Inwallstore.com

David,

Nope.  None of the impedance matching versions out there will have a true off setting, where it totally disconnects from the circuit.

This is because the function of the impedance matching is that the whole circuit needs to remain constant.  Meaning that the amp sees 8 ohms of impedance all the time.  If one were to be taken out of the circuit, the impedance would change, going up in value, thereby all the other speakers would get more quiet.  Which would be undesirable.

But I haven’t experienced that bleed thru with any of the volume controls at all.  If you have your system properly initialized with most all of your volume controls set correctly, you shouldn’t hear anything when you turn one off.

Another option to avoid it completely would be to use a speaker selector as your impedance device and when you need to confidently turn off an area, use the button on the speaker selector.  Speaker selectors take the leg completely out of the circuit.  In this case, you’d use just regular volume controls with no impedance matching.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

On Jun 8, 2008, at 12:33 AM, xxxxx@msn.com wrote:

Name :
David Yee

Message :
Hi,
Can you tell me if the phoenix gold VSL125-RB volume control has a true OFF setting?  If not is there one with a true OFF setting?  I had heard that w/o this then there is a small amount of sound coming from the speakers even with the volume setting at the lowest?

thx,
David.

Jeff,

The best way to buy speakers on-line is to first get a baseline of what
type of material you like to listen to. Go out and listen to some
speakers and make a note of your observations and then record what they
are made out of.

You can listen to bookshelf types to determine this. Then you can make
a qualified decision online.

Material is BY FAR the most determining factor to your ears.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

> Name :
> Jeff Hudson
>
> Message :
> For in ceiling application for home theater, I am comparing Phoenix Gold ATC6, Infinity CS60R, Polk RC60i, and am looking at a Yamaha set. It is very difficult to measure, which would you recommend? Knowing that you may not handle all of these brands, are they comparable?
>
>
>

Bruce,

The larger of the two rooms could use 2 pairs in there. I’d suggest you
at least wire for two pair and maybe just cut in one set and see how it
sounds to be safe.

I always use the analogy of the mom and pop grocery store for coverage
issues. Many times in a small shop like that, there will be an
inexpensive stereo near the counter playing “ambient” music. If the
store is somewhat larger, they’ll turn it up so that it covers the whole
store. But what happens is in the front of the store, it’s really
quiet, and towards the back it’s too loud. They just need more speakers.

Same thing in a house setting.

See this for an article about pre-construction brackets:
http://www.inwallstore.com/page/i/PROD/faq/finst_rough

And a great bang for the buck type speaker that we have are these:
http://www.inwallstore.com/jac6a.html
These sound very good for the price.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

@yahoo.com wrote:

> Name :
> Bruce R
>
> Message :
> I wish to install some ceiling speakers in two adjacent rooms. Room one has eleven foot ceilings and is roughly 20 x 25 the adjoining room has ten foot celings and is roughly 16 x 19. This not for surround sound but for just listening to music and background music reasons. Can I use two speakers per room?? Which ones do you suggest?? The rooms have not been sheetrocked yet. Do I install speakers before or after the sheetrook has been completed?
>
>
>
>

Russell and Shannon,

First take a look at this page about pre-construction brackets:
http://www.inwallstore.com/finst_rough.html

Then, if you’re looking for a system with a little more “oomph”, look at
this series from JA Audio called the Extreme Series:
http://www.inwallstore.com/exc80.html
and this one for your theater:
http://www.inwallstore.com/exr6ttheater.html

As for the rest of the system, consider this, we generally like to see
the theater area and whole house music areas on separate receivers. A
surround version for the theater and a basic stereo receiver for the
whole house stuff. Then, on the whole house audio systems, you’d want a
speaker selector matched for the number of speakers you’d expect to
have…like this one for higher power possibly:
http://www.inwallstore.com/ms8.html
Then volume controls like these:
http://www.inwallstore.com/vc200d.html

Hope that gets you started.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

@msn.com wrote:

> Name :
> Russell and Shannon
>
> Message :
> Hello,
> I am building a new home and all the wiring for speakers is in the walls and ceilings. I need your help on selecting the speakers and volume controls. As Follows; (1) outdoor ceiling, (10) indoor ceiling, (2) inwall-3 1/2″ studs (6) volume controls. Home theater,(1) center,(2) front-1nwall, (2) back side-inwall, (1) ceiling-overhead. (6.1) I would like to put the mounting brackets in before the sheetrock in about three weeks. I have a budget of 3,000.00 (we like to crank the volume) Thanks Russell
>
>
>
>

We’ve just begun producing our own line of video instructional products for an upcoming full length DVD! We’ve put a couple of them up on the site as a kind of beta type project to see how many of you watch them.

Initially, we’re going to start with our top selling products and work down toward our “cooler” products that should be best sellers.

The installation videos will be saved for special projects or very common questions. The rest will be offered on the DVD and maybe a paid download section.

Anyhow, take a look at our first three here:

So you’ve got a couple of rooms where you think you might want to “crank it up”. During the design phase of your whole house audio project, you might want to wire for a subwoofer in those rooms. It’s simple if you think about it now…very cumbersome if you think about it later.

First, some background on the how. These days most subwoofers (you still need to check for this feature) will have both low level (RCA style connectors) and high level (speaker wire) inputs. Most of the time we use subwoofers in a “theater” style setup. Most of our receivers that we use have a subwoofer “pre-out” that is an RCA style connector.

In our case with a remote room needing a subwoofer, it isn’t practical to wire an RCA line all the way. This gives you some bad side effects. First, low level signals are very prone to picking up the 60Hz sound from our high voltage electrical wires…so we get that hum at the subwoofer. Second, the volume of the subwoofer won’t go up and down with the volume control on the wall in that remote room, as it is getting its signal from the receiver’s sub out…the main volume knob on the receiver is what will make the sub’s level adjust with the overall output.

So we use the speaker level inputs instead. The subwoofers that have the speaker level inputs take the speaker wires from the receiver first, extract the low frequencies needed by the subwoofer, then pass the rest to the output side of the subwoofer that goes up to the inwall/ceiling speakers.

Here’s how we do it.

When you wire your typical system, you’ll take the speaker wires from your speaker selector first to your remote volume control location, then on up to the speakers in that room.

When you want to add a subwoofer in that room (or just wire in case you want a sub in that room), start at the speaker selector to the volume control in the remote room, THEN to a location at floor level, THEN on up to the speakers in that room.

You’ll wire into a single gang low voltage ring or J-box. If you’re sure you’ll be wiring the subwoofer for use in that room, you can cut the wires for hookup later with a speaker wall plate. If you’re not sure and are just wiring for the future, you can just leave the wire uncut and loop a little in there leaving the whole line intact and put a blank cover plate over the opening.

David,

The difference in location is type of usage of the room. A social area
where you’ll be walking around and not really stuck in one place, will
like to have ceiling speakers, like kitchens, entry ways, dining rooms,
etc. Placement will just be balanced in the room, usually matching to
lighting fixtures. A place where you’ll typically be in one place
you’ll like wall speakers, study, offices, bedroom (while listening in
bed), theater rooms. These, you’ll set them at a “stereo image” and aim
them at your ears to give you that “sweet spot” of music stage.

The difference in size is two fold. You need more speakers for larger
areas for coverage. You need larger speakers for more volume. Think of
a dive deli store with a boom box playing by the counter trying to give
the place “ambiance”…you can hear it on the far end of the store, but
right near it, it’s blaring. They could use more speakers, not bigger.

You’ll need larger speakers if you like to listen to your music at
volumes that compete with a vacuum cleaner. Otherwise 6 1/2″ versions
will be fine.

Hope that gets you started.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

> Name :
> David Fisher
>
> Message :
> I have just recently bought a house and am looking to install a speaker system within it. It is going to run in a living room, dining room, and kitchen. They are all on the same level so it makes sense. I am really worried about the kitchen which is 22′ x 12′. I have two major questions. The first is if it is better to install the speakers on the wall or in the ceiling? The second question is if it is going to be more beneficial to me to have 6.5″ or 8″ speakers or a mixing. I was originally thinking of having four speakers in the ceiling. I appreicate your help in looking into this issue. Hopefully I can find something here that will be what I need.
>
>
>
>

Typically, in a home situation we suggest a speaker selector with standard volume controls because you can turn off areas that you wouldn’t normally use and those areas truly get taken out of the circuit. Then the other areas get more power and better sound.

In an application that you would have all the areas on most all the time, you could (and should) use just impedance matching volume controls only. When you turn down an impedance matching volume control to it’s “off” position, it’s not truly off on the back side of the circuit. It has to remain in the circuit or else the circuit would always be changing the load to the amp, therefor causing volume fluctuations everywhere anytime someone even makes one click of an adjustment.

So you can do it both ways. The downside to using the speaker selector method is that it costs a few more bucks.

Brian Kruse
Installer
Inwall.com

=======================================================
E-mail::
bdalton2@….com
Question::
Everything I read indicates I need to connect my receiver to an impedance matching speaker selector, from there to each room’s volume control and speaker pair. If I have impedance matching volume controls in each room, why do I need a speaker selector? What does the speaker selector actually do? Can I run parallel to each room’s volume control directly from the receiver without a speaker selector? Thanks.

Volume controls are just big resistors. They aren’t powered, they don’t plug into AC, and they don’t amplify. There are amplified volume controls available, but they are a specialty and will define that they are amplified. For this discussion, I will address the common volume control.

Volume controls go inline with the speaker wire. They have an input and an output. The input will be the wire coming from your amplified source, a receiver, an amplifier, or if you’re using a speaker selector, from the outputs of the speaker selector. The output will be to the speaker wire going to the speakers.

The proper setup of the levels should have your volume control being at about 75% on most of the time. So the knob or slide control should be almost all the way up. For the first time setup of volume controls you first turn the volume controls all the way up to their max setting, then go to your receiver/amplifier and adjust the levels to just a tad over the normal levels that you want to hear your music at. Now go back to each volume control and turn it down to the level that you want to listen to the music in those areas. Some areas might be at 60% some at 90% and that’s ok. The reason some of the rooms may be different is that some rooms may be “dead” or have a lot of carpeting, window coverings, and plush furniture. Some rooms may be really “live” or have a lot of hard surfaces, like tile, windows and cabinets.

The important thing to remember about the volume controls is that they turn things “down”. At their top level, they are letting as much of the signal through as they can. Another way to think about this is an analogy to water pipes and faucets in your house. The main water pressure is like your amplifier/receiver power, your volume controls are your faucets and what comes out is the water/sound. The water company should have to only supply a reasonable amount of water pressure to supply the home, otherwise you may accidentally turn on your shower and get blasted with firehose type pressure! Same with volume controls and amplifiers, if you accidentally turned on one of your areas to top volume with your amp turned up too high (or maybe one of your toddlers turns them up without your knowledge), you could have speaker failure or maybe even worse, a wet pair of pants from being scared out of your begebers!

Actually, the main reason for setting up the amplifier/receiver this way is to have it running at a lower main volume and thereby operating at lower temperatures, lengthening it’s life span.

Center channel speakers have a different look to them for a few reasons. It all began way back in the late 80’s when Dolby began licensing their surround sound for home use in the form of “Dolby Pro Logic”. That was when surround sound went mainstream. They proposed a system of speakers that would roughly replicate the experience of a movie theater right in your living room. VCR tape rentals were well under way and the consumer electronics industry was all abuzz with this new toy. It would be 4 channels of surround, front left, front center, front right and a shared mono rear channel divided into two speakers for the back left and right. Some had a subwoofer channel, but most used the front speakers as big ole’ floor standing speakers (Bose was just starting their revolution of Subwoofer and Satellite systems around this time too…but that’s another story).

They made the center channel speaker for our odd shaped living/family rooms. There was only one “sweet spot” for listening in the middle of the sofa in the middle of the room. What about little Joey who had to sit on the other couch on the side of the room right in front of that big ole’ floor speaker? The whole movie would sound like it was coming from that one speaker. In came the center channel speaker. It was to broadcast the dialog of the movie track. All the “action” and things that happened on screen now would sound like they came from the screen and Joey could enjoy the movie from his odd sitting place.

The center channel speaker HAD to go on top of the TV. The consumer electronics industry knew that another big ole’ speaker on top of the TV wouldn’t work, so they made the speaker longer and with a lower profile by putting 2 smaller woofers instead of one larger one on the same plane in the same box. Now they could get the sound of a 6 1/2″ woofer out of two 4″ speakers by wiring them together and combining their effective surface areas.

So we all had TV’s in the living room and they were getting bigger and bigger. But most of us still had a tube style TV 35″ or under. Putting a speaker on a tube type TV is a problem. Tube type TV’s have a permanent layer of phosphor just behind the glass on the screen that is affected by magnetic fields (the back of a speaker generally has a large magnet). The industry took care of this problem by putting a metal shield around each of the magnets in the speaker array and voila` the center channel speaker is born.

Flip forward in time to present day electronics. We have improved our theaters greatly. We have big, BIG screens now. Made not from phosphor but from exotic materials like plasma, lcd, rear projection CRT and front projectors. The beauty of these new technologies is that none are affected by magnetic fields. Also, most of these are designed to be very thin in depth. What do our center channel speakers look like now? Unfortunately, the center channel speaker still holds onto it’s roots. And many of the salespeople (kids) on the floor of the large “big box” stores will continue to tell you that the center channel is the most important speaker in the array and that’s why it looks the way it does and that’s why it has 2 speakers in it.

The new surround technologies from Dolby and others (DTS, THX, etc.) still employ the same basic array of speakers surrounding you, but now all the speaker locations have discrete channels (or dedicated) with the full spectrum of audio (lows to highs) coming from each location. The movie producer knows this and can use these channels in any way they like to enhance their movie’s presence in your theater. There are no more “important” (ie. center channel speaker) or “less important” (ie. rear surround channel speakers) speakers any longer. ALL are important. That’s why we recommend using the same driver in all positions. You get a certain dynamic or tightness to the field of sound when you are using the same driver all the way around.

Now when you’re out shopping on our site for a surround sound theater kit, you’ll be armed with the knowledge of why our kits look the way they do.