Gearheads like us like to show off our speakers in the room, but fashion circles with different sensibilities take a "loudspeakers are meant to be heard, not seen" approach. No doubt, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers have come a long way from the dreck that spewed out muzak from an acoustic tile in our dentist's office. Definitive Technology has announced a new line of flush-mount speakers with micro-perf grills, dubbed the Disappearing In-Wall series, set to ship in Q1 of 2009. The company has both round and rectangular models (but being invisible, does it matter?), and since this is Definitive Technology, you know there's a bipolar model for surround channel duty. Bass output is goosed a little with Def Tech's Balanced Dual Surround System (BDSS) technology, borrowed from the floorstanding Mythos ST speakers, and the aluminum dome tweeters can be pivoted to get the setup dialed in. Sizes cover a gamut from 3.5- to 8-inches, and prices range from $179 to $379 per speaker. Sounds promising -- we'll try to get a listen for ourselves at CEDIA in a few months to see how far things have come from our dentist's setup!

If your home decor demands that you go for an invisible AV install, you can either build a separate HT room to house your gear or opt for in-wall speakers. Velodyne and Amina have teamed up (at least in the UK) to make sure that sound quality isn't compromised if you go the in-wall route. Pairing up Velodyne's SC-IW in-wall subwoofers with Amina's SoundUnseen in-wall AIW speakers turns out to enjoy a Reese's-like synergy. Mounting a subwoofer in a wall seems like a recipe for nasty vibrations, but Velodyne has pulled a clever bit of design with the SC-IW and aligned the driver to fire vertically in the wall. For its part, the Amina speakers actually get a thin layer of plaster applied over them for a truly seamless look. This kind of stuff is definitely custom-install only, so we can only hope similar partnerships get struck up on this side of the Atlantic.

While the vPad will certainly push the buttons of some home automation freaks, the in-wall TouchClient12 is likely to float the boat of just about everyone else. The unit is designed to be mounted flush within a wall, and aside from packing a predictable 12.1-inch color touchscreen (1,024 x 768 resolution), you'll also find Windows XP embedded within. Unlike most of the outfit's products, this one is available to the public right from its website, giving DIYers and headstrong homeowners the ability to bypass those pricey installers (and potentially mutilate their wall). As for connections, all that's needed is power and a CAT5 wire, after which you can program the panel to control anything controllable on your property. Sure sounds nice, but $2,499 nice? We'll leave that one to you.

Atlantic Technology, which was busy showing off an array of in-wall speakers at CES, is now replacing its IWTS-20 LCR with an all new flagship: the IWTS-30 LCR THX Ultra2 Certified in-wall loudspeaker. Designed for use as the left, right and center channel, this unit is declared by its CEO as the "best sounding in-wall [it] has ever made, and it makes no apologies for being an in-wall." Mr. Peter Tribeman continues on to say that he knows of "no other architectural solutions that deliver this kind of performance and flexibility at anywhere near this price point." Regardless of hype, the unit itself uses the company's exclusive Low Resonance Tweeter (LRT) along with a single 8-inch GLH (Graphite Loaded Homopolymer) woofer and two 3.5-inch GLH midrange drivers. Of course, you wouldn't expect such an exalted speaker to come without a princely price tag, so we suppose we're not too shocked by the $1,250 (each) sticker.

Although Control4 is best known for its home automation kit, the firm is using the spotlight at EHX to show off a new line of multi-room speakers. The 6.5- and 8-inch In-Ceiling and In-Wall Speakers (and In-Ceiling Stereo Speakers) all sport a two-way design, and they'll all play nice with the outfit's Wi-Fi Speaker Point, too. As for the drivers, they feature dual polymer cones, silk dome (pivoting) tweeters and rubber surrounds; hit up your dealer this summer if you're down with paying between $199 and $399 per pair.

Paradigm's latest duo isn't exactly cut out for retrofit applications, but if you're looking to add a wing and have a thing for keeping your speakers extra close to your insulation, these just may do the trick. Both the six-driver SIG-LCR 5 and four-driver SA-LCR 3 require the firm's Backbox support frame, and each can be installed in a variety of configurations depending on application. It should be noted that these suckas pack more than just good looks, and for more on the specifics of the $2,999 SIG-LCR 5 and $1,199 SA-LCR 3, click on through for the full release.

Along with the rise in custom home theater installations, in-wall speaker performance has come a long way in the past years. At CES, Atlantic Technology will be showing off its latest entry to the field, the IWCB-727. The name comes from "in wall, closed-box," a sure sign that these speakers are designed for higher performance than open-backed wall mounted speakers (as confirmed by their THX qualification). The company has put their Low Resonance Tweeter (LRT) in, which allows them to extend the tweeter crossover well into the midrange, to help smooth out the response -- a good thing for a speaker that's on a wall-sized baffle. And to make sure the sound is "just so," additional tech has been tossed in as well. Directional Vector Control electronically "steers" the tweeter into the room, and Boundary compensation takes care of midrange coloration caused by an adjacent wall or ceiling. Available Q2 2008 at $1200 each.

While not quite as niche as in-shower drivers, Leon Speakers is hoping to redecorate a few living room walls with its on-wall Seven Series. The lineup reportedly relies on two "hand-made German Eton 7-inch patented HEXACONE long throw woofers and a Raven R2 True Ribbon tweeter (all aluminum diaphragm) from Orca." Moreover, they can handle frequencies from 40Hz all the way up to 50kHz and sport a power rating of 250-watts per channel. Measuring in at 11- x 38- x 6-inches, these 75-pound beasts are slated to hit high-end audio shops sometime next month, and while we aren't apt to throw down the $17,000 required to pick up a pair, here's to hoping we get a listen anyway during CEDIA.

So you have some cash to drop and want a BIG flat screen to hang on the wall but the 70-inch plasmas are just to much; plus, they aren't big enough. You want BIG so you turn to front projection and again you just aren't happy. Sure the price is nice but the picture quality with a lot of light in the room just isn't good enough for your family room. What is a high-roller to do?

Optoma has solution for those with deep pockets. They showed off this pre-production model last September at CEDIA and are now shipping their in-wall 100-inch screen. The BigVizion is a 1080p color-wheel powered DLP. The system has every type of input a high-end TV should have including three HDMI ports, two component inputs, two YPbPr/RGBHV inputs and of course RS-232. The whole system is based 30-inches in the wall and weighs an astounding 750 pounds. While it is still less expensive then the largest plasma or LCD, it isn't cheap at $20,000.

[via BornRich]