Floor Standing or In Wall speakers

I have heard many such systems and they can be quite fine but they are rarely made from consumer stuff. Even so, the best studios I have heard (in) used stand-alone monitors in controlled environments. I am thinking of Bob Ludwig's big room in Portland and some of the rooms at Sound Mirror near Boston. Besides, once the budget and space accomodations get into this realm, there are few limits other than the intelligence and art of the designer.

For the vast majority of people who even ask this question, though, my answer is more relevant, I believe.

Kal

I have heard many such [in wall] systems and they can be quite fine but they are rarely made from consumer stuff.

Agreed. You may not prefer them but they can sound good too. To me the absence of edge diffraction and rear quarter wave cancellation is a big plus for in walls, however, room modes can be more of a problem in this configuration and it can't be done as cheaply as a conventional setup.

The average consumer audiophile lacks the sophistication and money to design a room (and thus the in-wall speaker enclosures and their placement) to achieve what he could by experimenting both with his choice of free-standing speakers and their placement. For him, the best results will be achieved by trial and error, a strategy not well-suited to in-wall placement. Most people who choose in-wall are ruled by WAF, wife acceptance factor; the aesthetics of the room trump the quality of the reproduction.

Thanks To everyone who responded to my question , Iam going to stay with foor standing speakers, because there are more choices to upgrade .

"Acoustic theory suggests very strongly that they should sound much better."(Shadorne on in-walls).
Some acoustical theory suggests that a flush mounted inwall speaker has acoustical advantages, in regards to speaker to boundary frequency cancellation, maybe even boundary reinforcement, and lack of diffraction or back wave reflection. The main acoustical dis-advantage is bass mode reinforcement. (basically YOU NEED an EQ involved with in-walls, regardless. So, in HT systems with small acoustical spaces, you'll need to get an EQ or DSP correction involved.
Another problem with inwalls, is that only the sealed designs are really workable from an audiophile stand point. Still, you can't "aim" the speakers for tonality, from a variety of seating situations, even stereo listening, likely. (another drawback for "dialing in" speakers). Also, plotting speaker locations is harder with in-walls than free-standing speakers.
I do admit it seems that in-walls are improving, yes. IN some situations, they make sense, and might be necessary.
Still, I like the flexibility and predictability of box speakers.