I would do both. the ceiling speakers would go to a ipod like kinda dock. where the wall speakers would go to just the tv for movies. it would be cool to work diffrent rooms from one ipod dock. or all the rooms. i know its not much help sorry.

I have speakers in the ceiling and in the wall and I have a boom box which I buried in the bkfst nook seat, right near the FR and it works very well.

Nothing compares to freestanding professional grade speakers. Tiny wall and ceiling speakers don't deliver audio quality. Even professional grade speakers for walls and ceilings don't compare in audio quality to professional free standing speaker systems where speaker and enclosure are designed holistically.

If you simply want to hear music or TV sound, almost anything will suffice. If you want true audiophile-grade sound, then nothing but stand-alone professional speaker systems will do.

Your values, your choice.

Good luck with your project.

My husband was adamant that nothing be IN the ceiling or walls.
Everyone comments on our excellent sound.

I think the two are related!

I've done some looking into this. The general sentiment is true, freestanding is almost always better than in ceiling. Now if you dig around in one of the other AV forums about, you find the Triad speakers are one of the few in ceiling speakers that the audiophiles will accept. Spec them right and they will work for your home theater. I've heard them, they are impressive and I intend to get them because floor space is at a premium in our new home. They aren't cheap however and you get what you pay for.

If you're not audiophiles but looking for something relatively unobtrusive, there are some decent soundbars out there, which for most people would be fine for movies.

For background music: in-ceiling.

For "audiophile" listening: A good ear cleaning from your ENT (the BEST investment for high end audio listening compared to any speaker) and ideally an ear transplant if you are over 30. Then an ugly stand alone speaker may make sense.

We have both in our new house. In ceiling 8" Polk Audio speakers sound really good with general music listening. However some of the low end is definately not there. We have 2 in the kitchen ceiling, 2 in the master bedroom, 1 stereo speaker in the bathroom and each of the 2 bedrooms. We then have a large great room, but the challenge there is sloping ceilling without attic space above, so I ended up putting them high up in the walls. This was not as ideal, but it was the only option since one side has a beam and open space below (no wall) so the lowested they could be was about 10' off the floor. I put 4 in this room (2 per side) and aimed them down as far as I could towards the floor. I am actually quite surprised at how they sound with not only music, but general movie watching. Now they are not set up for surround sound.

This is not the main "movie" watching area however, so it was not as big of a concern to me. That is in the basement, with a projection screen and as mentioned, free standing speakers. The low end and sound that you can get out of good free standing speakers can not be touched by in-wall/ceiling ones.

If you want to increase your tv watching in the family space and use in wall or ceiling, I would suggest adding a powered sub somewhere in the room. This will make a big difference for those speakers.

Thanks, everyone. I'm off to check out the Triad speakers.

Any recommendations for free-standing speakers? Or what about wall or ceiling mounted, but not actually in the wall??

There are many professional speakers designed for installation inside the walls and ceiling, as well as on the surface of the walls and ceilings. None of these compare to the frequency range and quality of sound possible from professionally designed speakers and enclosures designed to be freestanding in a space. There are many audio categories of freestanding speakers, and reasons for them. Each category has its pluses and minuses--but all are far, far superior to smaller "convenience" speakers designed to blend in or be invisible in home decor. To explore them, their design and characteristics, go to any serious audio site and start exploring.

In addition, so much depends on one's preferences for audio sound--home theater, primarily music or good, old-fashioned stereo sound! For example, a 7.1 channel home theater primary system is very different from a 2-channel stereo music system. And every system is optimized to room size, volume and furniture arrangement. There is no "one size fits all".

In the end, it really depends on whether one is looking for a system to just cover the sound of the refrigerator compressor or dishwasher, or for a system to listen to the bass, mid-tones and treble of serious music, seriously performed.

Different solutions for different preferences.

Just a reminder: good friends don't let their friends buy Bose. Just a little audiophile joke!

Good luck on your project.

DH is pretty serious about AV stuff. For background music and rear speakers in our family room, we used the in ceiling ones and they work fine. For serious music listening and our home theatre room, we have free standing.

Coincidentally I have exact same rooms wired for sound.

Family Room is also our main movie area - couldn't dedicate floorspace to a media room. Main channels and center are free standing, prewired for upper front surround (frivolous to most but I dig them - newer surround modes utilize front 'height' channels) and RBH ceiling speakers in the rear. Didn't bother with side channels. The ceilings are adequate and unobtrusive visually but I wouldn't put them in near the same league in terms of sound quality as my other speakers. Powered REL sub is off to the side.

Master has in-wall front channels, no center (prewired for a free standing one) and in-ceiling surround. All RBH. Powered sub is off to the side. The system sounds surprisingly good after Audyssey calibration. Good room calibration software makes a tremendous difference and provided proper initial speaker positioning, can help correct all sorts of room-related response anomolies.

Basement playroom is pretty similar to Master but I've never actually used it.

In-wall speakers will always be a compromise - the wall acts as a huge baffle and causes response issues that are difficult to address through speaker driver/crossover engineering. But we live in the real world where wives matter and budgets rule so that's why I have them.

Also be sure you run network to TV locations as well as receiver/processor locations. I store movies on a Network Attached Server and can essentially feed movies/shows to any location in the house.

Good luck! Good sound is good for the soul. Bad sound may land you in Bose purgatory.