I am also looking to get a home theater for around 400-600 bucks. I like the Onkyo as they are in my price range and liked by many. I want to put my speakers into the wall and then cover with a grill. Bose sells nice in wall speakers with paintable grilles but they will put me over budget and I an totally stupid when it comes to what is needed - midrange, full range, etc. I think the HTIB will dummy it down but I do not want speakers everywhere. Will the added fake grill destruct the sound since they are not the actual grille??? Help.
If you need to put a traditional box speaker in a recess in your wall, then plan on using a speaker with a sealed enclosure. While this won't eliminate the issue completely, it minimizes the potential for some bloom in the midbass region that is commonly associated with "muddy" sound Many smaller, satellite speakers are in sealed enclosures- just be sure to check whether the speakers you are intersted in have a port or not.
In-wall speakers have advanced some in recent years and offer pretty outstanding audio quality. For hard-core music listeners, they often leave a little to be desired in the midrange region- male and female vocals aren't quite as true to life- again, this is a rather subjective viewpoint. If keeping the speakers "heard and not seen" is just as important as the sound quality you get, I think that an in-wall is a great solution- especially for home theater and TV watching. You can find outstanding in-wall options for as low as $300.00 a pair. That In-walls can be extremely easy to install. It's the in-wall wiring that is trickiest. If you have that done already, you have the lion's share of the work out of the way. Hope that helps!
Not intending to be mean, Bill. Just trying to establish a baseline on your preferences to sound. What other speakers have you heard to compare the pro-acoustics? Are these internet only deals?