Best Value In-Wall Speakers - looking for advice

PaulW

Hi folks, I'm trying to find the best in-wall speakers (2 fronts and 1 center) solution in my family room. To my dismay, floor standing and/or book shelf speakers are not an option, due to WAF. I have a Martin Logan 8" sub concealed in the corner of the room, so low-end performance of the speaker options wouldn't be too important. Usage would be for TV viewing as well as listening to music. We have a separate media room, so having surround sound isn't necessary, I'm mostly wanting to have a good-sounding system for the family room.

Here in Nashville there are very few places to demo in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, so I am looking for feedback from anyone who has feedback/experience with any of the speakers I'm looking at.

I'm currently looking at the following:
1. Polk RC85i - $169/pair - Pros - very inexpensive! (apparently because they're being discontinued). Very good on-line user reviews for the most part. Small - about 14" in length, can be virtually invisible when painted. Cons- not sure about the sound quality compared to the other options.
2. Polk 265LS - $349 each - Pros - I haven't found any places to demo them, but I would imagine the sound quality would be very good. Cons - Price (3 speakers would be $1,047), Size - 21" in length - more conspicuous than the other options.
3. B&W CCM 664 - $275 each - Pros - I've demo'd them and they sound good. They're also the smallest of the options. Cons - more expensive than the RC85's (but less than the 265LS's).

Any comments/advice would be welcome!

GospelTruth

Hey Paul. I will first off say that I haven't heard any of the speakers you are looking at purchasing. They all look like good options. However, I think it depends on what you are looking for in the end. If you are just looking for something that will produce good sound, then I think the first one in the list is probably your best choice for the money. They look like they will fit the bill nicely. If however, you are the kinda of person that likes to get that last little bit of performance out of the sound, then you might want to move up to the more expensive models.

In my own situation, I used some monoprice (gasp) speakers for the in-ceiling and Energy Take 5.1 speakers for the front three in our TV listening area. We watch TV, movies and listen to music in the background with this system. I would never claim that the sound is uber high end, but it does sound pretty dang good to me for it's intended usage. I have other systems for pure audio enjoyment that definitely perform better (Home theater and 2 channel).

I also took into consideration our long term commitment to our current house. A vast majority of people aren't going to pay more for a house because you put big dollars into in-wall and ceiling speakers. I didn't want to put thousands into a speaker system we can't take with us when we move and something someone else may not be willing to pay for. However, if you plan on staying where you are for a long time, your perspective will also be different.

Happy speaker hunting!

PaulW

Thanks Gospel for your insights. I think I've identified a niche there for people like myself who desire really good sound,
within a budget, with speakers that are invisible. Not too much to ask, lol. The difficulty is that, unlike floorstand and bookshelf speakers, there are few places to demo the built-ins. I'm leaning towards ordering the first Polks on my list (RC85i) and we'll see how well they perform.

PaulW

Made my decision and went with 2 RC85i's as fronts and a 255c-RT as center channel. Paired with my Martin Logan sub, the
sound is very good. Can't compare to my $3,000 full-sized Axiom system, but considering they're almost completely concealed and wifey-friendly, I am very pleased. I'll be adding a couple more RC85i's in the ceiling as surrounds/rears to complete the set up.