Can a speaker be installed in fluted or reeded wood panelling without disrupting the pattern?

Yes, if the speaker is narrow enough to match the slat width — Bonsai's 22mm width lets it sit within a single flute rather than spanning several.

Bonsai has a sensitivity of 86dB ±3 and 40W RMS power handling — suited to ambient and background coverage in transitional spaces like foyers and hallways, not to a dedicated loud listening room.

What is Bonsai's width and depth?

Bonsai measures 22mm wide and 12mm deep — among the narrowest and thinnest architectural speakers available.

Does a foyer speaker need a subwoofer?

It's optional but recommended if lower frequencies matter to the space — Bonsai's own range starts at 300Hz, so a subwoofer like the Acacia 6 Powered fills in everything below that.

What finish colours does Bonsai come in?

Bonsai is available in champagne, black and white, with custom RAL colour matching available for architectural projects.

Does every room in a whole-home audio system need its own subwoofer and DSP zone?

No — transitional spaces like foyers and hallways are often run simply, off a shared amplifier with no dedicated subwoofer, reserving more complex zone tuning for rooms where people spend extended time listening.

Case Study: Bonsai in a Fluted Wood Foyer

XSCACE Bonsai speaker mounted on a fluted vertical wood-slat foyer wall

Fluted or reeded wood cladding is having a moment in luxury residential design — vertical slats catch light and shadow in a way flat panels can't. It's also one of the hardest surfaces to add a speaker to without ruining the rhythm: a rectangular grille breaks the vertical lines the wall was designed around. This foyer install solved that by choosing a speaker narrow enough to sit within a single slat's width.

Case Study at a Glance

Room: foyer / stairwell entry
Product: Bonsai (12mm slim-array)
Mounting surface: fluted vertical wood-slat cladding
Finish: champagne aluminium
Goal: sound in a transitional space without breaking the wall's vertical rhythm

Why transitional spaces get simpler system design

Because a foyer is a pass-through rather than a destination, the system design here was deliberately simple: a single stereo pair driven directly off an Air Amp, no dedicated DSP zone, no separate subwoofer crossover to tune. That simplicity is itself a design decision — over-engineering a space nobody lingers in adds cost and complexity without a corresponding gain in experience, whereas the same budget is better spent on the rooms either side of the foyer where people actually sit.

Why Bonsai fits a fluted wall

At just 22mm wide, Bonsai's footprint is close to the width of a single wood slat in most fluted panel systems, meaning it can be positioned to read as part of the rhythm rather than interrupting it. Its champagne aluminium finish was matched to sit near-invisibly against the dark stained wood, visible only as a slightly different texture up close.

Acoustic role in a foyer

A foyer or stairwell rarely needs high output — it's a transitional space, not a listening room — so Bonsai's 86dB sensitivity and 40W RMS ceiling is more than sufficient for ambient coverage, welcoming sound as you move through the space rather than a dedicated listening position.

The system

An Air Amp drives the passive Bonsai wirelessly, with an Acacia 6 Powered subwoofer positioned in an adjacent utility space to extend bass down to 35Hz for a fuller sound in a space with hard, reflective wood and stone surfaces.