Hide and Go Hear ~ Invisible speakers

Buzz Delano

Principal Consultant, Delano Associates

When a home calls for excellent design aesthetics, sound can match the beauty with

invisible speakers installed instead of more ceiling and wall speakers. Sound matters

and so does invisibility when the room wants to look extra nice.

Back in the day of box speakers turning into in-ceiling and in-wall speakers, that was

cool. No more wires to hide, no floor or bookshelf space needed and of course, no

more discussions about “those are going where?” Except maybe for a special room

of two channel listening or a dedicated home theater, cabinet speakers lost their

place as “around the house” items.

Along the way, a few clever and creative speaker people decided to explore

technology that could make speakers invisible and play through some sort of wall

covering. Today, invisible speakers sound good and are designed to be nicely

covered with a variety of wall or ceiling finishes. That’s great news for AV

integrators, interior designers and homeowners.

While the obvious benefit is speakers unseen, another benefit is that fewer invisible

speakers than ceiling speakers are needed to fill a room with sound. The very nature

of invisible speaker technology is somewhat dependent on very wide off-axis

performance, meaning that when properly installed, invisible speakers will deliver

full sound almost anywhere in the room.

Consider the primary rooms in pretty much any home, from a nice 3,000 square

footer to a luxury estate, it’s going to be kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer

areas where most of the hang time and hubbub happens. So, that’s where music

should be available and these areas deserve extra attention to appearance.

Keep the visual focus in a foyer or dining room on the beautiful chandelier and

exquisite crown molding rather than having a couple of round grilles distracting the

eyes. A living room is often a place for quiet relaxation and nice lighting for various

moods. Music is a must so install invisibles in the living room to complement the nice

furnishings, art and décor touches.

And yes, the kitchen, often with a great room extension. Everyone loves to hang out

here so the chatter can get loud and sometimes the music level needs to contend

too. Do you really want to add a bunch of speaker grilles to the visual distraction of

the ceiling lights, pendants, air returns, smoke detector and perhaps even a ceiling

mounted wireless point? Of course not!

A couple of pairs of invisibles in the right places solves ceiling clutter issue and will

sound nice at moderate volume and will sound even better when it’s time for a

music party.

Covering up invisibles does require a bit more work than cutting a hole for a typical

speaker, but the visual benefit is massive. Once the speaker is installed, proceed

with standard drywall steps and the speaker is covered. Tape and mud. Sand and

skim. Sand and finish. Voila, invisible speaker!

Another great place for invisibles is around a family room TV. They can go in the wall

around the TV or in the ceiling above and in front of the TV. For the ceiling

installation, have the speakers about 3 feet in front of the TV for best sound.

if your client wants surround sound or a Dolby Atmos© system, install four

additional invisibles in the ceiling, directly above the main seating area. Hint, to help

the budget here…most manufacturers make lower priced invisibles that are suitable

for surround channels while you can put the top line model in the front main speaker

locations. Voila! Invisible, great sounding family room TV.

Hide and go Hear. Invisible sound is cool, and the interior designers will love it too!