Speakers- please suggest

[bhavijus]

Hi Guys:

I'm building a beautiful house and would like to have built in ceiling or wall speakers. A few music dealers approched me and confused me about speakers. Each one is suggesting me one of a kind, bose, ethena and Elan. Please suggest which one of those speakers are best for my home. This is not for home theater, just for listening in the rooms and deck.

Please throw some light.

Thanks
Bhaskar

[abinnyc]

I have the exact same question, I need to place hanging ceiling mounted speakers in 4 rooms and so far Bose seems to be the only option. I dont want to do the cubes or sat with a sub in every room. Also, I have been reading negative opinions about Bose throughout this web site and so am more confused than ever what to buy.

Please help!

[This Guy]

Yes leave the Bose alone. Are those your only options? Go to some other dealers that offer Klipsch, Polk, Paradigm, and BIC inwall speakers. Bose is just crap and I never heard of Ethena. Hell I think BEst Buy has some Klipsch inwalls. Just make sure you listen to them before you buy them.

-Joey

[nusiclover]

and thats not all, my dealer does great in wall installations with b&w.

[tullymars]

I like anything Polk,but Boston Acoutic has great in wall speakers

[JSE]

The Ethena is probably Athena. I think they do make inwalls and they would most likely be a huge improvement over Bose. Best Buy carries Athena's speaker line.

JSE

[pelly3s]

Try checking out Jamo inwall speakers they are some of the best i have worked with

[N. Abstentia]

I've found Paradigm Referece to be the best inwalls I've ever encountered, of course I've not encountered them all but after 12 years I haven't heard anything better. The SA-35's are incredible.
http://www.paradigm.com/Website/SiteReferenceProduct/RModels/InWall/SA_Specs.htm


On the same token, Bose are by far, no question, no contest the WORST sounding I've ever heard. By a long shot, by a wide margin, Bose are the worst speakers I've ever seen/heard.

[StevieRayN00b]

Legacy has some fancy in-wall speakers that would be worth looking into if you can afford.

[Siper2]

Absolutely investigate www.bostonacoustics.com . Tweeter, Etc. (www.tweeter.com) sells them, as do several other places, mostly small specialty shops. (BA is an upper-middle-end, or lower-higher-end speaker company, if you ask me. Probably the latter.)

Bose generally gets a worse rap than they deserve, but there's no arguing that they're nowhere near as good as they're marketed. And definitely way, way overpriced.

=S2=

[ciscokid1970]

Here you go...my wife did not want anything hanging from the walls or ceiling in our HT / family room so I went with ceiling speakers.

It is really hard to EAR test ceiling or inwall speakers since they sound much different after they are installed.

Hints
1. if your house in 1 story...install ceiling speakers...they are easier to install and less visible
2. don't be cheap...if you are going to carve up your ceiling...might as well put some good speakers in it.
3. be carefull there are a lot of ceiling/inwall speakers nowdays and most of them are glorified car speakers...so make sure they have good materials and REAL two way crossovers (most car speakers only have highpass cap only).
4. do a good install, measure twice cut once and use good wire, I used belden 8477 12 AWG twisted, jacketed wire, look for it on the net.
5. most of the speakers are NOT-sealed so after they are installed cover the back side with a 12" subwoofer baffle it will help the sound and keep dust, bugs and mice away from the speakers. here is a link

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-nglce8YVC94/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=11&g=762&I=237XT12&o=p&a=0&cc=01&avf=N&search=baffle

I installed NHT 6.1c speakers (first were bic inceiling which were junk then JBL wich were not much better)

If you have a modest budget $250 / pair ...stick with the NHT Ic1
http://www.nhthifi.com/2004/products/product_index.asp?ProductLineID=3&SubjectID=4

If you have no limit try the $500 / pair...buy B&W CCM65
http://www.bwspeakers.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.models/Label/Model%20CCM65

good luck