By Evan Ackerman
Flush mounted speakers or flat panel speakers aren’t anything new of course, but the Stealth Acoustics speakers are the first that I know of to be specifically designed to operate from inside your walls, underneath paint and wallpaper:
The Stealth Acoustics model AX3 is a three-way, full-range loudspeaker system that becomes completely invisible after installation. The loudspeaker has a rigid frame which attaches directly to standard structural framing without the need for special mounting brackets. The paintable active diaphragm face is a structurally modified three layer composite consisting of two layers of graphics grade paper with a foam core. The diaphragm is bonded to the frame, creating an active area surrounded by a stable mounting area.
So once it’s installed, it’ll be flush with (and effectively no different from) the surrounding drywall. To finish off the installation, just paint over the whole thing, or add wallpaper. In fact, the speakers are designed to perform best when covered with 4 coats of latex paint. The three-way speakers (150w output) cost $1500 for a pair; if you want some extra low-end, dual 8″ subwoofers that work the same way cost $560 for a pair. A simpler, woofer/tweeter pair (80w output) is $730 per pair. Not too bad of a price for an invisible, integrated speaker system… Too bad it’s not really the type of thing you can just pick up and easily install in an already finished house.
[ Stealth Acoustics ] VIA [ RFJ ]
That whole setup looks pretty nice.