INNOVATIVE TECH
Jan/Feb 2020 | Residential Tech Today 49
Nakymatone invisible
speakers (front and back)
before installation.
Making Speakers Disappear
Although the sound quality hasn’t always been
that great, invisible speakers of the non-magical
type have been around for quite a while.
Significant improvements have been made over
the years, though, and there are now a
considerable number of companies offering
high-performance invisible speakers, including
Amina, Nakymatone, Sonance, and Stealth
Acoustics. Although each company differs in
the particulars of its product designs, the ones
under discussion here utilize a similar
fundamental concept that involves installing an
independent vibrating flat panel (rather than the
usual cone/dome-shaped transducers) flush
with the wallboard and then applying paint or
other type of covering over it so it completely
blends in with the surrounding wall. Of course,
the entire process is much easier said than done.
Unlike a traditional-style architectural speaker,
invisible in-wall or in-ceiling speakers don’t have
flanges surrounding the speaker grille – indeed,
they don’t use grilles at all. Flanges can
conveniently hide off-kilter, crooked, or roughly
cut edges in the drywall opening that the
speaker is mounted in. In addition, the face
panel of the invisible speaker needs to be
perfectly parallel with the wallboard but extend
approximately 1/16th of an inch above the
surface. This means that shims are often
required during the installation to ensure the
correct alignment.
Once installed, most manufacturers
recommend using self-adhesive nylon mesh or
paper tape along the edges where the speaker
panel meets the wallboard and then feathering
the speaker face to the wall with standard
drywall joint compound. Depending upon the
final finishing technique that’ll be used, a very
thin skim coat can sometimes be applied over
the entire face of the speaker. It’s imperative that
imperfections in the joint compound be
carefully sanded and corrected before the final
paint (or other finishing) is applied in order to
create a visually seamless transition between the
panel and wall. Needless to say, unless you have
extensive, professional-level AV installation,
carpentry, taping and floating, and wall finishing
skills, this is not a do-it-yourself project.
One advantage of invisible speakers (beyond
being invisible, of course) is that the flat panel
used to create and project sound into the room
offers a much wider dispersion angle than do
architectural speakers that rely on cone or dome