When I first proposed the idea of adding an over-sized garage to our old 1875-built home in New England, it had nothing whatsoever to do with consumer electronics. It was all about saving the time and hassle of not having to clear snow or scrape ice off our cars parked in the driveway.
Soon, the garage addition became a new mudroom, two new bathrooms, a balcony, new driveway, and a giant 24×26-foot bonus room over the garage.
That’s when the idea of home theater popped into my head. I mean, how much space do the kids really need for their toys? (A lot, as it turns out.)
So, in 2007 we built a major addition to our old converted-barn home. The room became the classic male-versus-female battle royale: My wife had particular windows and window treatments she desired to maintain the look of an 1870s barn; I didn’t care. She had a subdued color scheme in mind; I didn’t care. She wanted particular antique-styled furniture and seating; I didn’t care. I wanted a home theater; she cared.
“There is no way I want an ugly projector hanging from the ceiling or big ugly speakers sitting in the corner,” was the exact phrase if I recall.
Well, in the end, I got my 7.1 home theater with a big-screen TV, built-in rack behind glass in an adjacent closet, and an array of in-ceiling speakers (including Triad Amina invisible speakers in the rear). We had a clean wall with no electronics in view, except for the giant high-gloss black subwoofer that I transferred from the living room upstairs and set on the floor. Let’s just say it did not fit the room’s décor.
“What is that?” was the question followed by the statement, “Get rid of it,” before I could even answer.
To the rescue came the Triad Speakers InWall Bronze/4 SlimSub custom in-wall powered subwoofer solution. The unit only requires four inches of wall depth to fit into a wall cavity.
I sent a swatch of the wall paint to Triad and the company delivered the SlimSub with a pre-painted Acoustiperf grille using its exclusive paint-matching program. The unit is almost invisible.
“It matches perfectly,” said my wife giddily. And she was right. And that is all she cared about.
Taking a closer look at the InWall Bronze/4 SlimSub, Triad explains the in-wall subwoofer enables integrators to deliver full bass into architectural situations where there is as little as four inches of wall depth in both new construction and retrofit applications.
As part of the integration process Triad supports the sub with its paint-matching program to help the sub aesthetically complement any interior design, and it mates with the company’s 300-watt Class A/B-based RackAmp 300 that is designed as a plug-and-play solution.
The Specs
Internally, the InWall Bronze/4 Slimsub utilizes a proprietary 10-inch aluminum cone woofer, along with an MDF cabinet, and an acoustic suspension design to help facilitate its in-wall installation and low-frequency reproduction capabilities.
Triad specifies the sub’s dimensions at 19 inches (H) x 13.5 inches (W) x 3 15/16 inches (D), and it also points out the InWall Bronze/4 Slimsub’s hole cut out requires 13 5/8 inches of space.
Unlike most in-wall subwoofers, the InWall Bronze4/ SlimSub is a real performer. The unit provides great bass for music or smaller scale A/V systems and a second sub enclosure can be paired for additional output. It mates with the 300-watt RackAmp 300 that provides simple ”plug-and-play” setup.
Even though the addition is new, the sub installation was a retrofit job. The attic area above the addition is somewhat tight, especially over the rack in the closet. So, my installer ingeniously ran the Tributaries cable behind the baseboard and into the closet for easy connection.
The entire retrofit process of installing the sub took approximately one hour, and from there it was simply a matter of fine tuning its output to match our A/V system.
Now, all the time I saved previously brushing snow and shoveling it away from the cars, I spend watching movies with booming bass.
