In Ceiling speakers for a high-rise apartment

Thank you for your responses. Here is more information:

This basically going to be new system, nothing has been purchased.

Sound quality is important to me.
I do not often watch TV or movies; I am listening to music via my ipod. When I do watch TV or movies I do appreciate a good sound. All this will be in one room. I also have a patio that I would like to have outdoor speakers set up through same system. Again, good sound quality is important. The floor is marble and behind the front speakers is all glass. Not a great room acoustically.

I was looking at ceiling speakers for aesthetics only. Front speakers
I could go with, floor or shelf speakers. The back speakers (if necessary) must be wall mounted speakers.

I hope this helps; thanks again for all your comments!

Your setup, then, is almost identical to mine. I have free-standing Revel fronts and all in ceiling for surrounds and rears. From personal experience I can tell you that this setup is spectacular in my house. Revel has done an amazing job with matching the in-ceiling and free standing speakers. So my recommendation would be to look at the Revel Performa line for fronts and then they have a variety of in-ceiling options. So that is your speaker setup.

You've repeatedly said several red flags: marble, glass, etc. that's going to have a significant acoustical impact. No other way around it. So I also suggest you seriously look at some room correction. It will help but without you doing some basic carpeting and drapery it won't do miracles. Not sure of your budget but there are lots of options. The Marantz Pre-pro with an additional power amp is a great value choice for things under 3k as is the Integra 80.3. Going up the quality level is the anthem AVM50v. All have room correction.

Finally, not sure how you are listening to your iPod but hopefully you have a quality DAC to give you all the best out of the music you have.

Hope that helps. I can tell you from experience that it will work out great. And finally don't skimp on the side speakers if at all possible. Making the ideal match with fronts to surrounds is important. You could go down a model or two or three for the rears with little impact. Just try to keep all the speakers from the same family and line. In my setup I have all the Performa line except the rears which are concerta. Because of the physics of psychoacoustics there is no timbre or other issues with this setup.

If you are looking for in ceiling speakers at a steal, HiFi Buys in Nashville has some models of the Revel in ceiling speakers left that they close out with the launch of the new line. It's a steal of they have any left. Highly recommended and great, knowledgeable staff.

How much are you willing to spend? If you use free standing front mains that opens up the whole question.

My budget is $7K this would include 2-channel amp, pre-amp, speakers.
I am now looking at FS speakers for the front.

Thanks

Confused. You said 2 channel amp but earlier you mentioned home theater. So do you want a multichannel amp or a multichannel plus 2 channel amp?

My off the cuff suggestion is to go 2.5k front speakers with 2.5k for electronics plus 1k for sub and 1k for surrounds. You can move a few hubs red here and there.