I just want to get the groups feedback on this one. I have really only ever worked with Sonance and Niles in-wall/in-ceiling speakers, and have always been happy with the results. My thought was both companys focus specifically on that market niche, so its their bread and butter, unlike other speaker companies that do all sorts of speakers(cabinet, tower, plasma, sat/sub, etc.) along with a small selection of in-wall/in-ceiling speakers. As far as sound quality goes, and reliability are there any other companys out there whose products I should look into? and are there any that should be avoided at all cost?

Bose. on the avoided side.

I have used Niles and Sonance, and prefer the sound of the Sonance. And Kef a couple of times. They sound good, too, but those models (YEARS ago) were pretty flaky to mount.

I currently install Bay Audio a lot, sometimes Sonance.

I used to install Sonance a lot more, and Speakercraft too.

I think all these lines are great. Bay Audio has a large product line, retails on entry to ultra midfi price points: sells to CI's only.

Depending on teh quality of product your looking for, Speakercraft has a HUGE line of speakers from low end to top end. (assuming you wanted just one line) and they too are mostly inwall speakers. I stopped using them awhile ago, when I picked up Boston Acoustics. They filled the gap I was looking for, and I am not one to have 20 lines of speakers and products, I keep my lineup very slim, as it keeps the manufactures happy and in turn better support for me.

I prefer my boston inwalls, and monitor audio on the higher end. Elan Home Systems have great bang for the buck, and are proably one of the absolute flattest (to the ceiling) speakers I have dealt with. the Elans I believe have a lifetime warranty also.

B

I've stuck with speakercraft over the years. They sound good to me especially for dist audio and outdoor. And they really stand behind their lifetime warranty.
The Rox outdoor line had a design flaw when first released. We got advanced replacement with new product. The client loves you when you can replace their speakers with new product in just a few days.
And they have product to meet any price point.

Speakercraft has been good, and very reliable, as have Proficient (made by speakercraft???) and Elan. We used Legend for a while but supply was an ongoing issue so they were turfed. The top-end from most manufacturers is usually decent, but I've noticed a lot of speakers with a big name ie. Phoenix Gold and Bose that are absolute garbage for a premium price.

Oh, yeah, another thing -- a few years ago, it seemed that rectangular speakers sounded better than round speakers, dollar for dollar, so we used to mount rectangulars in the ceiling.

The only drawback was getting them perfectly lined up. A circular speaker has no lines to make parallel to the walls, so any way you place them, they are straight. That's pretty hard to do with a rectangle when the nearest wall is 12 feet away! Now that lasers are available that can project a straight line from the floor to the ceiling, it is a lot easier to make them straight.

Has anyone else run into a difference in performance between round and rectangular? I have only seen "wall" and "ceiling" mean rectangular and round, respectively, and I am curious if there are any other differences between the two types than how easy they are to line up.

We use Boston for theaters and higher end DA, and Proficient for regualer DA. But once people see the price difference they are willing to pay for the Bostons. We rarly use anything but in-wall/ceiling. But I love Boston because they have a speaker for just about everything - plasmas, towers, bookcase, etc. They also hit just about every price point I want. They were recently purchased by D&M, so I see a lot of new products coming out this next year.

The rectangulars IMHO sound better because the tweeter is seperated from the woofer. I am in no way an engineer, but to me this seems to make sense.

Initially, especially coming from you, I assumed this was sarcasm. After reading the response above, as well as RE-READING your post, I am now wondering if you were serious. DO you notice a difference?

i prefer rectangle inwalls same as ernie, true they look weird on the ceiling but witht the laser and all the other tools it can look good but its odd to see them in the ceiling...

i have both in my house...rectangle in the ceiling and circle inthe ceiling... i prefer the sound of the rectangles

Hey Guys,
im new to the website. While we're talking about in-wall/ceilings speakers, what do you guys think about Breath Audio?
We just recently got some in-stock. I've never eally heard of the company but I think they sound ok.

The round speakers are generally designed to be much wider dispersion (to fill a room with sound from the ceiling), while the rectangular speakers are generally designed to be more like bookshelf speakers (pointing at your chair ala the Maxell guy) and having a narrower dispersion pattern. If you are sitting in the right place, the rectangles should sound better either way, but you won't get as even coverage in a large room with low ceilings...