Over the years, we’ve built our fair share of custom homes for owners who have wanted to include built-in audio systems, either for the entire home or for a theatre room. Invariably, the position of the speakers is always a concern – many owners love the concept but aren’t crazy about actually seeing the speakers even if they’re flush-mounted with only the grills visible.
There’s a solution to this problem, and we’re in the midst of employing it in an extensive whole home renovation in Eagle Bay. The owners wanted built-in audio in their revamped home – but they wanted to only hear the system, and not see it.
The solution is an innovative speaker design by Sonance, a company that designs and builds built-in architectural audio systems for homes, businesses, yachts and RVs. Once installed, Sonance Invisible Series speakers disappear completely into the surface that surrounds them. They employ transducer technology – that is, they project sound through vibration, even when covered by up to three millimetres of drywall, wallpaper and wood. They’re mounted and wired into a home’s framing, and then covered/painted so that all you see is the wall or ceiling surface.
How do they sound? To be fair, they’re not intended to be audiophile-quality loudspeakers (and they’re not priced that way either). But they’re surprisingly good when you consider they’re completed covered and invisible, particularly at low to moderate volumes.
“The performance of the Sonance IS4 is better than you would expect,” writes Jerry Del Colliano in his assessment on the popular website Home Theater Review. “At realistically low listening levels for a specialty speaker like this, the IS4s offered a meaningful musical experience compared with other in-wall and in-ceiling speakers.”
We’d like to show you some photos of the finished installation, but obviously, that would be pointless! If you’re interested in knowing more about this innovative product, you can visit sonance.com.
