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In-ceiling: Am I wasting my money?

Hi everyone:

Bought and moved into a new home. The builder has in-ceiling speakers installed in the living room. There are 5 speakers, but I have no interest in using them for HT -  just for music. They appear to be 8" Monoprice speakers, I have no additional details on them.

For the short term, I'm thinking of picking up a Sonos: Amp since I'm already invested in that ecosystem. I can use that to drive 4 of the speakers by hooking them up in parallel.

Now, here's the big question - I was toying with the idea of picking up a 200 watt/chan McIntosh integrated amp and replacing the Monoprice speakers with four higher quality in-ceiling speakers - perhaps something like the B&O 10" Celestial (BOC106) which are really made by Origin Acoustics (but with prettier covers).

So - am I wasting my money by doing this and I'm better off just sticking with the Sonos Amp and maybe upgrading (or keeping) the speakers to something better but not as expensive? Or... full speed ahead?

Note / extra info: Unfortunately, the layout of the room and the decor in it has ruled out a floor-standing or in-wall system... so I'm trying to keep this to an in-ceiling system. The living room ceiling is about 14' high and flat.

Thanks.
eisenb11

Showing 1 response by sunshdw

sunshdw's avatar
sunshdw
235 posts
 

I’ve sold a lot of the Sonance VP82R 8" 3way in ceiling speakers powered by the matching DSP amplifiers. I’ve even added their back boxes to help the sound out even more. Now of course, budget wise, this is well above the Monoprice/Sonos combo but its food for thought if you’re looking for a decent in ceiling back ground audio system.

Now, will it sound as good as a traditional in room speakers? No. Architectural speakers aren't design for that anyway. They're meant to be hidden or less obvious.

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