6, which are designed to mate with 42-, 50-, and 60-inch plasma TVs, respectively. Each speaker model beautifully mirrors the picture-frame form factor of a flat TV, right down to its slim cabinet depth (about 4 inches for the FPM 4 and 5, and 5 inches for the FPM 6). They even come with detachable magnetic frames and grilles in three finishes: brushed-aluminum/silver, matte black/black, and “anthracite.”
The FPMs don’t look like B&W speakers, but all you have to do is lift the grilles and you’ll see the familiar yellow Kevlar cones and dimpled ports. The system I tested comprised three FPM 5s for the front channels, two FPM 4s for the surrounds, and the ASW 675 subwoofer. Each satellite speaker can be wall-mounted, or you can buy B&W’s optional stands. The build quality of the company’s brushed-aluminum stands is impressive. And besides providing extremely sturdy coupling between the speakers and the tabletop or floor, they look very slick. The little ASW 675 sub, part of the company’s 600 series, can be stowed away in a corner where it won’t spoil the FPM system’s sleek, minimalist aura.
For a slim, wall-hugging system, the B&W FPMs did a great job of reproducing the cavernous church interior in X-2. Storm’s resonating voice arrived with equal strength from all sides. And more directional effects, like the sudden flight of frightened birds or the creak of a swinging lamp, had a smooth, unbroken trajectory as they panned from speaker to speaker. The ASW 675 sub lent an authoritative low end to these and other scenes. For example, when the massive Cerebro machine closed around Xavier and Logan, the shutting of its doors was accompanied by a full, muscular slam.
The B&W system had a surprisingly deep and larger-than-life sound for music, too. Closing my eyes, I played Mogwai’s “I Know You Are but What Am I?” The soundstage was very wide for such slim speakers. I could hear a precise delineation between layers of instruments, and the bass was tight and well defined. The drums in Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters” also had impressive dynamics and drive. On this and other songs with male vocals, I detected a slight chestiness in the lower midrange, but as with all the other speakers except the MartinLogans, it cleared up when I moved the speakers a bit out from the wall. My ultimate impression of the FPM system was that it was more forward and bright-sounding than other B&W speaker systems I’ve listened to, but there was plenty of family resemblance, especially in its great imaging and midrange clarity.
B&W obviously got into a flat mindset when designing the FPM series. Although the $4,650 price tag isn’t cheap, the system looks elegant, mates perfectly with plasma TVs, and makes you feel like you’re listening to something remarkable and new. But newness here doesn’t mean compromise. The FPM satellites’ performance is as about good as can be expected from on-wall speakers. And given their very slim profiles, that’s an amazing feat.
MartinLogan Fresco System
MartinLogan is best known for its towering electrostatic speakers, some of which stand nearly 7 feet tall. Given this lineage, the company’s newest model, the Fresco, is a serious act of miniaturization — a speaker that has the company’s distinctive technology and sound but takes up a mere 200 square inches or so of wall space. The speaker’s aerodynamic looks are equally impressive. The configuration that the company sent me — five Frescos and a Grotto subwoofer — ranks as one of the most beautiful systems I’ve laid eyes on. These are on-walls that even an interior designer could love.
The Fresco’s silver faceplate and grille proved to be a perfect match for our plasma TV (other finishes are available). The optional bracket lets you attach it to either a wall or ceiling, and once installed the speaker can pivot up to 90° to aim its sound at the listening position. Since the flexible Fresco is designed for either vertical or horizontal mounting, you can use it as a front, rear, or center speaker. A two-position switch lets you adjust equalization for on- or off-wall placement — the only speaker here that offers this feature.
The Fresco uses what MartinLogan calls an Advanced Thin Film (ATF) transducer to reproduce midrange and high frequencies. The film is coated with etched aluminum, and sound is created as it’s pushed toward or pulled away from magnet arrays positioned on either side in reaction to fluctuations in an electrical current running through it. Frequencies below 500 Hz are crossed over to a pair of conventional dynamic woofers, which handle bass duties down to 75 Hz.
The Grotto sub’s sculptured design makes it a perfect match for the Frescos. Like a piece of contemporary furniture, you’ll probably want to keep it out in the open where everyone can see it. Among its full complement of controls is a secondary level knob that lets you boost or cut the bass at 25 Hz in 1-dB increments up to ±12 dB — useful for counteracting room modes that weaken bass response or make things sound boomy.
After switching the Frescos’ on-wall/off-wall setting to the on position, I settled in to watch X-2. Right away, I could hear what was special about the system. In the museum scene where Jean’s telepathy goes haywire, the Frescos cleanly rendered the dialogue coming at me from various angles — I could distinctly hear each voice as well as locate its position in space. And when Scott came over to help the disoriented Jean, their conversation had the same level of clarity when I moved to various off-axis positions on my couch as it did when I was sitting front and center.
The later scene in the abandoned church let me know just what to expect from the system’s overall dynamics. The trajectory of the sound effect accompanying the lightning bolt Storm hurls at batboy Kurt Wagner was smooth and seamless. The Grotto sub, meanwhile, lent a dramatic heft to the impact of the lightning on the perch where Wagner hissed down at Storm.
The system’s handling of X-2 boded well for its performance with music, so I wasn’t surprised to hear how good it sounded on Steely Dan’s Gaucho. The bass guitar and drums on “Babylon Sisters” were full and tight, and cymbal splashes sounded detailed and three-dimensional. Even though it was sitting well out in the open, the Grotto sub’s smooth integration with the Frescos made it virtually disappear. And there was great coverage from the surround channels — a 360° pan of chimes used to evoke southern California’s Santa Ana winds sounded seamless as it circled around me.
For its first conplete on-wall speaker system, MartinLogan has come through with something unique. Not only does it look stunning and provide a high level of installation flexibility, but its ATF mid- and high-frequency transducers deliver the kind of clarity and detail listeners have come to expect from the company’s other speakers. You’ll pay a good deal more for the Fresco/Grotto combination than for the other systems featured here — around six grand in all — but if you’re seeking high-end looks combined with high-end performance, you won’t be disappointed.
Flat-panel plasma and LCD TVs have definitely changed the home-entertainment landscape for the better. A big screen no longer means surrendering your living room to a TV the size of a baby elephant. It was only a matter of time before audio companies got hip to flat, and as this survey shows, there are plenty of great-looking, great-sounding, wall-friendly speakers available at a variety of prices. So if you’re going to get two-dimensional, there’s no need to stop with the TV. Get your whole home theater up against the wall.
PDF: Fast Facts