Polk Audio Vanishing Series Review

Serendipity

Around Christmas time I installed these speakers and after a few days of break-in time, I can officially say that the Polk Vanishing series inwalls sound awesome! Listening to them right now and they are clear at low volumes, and very dynamic when turned up. They sound like a bookshelf speaker at background listening levels which is the way I listen to them most of the time. Great sound for a great price (around $650 for the pair), easy installation, and great customer service. I'm glad I installed these speakers!

Here are some pics of the speakers:

EndersShadow

Out of curiosity did you enclose them in a box in the ceiling or just install them?

Serendipity

EndersShadow wrote: »

Out of curiosity did you enclose them in a box in the ceiling or just install them?

I installed them in the ceiling and then semi-enclosed them by covering the 2x4 in the attic with insulation. At first I tried them without any insulation (see Pic 5 above), however, the sound was a little boomy and not coherent. After stuffing the crawl space with insulation, the speakers sound much better.

More installation pics below:

EndersShadow

Serendipity wrote: »

I installed them in the ceiling and then semi-enclosed them by covering the 2x4 in the attic with insulation. At first I tried them without any insulation (see Pic 5 above), however, the sound was a little boomy and not coherent. After stuffing the crawl space with insulation, the speakers sound much better.

More installation pics below:

I wonder how they would sound enclosed (if you can do that without tons of work), you could also play with how much space their box was to see if it made any differences....

I have always wondered how Polks in-wall or in-floor subs sounded....

Serendipity

EndersShadow wrote: »

I wonder how they would sound enclosed (if you can do that without tons of work), you could also play with how much space their box was to see if it made any differences....

I have always wondered how Polks in-wall or in-floor subs sounded....

I would think they would sound tighter and clearer enclosed, especially if they have some sonic damping material in the enclosure to tame the back wave. However, they are already great without an enclosure, and this is probably the way Polk wanted them to be installed (in between standard 2x4's with some insulation behind the speaker). Maybe someday I will get the chance to try the LSi series inwalls, I bet they sound good since they are $1,000 a pair.

mantis

Dynamat back boxes are awesome for in ceiling and in wall speakers. Greatly tightens everything up. It's much better when the speaker has it's own back box from the factory.

Serendipity

mantis wrote: »

Dynamat back boxes are awesome for in ceiling and in wall speakers. Greatly tightens everything up. It's much better when the speaker has it's own back box from the factory.

I just placed another layer of insulation behind the speakers and they sound even better, the sound is very clear with accurate bass. They have a little less bass than the RTi series bookshelves which is what I prefer. With the tone controls set flat the sound is just right. I am really enjoying these.

Cuchulain

I enclosed my 625's with 1" pink styrofoam insulation. Made a nice tight box. Is there somewhere I can find out how big the enclosure should be exactly.