Good In-Ceiling Speakers??

Like any speaker... a good ceiling speaker will be housed in a good cabinet.

Check out Snell and Triad. Snell's 720, 760 and 800, as well as Triad's In-Ceiling Bronze, Silver and Gold all sound better than ceiling speakers that lack back boxes.

Dean.

I'd suggest you consider B&W CCM80
http://www.bwspeakers.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/products.models/Label/Model%20CCM80
and
Boston Acoustics VRI585
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/ds_product.asp?ProductID=195&CategoryID=30

I have both in different rooms and am quite happy with them for the price. I use the B&W in theater setting for both surrounds and for backs. I have B&W 804 and HTM2 up front.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, my dealer/friend sells Speakercraft and I was looking at a pair of AIM4's (8" 2-way). I really like their outdoor speakers and am disappointed to hear Elevick did not like their in-ceiling. Maybe some more searching is in order. - Tim

Triad Silver or monitor are pretty incredible. I'm not a fan of in wall or in ceiling speakers--but these make a believer even out of me.

The other interesting speaker that I've auditioned but never had in a home theater is the BG (Bolenger Grabel). It's a ribbon technology. Typically not high enough SPL for theater--but these may be able to produce. I'm interested if there's anyone out there that have used these in a theater.

I've had more garbage than good. Speakercraft really disappointed me.
Niles has been good and I was really impressed with Paradigm for the money.

I've been using a pair from Bay Audio for many years. I bought them at a retailer of high-end audio/video stuff after auditioning MANY. I recently moved them and discovered one bass/MR driver was scratchy. I called Bay asking about buying one. Even with 10-1/2 years on them, they replaced it free of charge.

My kind of company!
.

I have listened to several very good in-ceiling speakers (to the extent that they are "good" by comparison to floor-standers):

1. Thiel makes an excellent in-ceiling model (altho' expensive) called the PowerPoint. Here's the link to their web site:
http://thielaudio.com/THIEL_Web/Pages/pwrpt.html

2. M&K has been making some of the best surround speakers on the market for a number of years. They make several models that may be of interest to you. Here's the link:
http://www.mksound.com/inwall.php

3. Snell is the third line of speakers that offer high performance. Take a look at the speakers that comprise their "custom" series. For more info, here's the link:
http://www.snellacoustics.com/custom.htm

In-ceiling and in-wall speakers are fairly limited in performance. This being said you can get good speakers for the money. Check out the NHT's. They are durrable and give you very good performance for an in-ceiling speaker. There are some very expensive in-ceiling and in-wall products that do sound quite nice for what they are, but they are not really worth the money. Surround sound is just not that demanding anyway.

Good luck.