Advice on building custom in wall speakers

[pilot74sparki]

Hi all who read this thread.

I am planning a garden room which is 3m x 4m but I won't start the build until early 2015. I have 3 young boys (11, 8 & 5years old) the room will be a multimedia entertainment area with TV, built in stereo and games console(s).

I am trying to save space so I am planning on building the speakers into the walls. I have just purchased some ex demo stock from a company who has bought liquidation stock from an ICE store.

I have purchased 4 x 6.5" component woofers (no cross overs or tweeters) and a pair of 6.5" matching 3 way units all of which are 4 ohm car speakers.

I have also bought an amp which is bare bones, with a separate power supply (36V 10A) the amp is rated at 300w RMS per channel @ 4 ohms but this is with an input voltage of 48V & 12.5A (these power supplies are about £70) and as the amp I bought direct from China cost £50 with a 36v 10A supply I can't complain. This allows me to integrate the amp in the walls via an access panel. The amp as no variable gain (volume control) it does have selectable multi gain switches but the volume will be controlled via the input - ie: TV, console, iPad etc etc. so works more like a car amp where the volume is controlled via the headunit.

So I have max of 180w RMS @ 4 ohms per channel which I feel is still ample for this size room.

Now my question to anyone here is, I am no audiophile and just require this to work safely, look cool and play music, films etc at a decent volume with good levels of bass without needing a subwoofer.

My understanding is that if I wire the 2 6.5 woofers in series this should get me an 8 ohm load and wire the other 6.5 3 way in parallel this should get me to 6 ohms total load per channel - I might use a cross over for the 2 6.5 woofers for sun 400hz frequencies but I just don't know until I fire it all up - I might also need a resistor to tame the 3 way full range speaker as this will be producing more output than the series coupled woofers - as I say until I wire it up I just don't know, but if anyone has experience in a similar set-up or has practical experience of this kind of pairing of speakers any advice will be greatly accepted.

I have uploaded my drawings and planned wiring of speakers & amp.

please take into consideration this is on a budget - integrated speakers - I have paid £61 for all of the drivers! yes that's 6 x 6.5" good quality drivers 2 of which are full range with integrated tweeters. (still to arrive)

The amp & power supply was £50 - the bass reflex ports are £6 for 4 delivered or I could get cool looking chrome ones, 2 for £13 delivered.

I estimate the 18mm MDF will be no more than £40 some screws (which I have) and I intend to finish the front baffles in high gloss white paint finish so £30-40 on primer, paint & lacquer car spray paints from my local discount store @ £4 each.

So to get in wall, powered 4 way speakers for under £200! sounds too good to be true right?

Thanks in advance.

[Blonde-pianist]

Here is some thoughts, First of all 1.) purchase a pro audio 2-way stereo crossover and mount that into the wall as well as the amps, but have access panel for possible upgrade or maintenance! 2.) Purchase another amp ( a Hafler, or Audiosource, or Parasound, to run the woofers. no volume control on these either! 3.) The inputs into the crossover will be 1/4" unbalanced, and will work with the computer, Ipod, streaming Flac, Wav, etc... Have a mount made to slide the Ipod onto it's mount on the wall. Run all wiring inside the walls. So nothing is seen but the Speaker grills, and Amplifiers. Now, Run, the Low-mid crossover freq's to the 6" woofers amp and the Mid High/High freq's to the other amp running the 6" coaxial speakers then you have it! Your volume blending is that you can adjust your levels and freq's rolloffs with the crossover and use your computer, ipod, etc, as the master Volume controller. Done! 4.) Speaker setup; you could do the coaxials on top and the other 2-woofers in line under them! Or you can do a WMW situation, personal taste! there you have it! Blonde-pianist