Are in-wall speakers worth considering?

Cyto and Wade these are nightmare stories and I'm not gonna be able to sleep tonight. I've been lucky only because my brothers and sisters know how fanatical I am about my stuff and I know they've talked to their children. I was not a model kid when young, but when I went to other peoples houses I knew not to touch anything! Its totally changed today. I'm serious, If I had kids that damaged something at a friends house I'd be down on my knees asking forgiveness while holding out an open check book. Sadly, times have changed. P.S. Wade, I too have a cat- first time she went near the audio gear, I said NO!- not one problem since! Cats have respect.

Well, this generated an interesting dialog! As they say: "I used to be a great parent until I had kids." As the father of twin 6-year-olds, my view is that it's unreasonable to expect kids to live like adults. Yeah, I suppose you could discipline children like you discipline dogs, but you'd be depriving them of a childhood. Our family room will be a kids room, so I won't be asking the kids to watch out for speakers, cables and turntables. They do like music, though, of all kinds.

I'm going to check out some good in-walls, like the Niles, for the family room. But I'll keep my B&W's in a room set aside for adults.

As for you single guys, you shouldn't expect visitors with kids to be able to have a good time in your listening room. Either the parents have to keep their attention 100% focused on the kids all the time (which destroys the social visit) or the kids will destroy your stereo. I'f you're going to invite kids to your house, entertatin them in some other room.

--DZ

For some perspective here - I'm 22, love kids, and haven't asked for or accepted any compensation yet for stereo damage. None of the agitation is directed toward the kids and most of the irritation comes from the fact that these incidents are generally easily preventable. In fairness, I am sure that many of the parents lack a comprehension for what these incidents actually cost in dollars.

I am curious as to how others feel or react toward this kind of "ground damage".

I had my audio system in the living room and my video system in the den and the children would run into the living room with my audio system. As you can see(my attached system) it is not a safe place for children to play around (cut/burn themselves on amps, get electrocuted by the special powercords with air isolators... etc... It only took two times for me to wise up and move my 2 channel into my bedroom, and leave the video system (inwalls for others...)

To kinda get back on track here, there is another in/on wall worth looking at. Try the Legacy Harmony. I use them for the fronts in my HT, and every so often use them with the real music rig too. No need for a sub unless you are going to use them for HT. Take a look here.

To kinda get back off tarck here, I won't let kids in the room, period. Matter of fact, I don't let a lot of adults in there either. The dog & cat have more respect for my modest gear than some of my friends!