In-wall speakers or floorstanding for my lounge — and is 7.1.2 worth it over 5.1.2?

Asked by a buyer from Agra.

Trade-offs, not winners, and we answered exactly this for an Agra customer with a 17 by 22 ft lounge. Short version: 7.1.2 makes sense in that room; in-wall versus floorstanding depends on how much you want the room to remain a room.

In-wall speakers: invisible, child-safe, no toes stubbed, no cabinets to dust. The performance depends on the wall they are in, because the wall becomes part of the cabinet. A hollow partition wall resonates; a solid wall behaves; a proper back box behaves best. Cabinet speakers at the same money hit harder and go lower, because their designer controlled the enclosure and the in-wall designer did not.

Floorstanding: fuller sound, more bass without the sub's help, no dependence on the wall. The costs are visible boxes, floor space, and a slightly harder negotiation with whoever else lives there. In a large lounge with a marble floor and glass on one side, floorstanders also give you placement freedom the wall does not, and placement fixes more than EQ ever will.

Now the channel count. 5.1.2 gives you the front stage, side surrounds and two height channels. 7.1.2 adds a rear pair. What that pair buys is smoother movement of sounds around and behind you: a car passing from side to rear does not jump. It matters in bigger rooms with more seats, where the side surrounds sit far from the rear row. In a small room the rear pair sits so close to the sides that they blur into one, and that money is better spent upgrading the speakers you already have.

A 22-foot room can use 7.1.2. A 12-foot room cannot, and there I would say so rather than sell two more boxes.

We quote the options side by side with the limitations of each written down, because I would rather you pick with your eyes open than discover the trade-off after the paint. Send us the room plan and the seating layout and I will mark which option fits.