Are in-wall and ceiling speakers overrated?

Yellow_Fern

What are the current thoughts on in-wall/ ceiling speakers vs normal speakers? I am doing some work on my home, which enables me to lay speaker cable to my upstairs and I am planning for speakers in 1 or 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. I was reading old threads on the topic here and there seems to be some that recommend against in-wall and ceiling speakers as they can cause drafts, need replacing sooner than the walls and have poor sound quality. I can accommodate for extra draughts and I don’t require perfect sound. I would appreciate as streamlined rooms as possible but I do what to take the most sensible option. I guess I could terminate the wires for wall plugs if normal speakers are a better investment.

_CreeD_

I avoided in-wall/ceiling for the reasons you listed but I still have a small movie/game room so I've been refitting with these https://www.klipsch.com/products/rp-140d-on-wall-speaker . Quite decent detailed sound for video/game output but obviously the size restrictions mean not great for bass, but you can compensate there with a subwoofer easily enough (my old sub died recently but I'm not pushed to replace it tbh, they provide enough low end for me to enjoy without the wife complaining about the noise from downstairs ). For straight up music listening I use headphones so haven't done critical listening sessions on these, I'd say at best they'd be adequate in that dept., again it's a trade off for size and convenience.

Yellow_Fern

_CreeD_ wrote: »

I avoided in-wall/ceiling for the reasons you listed but I still have a small movie/game room so I've been refitting with these https://www.klipsch.com/products/rp-140d-on-wall-speaker . Quite decent detailed sound for video/game output but obviously the size restrictions mean not great for bass, but you can compensate there with a subwoofer easily enough (my old sub died recently but I'm not pushed to replace it tbh, they provide enough low end for me to enjoy without the wife complaining about the noise from downstairs ). For straight up music listening I use headphones so haven't done critical listening sessions on these, I'd say at best they'd be adequate in that dept., again it's a trade off for size and convenience.

Interesting. Is that a wireless system with its own power wire?

_CreeD_

No they are traditional passives so you still need an amp and cabling. But they provide relatively great sound in an unobtrusive package sticking out about 3 inches including clearance for the cable, and even when they are in view they look pretty decent imho (there is a magnetic roll on/off black cloth cover if you prefer). I replaced some old Onkyo kit speakers with 4 of them a year or so back and then a Klipsch R52c for center , with 2 Eltax upfiring-atmos for a 5.1.2. I'm now looking at moving to 7.1.4 with these in every spot, love them.