I prefer round in ceiling speakers to blend in with lighting cans, but when someone has wired with a plaster ring on the joist, you can't cover the hole. There is always a gap.

Do you use patch, call the builder to fill in the hole, or just bail and go rectangular?

With 6.5" speakers, I have no issue covering the hole from a single gang box or ring.
There is no lining up though, it has to be centered right where the box was.

Why use a plaster ring instead of a speaker bracket?

As bricor said. Cut out the ring or box. Trim speaker if needed. Patch ceiling if those options will not work.

Tract home builders prewire.

Ring is against the joist the long way. I’ve rarely been able to cover the cutout properly.

Definitely harder the long way. Maybe impossible with a sloppy drywall cut.

I usually cut my speaker out then use spackle to fill in the hole and let the builder/painter know they have work to do. Obviously if it can't be fixed with a little spackle I get the builder involved first.

We never have a problem covering that hole, but sometimes it gets close and you can't get sloppy with box removal. We hardly ever deal with this since we either bury wires or use pre-construction brackets.

So you’re coming in after the guy who has no clue and/or doesn’t care because he won’t have to deal with it come speaker install time. I agree with Mac, that’s when a conversation with the GC begins if you can’t cover it or it doesn’t align properly.

I worked with a new builder once where I buried all of my wires up in the joists and specifically told the GC that I had all of the wires mapped out and to make sure that the insulators and drywallers not pull the wires down. I went back to check on the job later and the GC had one of his guys put up steel mudrings (which weren't straight or lined up with anything) so that it would be easier for me to find my wires.. :(

We put the speakers where they need to be to line them up properly then have the drywall repaired.
This is the best long term solution for a client as long as they are OK with a short term inconvenience and a little more out of pocket.

I haven't tried it, but I've read of zig-zagging several feet of speaker cable across the joists, lightly stapling. Cut in where you want. Take pics before drywall. Invest in a ceiling laser.

Throw in a few extra feet, and you can rest the speaker on your lap, sitting on the ladder, for connecting.

An offset LV ring would make a good Arlington product, for ceiling speakers specifically.

Or, maybe a thin wood, rigid foam, or plastic standoff for the LV ring - something you could cut with a jab saw at trim-out.

This is what our pre-wire team does when I lose the battle to put in rings. More often than not I just put in speaker rings and tell them we have blanks to cover the holes. The blanks look like shit later so they buy speakers, problem solved.

Putting a single gang ring in the ceiling for a speaker later down the line is just f$cking stupid. I feel little (no) remorse when damage is done because someone before me did something stupid. It is usually nothing more than a little drywall repair.

If you take neurorad's advice, you can use the long-distance toning technique to pin down the wires. Connect one lead of your tone generator to an electrical ground and the other lead to the speaker wire you're looking for. You should be able to trace pretty accurately where the wire lies on top of the drywall.

Two things will make this not work: a speaker wire being connected to ground and a layer of insulation that's foilbacked on top of the drywall.

It’s amazing our trade is like no other... seems like if we allow anyone other than ourselves to do any part of it on their own something inevitably will be F’d up.

Thanks, Freddy. That's true. And others will insist on making decisions and doing things that they're not informed enough to do. And that they don't ask us about beforehand.