SpeakerCraft will unveil at CEDIA 2016 and add to its portfolio of nearly 150 speakers another speaker innovation: an in-wall Dolby Atmos enabled height speaker.
The $349 (MSRP) AIM Series 2 ATX100 made an appearance at last year’s show, but SpeakerCraft will be taking orders this year for its first-to-market in-wall Atmos height speaker, which can also handle other forms of object-based surround-sound systems, such as DTS:X.
“If you heard them play at last year’s Expo, you’ll be blown away at how they sound this year,” says Core Brands audio product manager Matt Dever, who explains that the SpeakerCraft engineering and design team spent countless hours refining the speaker design and performance to get the correct reflections off the ceiling and have the speaker fit into a shallow 2×4 wall.
“This involved developing drivers, crossovers, and enclosures very specific to this purpose,” adds Mike Strange, Core Brands senior director of acoustics. “The result is a design that brings the Dolby Atmos experience into an installed environment completely hidden away in the wall.”
The ¾-inch custom titanium dome tweeter with Neodymium magnet structure boasts a frequency response up to 22kHz. With its dual 2 ½ inch Kevlar-reinforced pulp mid-bass drivers, the ATX100 can handle up to 125 watts of amplifier power at 8 Ohms.
SpeakerCraft will be taking orders for the ATX100 Height Speaker at CEDIA, with the product expected to begin shipping in October.
If you’re looking for speakers to round out your Atmos installation, the ATX100 can be paired with either of SpeakerCraft’s two new AIM Series 2 LCR In-Wall speakers.
“We took the key technologies developed for the AIM Series 2 in-ceiling line and applied then to these new in-wall speakers,” says Matt Dever, Core Brands SpeakerCraft product manager.
Designed to mirror the size and shape of the ATX100, the AIM LCR5 FIVE Series 2 ($879 MSRP) and AIM LCR5 TWO Series 2 ($749 MSRP), are intended to be recessed into the wall adjacent to a flat panel TV along with or apart from the ATX100. The ATX100 and LCR5 FIVE Series 2 sold together as a system—called the ATS500—retails for $1,329. The ATX100 and LCR5 TWO Series 2 sold together as a system—called the ATS200—retails for $1,199.
Bottom line: dealers will have five different options to create a surround-sound system for their clients. The AXT100 on its own, the LCR5 FIVE on its own, the LCR5 TWO on its own, the AXT100 paired with the LCR5 FIVE, and the AXT100 paired with the LCR5 TWO.
Each LCR speaker features the new Arrayed Point Source (APS) Tweeter Module, which incorporates three pivoting titanium dome tweeters mounted on a rotational sound baffle. By rotating the baffle, the LCR can precisely focus the high-frequency sound at the targeted listening area.
