Excellent in-wall speakers

I was considering getting a pair of JBL SP6 to be used as the surround speakers for my home theater system. I never liked in-wall speakers, but my rationale was that the surround speakers are not as important as the main speakers and the center channel speaker, so if I get a pair of JBL SP6 they would match my main speakers (JBL E100), and, being made by JBL, should be at least decent. Plus the in-wall speakers have the advantage of not taking up any space, and, if you paint them, blend seamlessly with the décor.

The fact that you can get these speakers at a reasonable price (well under $200 for a pair) didn’t hurt my decision making process either.

So I ordered a pair of JBL SP6 online, and, once they arrived, installed them into the walls. The frequency response promised by the user manual claimed quite impressive 38Hz at the low end (especially considering that the low frequency driver is just 6½“). So, just for kicks, I decided to unplug my JBL E100s, and try to hook the JBL SP6s up as the main speakers, to see how miserably they fail is this role.

To my great surprise JBL SP6s sounded really well! And they didn’t sound “in-wall” at all. The sound these speakers produce is very clean, rich, and well balanced, even though they are relatively small 2-way speakers.

The lows are very well defined. They do, however, have a very distinct sound, probably due to the fact that the woofers are titanium laminated (they even feel metallic if you touch them).

And as surround speakers JBL SP6s sound equally good. Even subtle surround effects are very audible and clean (I use Onkyo TX-SR601 6.1 receiver). They are also relatively easy to install, and can be painted to match the walls (they even come with a cut-out and painting instructions in the user manual).

The only thing I don’t like about these speakers is that the wires are being attached via spring clips, and the whole spring clip assembly is somewhat flimsy, so you need to be careful not the break it.