Architectural Speakers

These are really great in-wall speakers - I was looking at mid/higher end B&W and Martin Logans among others for built-ins. I have these plus the same in the 160mm version in another room (space constraints). They both sound great - basically indistinguishable.

I like a clean, high-detail sound and these deliver -- I like the KEF sound. As a reference, Martin Logans are not my thing (too "soft", not crisp) but B&Ws generally sound good to me with the higher price speakers definitely delivering better sound for me). My other reference is a set of KRK VXT-8 studio monitors. Like other mid/higher-end KEF speakers I've listened to, these are the kinds of speakers where you can hear those little details that get lost on most crummy speakers - a vocalist drawing a quick breath, a brush of the fingers on the strings, a soft little brush back-beat on the drums behind everything else.

The bass on both this 200mm and the 160mm version is also very good - that is immediately apparent. Unlike most in-wall speakers that are designed for use as part of a THX-type AV system with a subwoofer, these seemed to be designed for hi-fi stereo audio and are rated down to 35khz (38khz for the 160s). I am driving them with a JAMO/Klipsch DSP 500, type g/h DSP amp, 125w/channel x 4 with the DSP equalizer at neutral. (That also happens to be a nice piece of hardware....)

All good, nothing bad.