White Paper
Euphonia IWS 3 Phantom
a 180° angle. In fact, an in-wall design is, theoretically speaking in several aspects, a
“better” defined acoustical solution than a conventional floor-standing loudspeaker.
However, there are crucial trade-off’s that must be addressed before rushing to exploit the
obvious advantages of an in-wall solution. Specifically, there are two major obstacles that
must be overcome. With an in-wall, the listening position is fixed, a condition that must be
understood and accepted by the user.
The second and major issue is the acoustic properties of the mounting site itself. Most
walls that would be deemed suitable for built-in loudspeakers have low rigidity, making
speaker installation a bit like suspending the speaker from a wire. An unstable platform will
limit the speaker’s sonic potential.
A key unknown in this equation is the wall cavity, which may be
filled with different kinds of insulation materials or with nothing at
all. This is a highly unpredictable situation from an acoustical point
of view and can have tremendous impact on the performance of the
speaker.
In typical in-wall designs with no rear enclosure, acoustical
compromises must be made in the drive units to compensate for
possible wall cavity scenarios. These compromises are inevitably
detrimental to sound quality.
This places the in-wall speaker basically at the mercy of the flexible
wall in which it is mounted and of the materials (if any) in the wall
cavity.
These crucial problems have been addressed and eliminated in the
design of the Euphonia Phantom.
In-wall with no rear enclosure
The Phantom Menace
As described above, the main problem with an in-wall speaker is not the speaker, but the
wall in which it is framed and the cavity behind it.
A Stable Platform
A wall can vary tremendously in stiffness and therefore exert significant influence on audio
performance. DALI addresses the problem of a “soft” wall by making the Euphonia
Phantom itself quite heavy and rigid, a massive 7 kilos (16 lbs.).
The sheer mass of the speaker acts as a solid base even when mounted in a very “soft”
wall.
An enclosure that forms a rock-steady platform for the motion of the drive unit in an in-wall
speaker is critical. With anything less, the platform may move with the drive unit, thereby
degrading sound quality.
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