How to Choose Architectural Speakers for Your Home Theater

Are you thinking about a new or upgraded home theater? You are likely thinking about the speakers for it. The choices are endless, more than we could possibly cover in this post. But we’re going to get you started in the right direction. 

First, you have a choice of freestanding or architectural speakers. Architectural speakers are built into walls and ceilings. How do you choose one over the other? Mostly it comes down to aesthetics. Some people like the look of speakers, but some don’t want to see them at all. Some don’t mind the powerful look of a front speaker array (left, center, and right), but like the rest of the surround sound to be integrated into walls and ceilings. 

As a longtime home theater company, there is one myth we want to dispel here from the start. You can get the same performance level from architectural speakers as freestanding ones. If you think large, bulky speakers are the only way to get exceptional sound in a home cinema, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the amazing choices in architectural high fidelity speakers for theater – and even music, for that matter. Now that we have that out of the way let’s go deeper into how to choose architectural speakers for your Roswell, GA, home theater. 

SEE ALSO: Should You DIY or Hire a Company for Your Home Theater?

Speakers in Walls

You can do your entire home theater with in-wall speakers. Well, except for one part – the overhead speakers for Dolby Atmos. The overhard speakers are essential for the immersive sound of Dolby Atmos or DTS:X immersive soundtracks. We’ve covered Dolby Atmos in detail here, so let’s get back to in-wall speakers! 

Now, you can go as basic as a two-way speaker for your in-wall installation. Two-way is a woofer and tweeter. Of course, you can do much better than that, but much depends on your objectives, performance standards, and budget. What you should know is that there are specific models of the front array – left, center, and right – speakers that are very sophisticated and powerful, like their freestanding counterparts. These are 3, 4, and five-way designs, with each driver controlling a part of the frequency range. More drivers require a more sophisticated speaker crossover design and result in more detail, depth, and dynamics, just what you need for immersive movie soundtracks. These speakers often come with aimable high-frequency drivers to help fine-tune the installation. We highly recommend these “LCR” designs for excellent home theater sound.

Do you need the same power and performance for surround speakers? The short answer is no, but many high-end home theaters use the same speakers all around in walls for coherence and impact. Most architectural speaker manufacturers offer models for surround with fewer drivers, smaller size, but similar design and voicing to blend with the front speakers that bear the brunt of reproducing most soundtracks.

Speakers in Ceilings

As mentioned above, ceiling speakers are ideal for the height effects and enveloping three dimensional sound of Dolby Atmos. What are they for? They are for the bullets flying overhead, the helicopters and airplanes that might want to make you duck, and other sounds that put you in the middle of scenes and make movie musical scores soar. These ceiling speakers do not need to have the same size drivers and power handling characteristics as your front speakers and can closely match the design of your in-wall surrounds. The height of your ceilings is important here as the impact of these overhead effects diminishes with higher ceiling heights. You can overcome some of that with more powerful, larger in-ceiling speakers and amplification. 

GHT Group works with high-fidelity speaker brands like Focal, Monitor Audio, and more. To learn more about architectural speakers for your dream home cinema, we invite you to visit our 20,000 square foot Marietta showroom, reach out to us here, or click the chat below to connect with us. We would love to help you!