Ceiling Speakers

Mel,

You may get a better response if you were to use a non-Sonos specific audio forum, since the focus here tends to be Sonos speakers. Perhaps somewhere agnostic like the AVForum?

Hi Bruce,

Thank you very much...will try there.

Nothing like a more un-biased opinion, if that isn't a contradiction in terms...best of luck!

I bought two pairs of the monoprice caliber series 8 inch, and one pair of klipsch CDT-5800-CII to replace existing speakers I had in my house. I found the klipsch for half of the normal price on ebay -- but that is still 4x the price of the monoprice speaker.
I can definitely hear a difference. The klipsch's play louder, are clearer and the sound is much brighter. The monoprice sound okay. I am not in a rush to replace them.
Neither pair has enough bass.
My recommendation would be to buy an expensive pair and buy a cheap pair and return the ones you don't want. I don't know if my good speakers are worth 4x the price, but I placed them in the higher traffic area where I listen more often. Both sets get louder than normal listening, but I have a tendency to crank it up and appreciate the higher volume of the klipsch's from time to time.

My ulitmate recommendation, though - is to avoid in-ceiling speakers if you can. I don't think they have the sound quality of the single sonos one in my bathroom.
In my case, I had holes/old speakers already there and it was wired to a closet so I just upgraded (adding on to my sonos system in the living room/bathroom/play room). And for my patio, the sound of in ceiling speakers is good enough. I had the connect:amp hooked to some L/R/Sub separates I had from an older surround set up (definitive tech promonitor 800) before installing the ceiling speakers, and the sound was A LOT better than the in-ceiling speakers.
If I didn't have ceiling speakers already installed, I would definitely try to find a place to put normal speakers.

If you are in love with ceiling speakers and appreciate sound quality, I think you get what you pay for. A lot of the avsforums guys love the monoprice speakers, but they are using it for surround sound, which is much less demanding than playing music. I did not order the one that they usually recommend, though. I thought the caliber would be better because the cone looks bigger. Maybe that's where I screwed up, ahahha.