The Magic of Invisible Loudspeakers: When Aesthetics are Paramount
You’re at a friend’s party and loving the music they’re playing. But when you look around, you can’t find the loudspeakers. Where is the sound coming from? The room is perfect: the design, the detail, the furnishings, the art. You look again. Nothing. Not a music speaker in sight, yet the sound is marvelous! That’s the job of Invisible Speakers. They don’t just “blend” into the room, they disappear!
What Are Invisible Loudspeakers exactly?
As the name suggests, invisible speakers are built-in and can’t be seen. They are designed to be hidden from view and engineered to work without any appearance. They are part of the construction process. The frame is installed in the open walls, then the speaker is installed when the plasterboard is in, and then comes a Level 5 skim coat. In other words, it becomes part of the wall. When the job is done, the furniture is moved in, the party starts, and the room comes alive with the sound of music. No large box speakers taking up floor space or detracting from the aesthetic of the designer’s vision.
How can they produce good music without being in a box?
Invisible speakers work in a very different way from conventional music speakers. First, they are flat panels. Second, they use the space inside the wall or ceiling as their “sound box.” So, in a sense, they do have boxes. Because these speakers are skim-coated in, you don’t see the box and there’s no grille. The materials are also completely different, using different technologies. Whereas traditional speakers use a moving cone, flat panel speakers spread the electrical energy across a semi-rigid flat surface that vibrates slightly, enough to create substantial sound but not enough to interrupt the bonding of the unit to the wall or ceiling.
How do they sound?
Frankly, they sound really good! They shouldn’t be compared to high-end large box speakers. They aren’t going to give you the musical fidelity of a pair of $25,000-100,000 Focal, Meridian or Revel speakers! But compared to other in-wall and in-ceiling designs, they sound very good. When first introduced 25+ years ago, invisible speaker were known as “styrofoam transducers” – not a very sexy moniker--and we only installed them in places where the quality of the music was unimportant. But over the years, they have improved dramatically. And as a bonus, they produce better diffusion than other installed designs. The sound field is larger and without “hot spots,” thus fewer speakers are required.
Room by room: Is the music foreground or background sound?
Most music lovers have one pair of high quality floor-standing “statement” speakers in their home. These are often found in the family room or dedicated home theatre. Additionally, an audiophile will have small bookshelf speakers in the home offices, perfect for taking a pause from work to enjoy something soothing or, inversely, something to light a fire! These are primary, or “foreground” listening experiences. In this case, you want to feel like you’re in the in the club or concert hall. Ideally, you can close your eyes and visualize where each instrument is positioned on the stage. Invisible speakers, on the other hand, are for secondary or “background” listening, the spaces where the music is creating an ambience for other tasks, whether it’s cooking, working out, reading or tasking around the house. You’re not front and center on the speakers and, therefore, they shouldn’t dominate the room. Formal living and dining rooms are the perfect examples of where invisible speakers are most at home.
Are Invisible Speakers reliable?
SimpleHome is obsessed with reliability and we wouldn’t recommend this product if it weren’t reliable. Most loudspeakers have a very long life. This is especially important for anything built into the wall or ceiling. These speakers are built to be extremely robust for that very reason. They have no traditional moving parts and incorporate self-resetting overload protection circuits. The speaker simply shuts off if it is played too loud. They also come with exceptionally long warranties. The only caveat is not to put a picture nail through the speaker. For that reason, most invisible speakers are installed in the ceiling or high on a wall where no one will try to hang a painting.
Final thoughts.
Architects and Interior designers are just coming up to speed on this category. That’s mainly because the quality-focused companies, including SimpleHome, have only recently considered invisible speakers worthy of a luxury home. Now that they’ve “arrived,” we recommend them strongly. The design team loves the application, and our clients are very happy with both their musicality and their hidden nature. For many, they are a fun conversation piece with friends. We still think every home should have a pair of outstanding floor-standing speakers. But invisible speakers open up a very welcome new design chapter.
