Speakers
Polk Audio said a new Vanishing Series of in-ceiling speakers will ship later this year.
Polk Audio said a new Vanishing Series of in-ceiling speakers will ship later this year. The series was originally previewed in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.
“Today’s home technologies have been trending smaller across the board, and demand is constantly growing for ever more unobtrusive entertainment choices.” said Polk product line manager Al Baron, in a statement. “With our new Vanishing Series, we’ve hit a balance that will please everyone, from the most finicky interior designers to the most demanding audio enthusiasts.”
According to the company, while most in-ceiling speakers feature perforated metal grilles with hole sizes approximately .8 mm to .9 mm in diameter, Polk designed the Vanishing Series’ Sheer-Grille to be just, .6mm in diameter. Though smaller and less noticeable than other in-ceiling speakers, Polk’s Sheer-Grille design features the same paintability and acoustic transparency of models with larger perforated holes, company officials say.
Polk says it has improved off-axis listening with the new in-ceiling models. The woofers are mounted to the rear of the enclosures, while the mid- and high-frequency drive units are mounted to the front baffle. Since the smaller, less directional front drivers are dedicated to only reproducing midrange and high range, they offer more even frequency response to listeners sitting on- or off-axis in a home theater or multiroom environment, according to the company.
The in-ceiling speakers are particularly compact due to an oval woofer that is mounted diagonally to the enclosure. The patent-pending design allows all the active drive units to fit into a smaller cutout size and achieve bass performance equivalent to speakers that are at least one increment size larger in diameter.
The new Vanishing will comprise six models. The 50RT ($229), 70RT ($275) and 90RT ($399) all sport .75-inch silk dome tweeters and mineral-filled polypropylene midrange drivers. The woofers, tweeters and midrange drivers of the these models utilize the same transducer technology as Polk’s RTi freestanding speakers so they can be mixed and matched as surround or center channels.
The 500LS ($349), 700LS ($449) and 900LS ($549) feature unique .75-inch ring radiator tweeters and aerated polypropylene midrange drivers, and use the same transducer technologies as Polk’s LSi line of freestanding speakers.
