To anyone but an expert, Sonance’s S625T is visually indistinguishable from thousands of generic in-wall speakers—some of which cost as little as $100 a pair, a pittance next to the $1,000 that a pair of S625Ts will cost you. And the S625T sports the same white metal grille, white plastic bezel, and two-way (woofer/ tweeter) design as a generic in-wall.

Why might one in-wall be worth $1,000 when a seemingly identical one is worth only $100? It all comes down to the parts, which were Sonance’s focus when it created the S625T. The S625T represents the zenith of Sonance’s extensive revamp of the Symphony line. (That’s zenith as in “maximum height,” not as in the storied but practically extinct TV brand.) The idea was to take the ordinary in-wall as far as it could go. The logical question, though, is how much sense it makes to take the ordinary in-wall to such heights.

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Like most conventional, two-way in-wall speakers, the S625T features a pivoting tweeter that lets your installer direct the sound somewhat, and a switch that boosts or attenuates the sound coming from the tweeter by 3 decibels. (Click image to enlarge)

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The speaker sports a woofer cone and a tweeter dome made from beryllium, an extraordinarily stiff yet incredibly light metal. The benefit to the listener is lower distortion and a more extended, lifelike treble. Unfortunately, beryllium is extremely brittle; many of the cones and domes break during production. Also, its toxicity complicates the manufacturing process. Thus, you won’t often hear the word beryllium tossed around at Circuit City.  The metal has been used almost exclusively in such superspeakers as JMlab’s Grand Utopia Be. These speakers cost tens of thousands of dollars per pair, which is why I was shocked to learn that Sonance had incorporated beryllium into a $1,000-per-pair in-wall.

I recently got a chance to divine the benefits of beryllium during a visit to a different speaker manufacturer (which I cannot name because I was sworn to secrecy). There I heard a prototype of a new flagship speaker bedecked with six beryllium-coned midrange/woofer drivers. The new model sounded both more delicate and more dynamic than the company’s aluminum-coned speakers; its midrange was stunningly natural and clear.

Sonance made one more major renovation in the S625T: a front baffle made from three-quarter-inch medium-density fiberboard (MDF). MDF is the same material that forms the cabinet of most good speakers; its damped character minimizes resonances that can mar the sound of a speaker. Its weight also helps subdue wall vibrations, which themselves can color the sound. In contrast, generic in-walls employ molded plastic baffles that vibrate like the handlebar of a Harley-Davidson Sportster.

The S625T packs a few other improvements, but its configuration is fairly standard. Like most in-walls, it has a pivoting tweeter to help aim the sound, and a treble switch with Normal, Boost, and Cut settings. One seemingly mundane feature works to the speaker’s credit: its simple, four-screw mounting system. All it takes to mount the S625T is 30 seconds with a RotoZip and four taps of a powered screwdriver’s trigger (plus, of course, the time it takes to run the wire).

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