Niles Audio CS525, CS650 User Manual

INSTALLATION & OPERATION GUIDE

MODELS

®

MODELS

CS525

CS525

CS650

CS650

CONTRACTOR SERIES

B LENDING H IGH F IDELITY AND A RCHITECTURE

®

®

Congratulations!

Thank you for choosing a Blueprint Series In-Wall Loudspeaker®from Niles. With proper
installation and operation, you'll enjoy years of trouble-free use.

Niles manufactures the industry's most complete line of custom installation components
and accessories for audio/video systems. For a free full line catalog write: Niles, Catalog

Request, P.O. Box 160818, Miami, Florida 33116-0818

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 2

FEA TURES AND BENEFITS 3

INST ALLATION CONSIDERA TIONS 4

SPEAKER PLACEMENT 6

INST ALLATION FUNDAMENTALS 9

INSTALLATION OF SPEAKERS 13

OPERA TION 1 6

SPECIFICA TIONS 1 7

WARRAN TY REGISTRATION CARD 19

LIMITED WARRANTY 20

Introduction

The CS or
Blueprint Series In-Wall Loudspeakers
offers speakers expressly designed for flex­ibility of use. They function well as prima­ry speakers in bedrooms, dens or living
rooms; as main or surround speakers in
home theaters; or in large arrays in com­mercial spaces. The CS525/CS650 offer a
unique combination of adaptability, per­formance and value which makes them
perfect in a wide variety of applications.

Contractor Series

group of

®

Features and Benefits

Features and Benefits

Hi-Polymer Woofer

The CS525 and CS650 models feature a
unique woofer construction process
called Hi-Polymer Bonding that combines
a waterproof nylon layer with a traditional
pulp-based long throw woofer with a
treated foam rubber surround. Both mod­els feature custom perforated baskets to
keep construction debris from coming in
contact with the woofer cone.

Polycarbonate Dome Tweeter

The 1” polycarbonate tweeter offers sur­prisingly wide dispersion characteristics
for great stereo imaging, remarkable clar­ity, and moisture resistance.

X-Matrix™ Reinforced Baffle

The X-Matrix Baffle design uses specially
molded ribs constructed of ABS plastic to
add rigidity to the baffle assembly. The
end result is better clarity and detail.

Absolutely Flush to the Wall Appearance

The unique mounting system of the CS
loudspeakers powerfully clamps the
speaker to the bracket, sandwiching the
wall material between them. Additionally,
the Niles mounting system is carefully
optimized to stiffen the surrounding dry­wall and prevent it from resonating. You
hear only the music, not the drywall.

Eight Ohm Impedance

The speakers are designed to be placed in
multi-room systems with many pairs of
speakers. The eight ohm impedance is a
very easy electrical load for most ampli­fiers. This allows many pairs of CS speak­ers to be wired to a single amplifier using
a Niles speaker selection system.

Low Diffraction, Paintable Aluminum
Grilles

CS speakers utilize rustproof aluminum
grilles. The painted aluminum grille has
hundreds of precisely sized perforations,
creating an acoustically transparent grille.

Infrared Sensor Mount

The speaker baffle has a locator designed
for the Niles MS-1 MicroSensor,™ a
miniature infrared sensor. The MS-1
installs discreetly behind the aluminum
grille and therefore minimizes wall clut­ter in your home. When you want to
control your equipment, you simply
point your remote control at the speaker
from up to 15 feet away .

Easy Retrofit Installation in your
Existing Home

Designed for ease of installation, the Niles
mounting system makes installations sim­ple and fast. A supplied template assures
fast and accurate hole cutting. The bracket
slips behind the drywall and the tightening
of the screws sandwich the drywall
between the bracket and speaker. The
grille mounts over the speaker.

3

Bracket

Figure 1

Frame/
SpeakerBaffle

IR Knockout

Grille

Installation Considerations

Recommended Amplifier Power

For satisfactory performance, we recom­mend an amplifier with a power rating of
five to fifty watts for the CS525 and
CS650. Curiously, most speakers are not
damaged by large amplifiers but by small
amplifiers. If your system is playing loudly,
a small amplifier will run out of power
very quickly. When an amplifier runs out
of power it creates damaging “clipping”
distortion. A large amplifier will play at the
same volume without distorting. See the
section on operating the speakers for more
information about clipping distortion.

Incorporating a Local Volume Control

In a multi-room system there is one indis­pensible control for true convenience— a
local volume control. It allows you to
adjust the volume of the speakers without
leaving the room.

Plan to wire the system so that each pair
of speakers has its own volume control
built into the wall (think of a volume con­trol as a dimmer switch for sound).

Niles makes a wide range of high perfor­mance indoor and outdoor volume con­trols. They are available in Standard or
Decora

®

style cover plates (just like your

Installation Considerations

light switches and dimmers). Volume con­trols are connected in line with the speak­er, so you must connect the wire from the
amplifier to the volume control and then
from the volume control to the speaker.

Speaker Wire

Use 2-conductor speaker wire when con­necting CS speakers to your receiver or
amplifier. For most applications, we rec­ommend you use 16 or 18 gauge wire.
For wiring runs longer than 80 feet we
recommend 14 gauge wire. The spring
loaded terminals of the CS speakers will
accommodate up to 12 gauge wire
directly. Larger sizes can be accommodat­ed via pin connectors.

Wire size is expressed by its AWG (American Wire

Gauge) number. The lower the number, the larger

the wire, i.e. twelve AWG is physically larger than

trol all of the functions of your system
from the room with the remote pair of
speakers. Niles makes a number of IR sen­sors which install in the wall, in the ceiling,
in cabinetry, on tabletops, or even behind
the grille of your Niles CS speakers.

An IR sensor requires that a 2-conductor
shielded wire (West Penn D291 or equiva­lent) be home run from each sensor loca­tion to the main equipment location. This
wire is normally run beside the speaker
wire at the same time. Typically, the sen­sor is placed in a location that faces your
listening position. Most remote controls
will have an effective line of sight range of
18 to 30 feet with any Niles sensor placed

TECH TIP

fourteen AWG.

When you run wire inside walls, special
jacketing (CL-2 or CL-3) is required to
both protect the wire and for fire preven­tion. In some areas conduit is required.
For a trouble-free installation, low voltage
wire such as speaker wire must be run in
accordance with the National Electrical
Code and any applicable provisions of the
local building code. If you are unsure of
the correct installation techniques, wire
jacket or type of conduit to use, consult a
professional audio/video installer, your
building contractor, or the local building
and inspection department.

Incorporating a Remote Control

If you are planning to use a stereo system
with a hand held IR remote control, con­sider the advantages of installing a Niles
IR Repeater system. You are able to con-

in a wall, ceiling, on a cabinet or tabletop
However, when you place a Niles MS-1
MicroSensor behind the perforated alu­minum grille of a speaker the effective
range is reduced to 9 to 15 feet.

Insulating the Wall Cavity

For best performance from your speakers
fill the wall cavity behind the speaker
with fiberglass insulation (e.g. R-19 unbat­ted insulation). Try to keep the same
amount of insulation for each speaker,
particularly in the same room, for consis­tent bass response.

5

Speaker Placement

Placement for Critical Listening

If you like to imagine that the band or
orchestra is playing in front of you as you
listen to music, or you are very conscious
of clarity, detail and the textures of the
individual instruments, you are a critical
listener.

In a home theater, the intelligibility of dia­log and action reproduced by the front
speakers is paramount! The position of the
speakers plays a very important role in
how clear the sound is and how a stereo
image is created. Here are some guide­lines to make the process of placement
quick and easy.

Make sure the sound will not be blocked
or reflected off of furniture or other objects.

You should have a direct line of sight with
the front of the speaker. To determine the
best position, measure the “listening” dis­tance between the ideal listening position
(your favorite chair or couch) and the wall
in which you plan to install the speakers.
Try to place the speakers so that they are
equally distant from your listening spot and
at least one half of the listening distance
apart (this maintains a large pleasant stereo
“image”). In home theater applications
where there is a center channel you may
choose to space the left and right main
speakers farther apart for a “bigger than
life” sound with Dolby

®

encoded movies
and TV shows. However, for combined
music and movie usage stay within the

good placement zone

for music. For exam­ple; if you are ten feet back from the wall,
the speakers should be between five and
ten feet apart (See Figure 2).

Figure 2

Speaker

Placement

Zone

10’

Speaker

Placement

Zone

10’

5’