Review

Atmospherix Complete Review - Audio & Video Lifestyle - Australia

01 Sep 2004

For as long as audio has been reproduced, engineers have tried to make the loudspeaker as inconspicuous as possible. But, as long as conventional driver technology remains, it is always going to be governed by a simple physical fact. The bigger, the better.

So, if you don’t like your loudspeakers on show, there are a few ways round it and by far the best art of concealment is in the wall or ceiling. But, hiding a pair of loudspeakers from view is one thing, but maintaining decent sound quality is another thing altogether. The vast majority of this sort of loudspeaker puts disguise above sound quality, but it needn’t be like that.

With the current property / home theatre / custom installation boom, it’s hardly surprising that this sort of product has also taken off. For years though, there was no such thing as a ‘quality’ in-wall or ceiling loudspeaker, just the sort that could be heard and not so much seen, but the problem was, you didn’t really want to hear them. The job of these early concealed speakers was to provide background music, nothing more, but in recent years, that’s all changed.

The home theatre and multichannel audio decoding now means you need at least six loudspeakers in the listening room and up to as many as 10. For many, having this sort of loudspeaker hardware on show is simply unacceptable, so getting them out of the way is the best solution. Krix’ latest, the Atmospherix 5’s are an in-ceiling loudspeaker with a bit of a difference. Whereas most open-backed designs just sit in the ceiling cavity and have no bass reinforcement, the new Krix Atmospherix have their own enclosure and are based on one of Krix’ most popular standmount designs, the Equinox.

The Atmospherix 5’s use the same 5 inch (130mm) doped paper cone bass / mid driver and 25mm fabric dome tweeter. The tweeter is mounted in an adjustable ‘eyeball’ allowing directional alignment towards the listening position of the upper mid and high frequencies. The swivelling tweeter is positioned above twin ports in the front baffle of this bass reflex enclosure.

The ‘cabinet’ construction has numerous advantages over open-backed designs, such as greater substance and control to the bass response and they can be driven harder without fear of components or fixtures rattling loose. An obvious advantage is that the crossover and drivers are protected from all that can lurk in the ceiling, namely dust, insulation particles, insects and unwanted house guests, such as possums and rodents. Obviously, this will greatly prolong the operational life-span of the speakers. Finally, the Atmospherix 5’s use a clamping system that allows easy and firm mounting to the drywall to stop any unwanted vibration of the speaker.

Although not in a position to start cutting holes in my living room ceiling, on the advice of Krix’ designers, I opted for the next best thing to try out the Atmospherix. To give them sufficient loading and sound as they would require in situ, I mounted each speaker in a 1.5 metre long and 18mm thick piece if medium density fibreboard, or MDF. This way, I was able to accurately gauge how they’d sound in a ceiling or wall installation.

There are many different uses for a speaker such as the Atmospherix, and it could be a single pair to deliver music to a different part of the house, say in the kitchen or dining room, or they’d make ideal effect speakers in a home theatre system. With 7.1 channel systems now standard issue, a pair as centre rears positioned above and behind the couch would be perfect. Rear effects carry plenty of bass weight and substance in modern movie mixes, so if you fancy an in-ceiling design, it has to be able to reproduce the low stuff, which is something the Atmospherix do with ease.

Like their standmounting cousins, the Equinox, there’s ample weight and extension from a small driver and thanks to that enclosure, there’s far more bass warmth and punch than you’d expect. It’s superbly well controlled bass too, meaning driving rock or dance music is easily handled and there’s an even spread with a well-defined midrange and a good spread of treble, resulting in bags of presence. There’s a healthy dose of crispness and focus and being able to adjust the tweeter means their open, airy and three-dimensional imagery can be aimed towards the listening position. The soundstage ability of this design is also particularly impressive, and although it’s not exactly going to fill out a large space, it’s still impressive enough to lend scale to both rumbling techno tracks or large orchestral works.

There’s more and more demand for this sort of product, which is exactly why Krix has come up with the first of a range of in-ceiling products. If you want to appreciate music or effects, but don’t want to see where it’s coming from, the Atmospherix 5’s are just perfect for this application. Practically designed, affordable and able to deliver quality sounds, they make a great concealable speaker solution.

Rating:

Performance - * * * *
Build Quality - * * * *
Compatibility - * * * * *
Value for Money - * * * *

- Audio & Video Lifestyle - Australia , Nic Tatham

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