In-Ceiling Speakers: Time to cut the wires?

[MediumRare]

Another vote for Sonos. There really isn’t a better whole home solution with the feature set, sound quality, ease of use and flexibility.

Folks, what about the KEF LSX? Avoids both wires and amps?

 

[Webninja]

So, I'm still on the hunt for active wall-mount speakers and wifi connections similar to the REL unit above. Suggestions are welcome.

OK, go!

Two thoughts:

- If you want to do home theater, I think pre-wiring in the walls still makes sense, especially Atmos.

- For non-ceiling whole house audio, Sonos, as others have suggested, can look at Bluesound as well. I didn't fully complete my search, but you can do a raspberry pie based solution for Roon. You can get a DAC/Steamer even DAC/Steamer/Amp for passive speakers throughout the house, all run through Roon.

 

[Sergei]

So, I'm still on the hunt for active wall-mount speakers and wifi connections similar to the REL unit above. Suggestions are welcome.

OK, go!

A somewhat surprising finding for me was just how good and cost-efficient are medium-grade studio monitors in combination with a decent Bluetooth-enabled DAC.

I installed God knows how many sound systems for my wife in the kitchen over the years, and the one which she undoubtedly liked the best is based on Topping DX3 Pro DAC amplified by a pair of white Yamaha HS8 studio monitors.

If I cared to spend more money for a bit better sound, I would probably go with Genelec - they also make white studio monitors. Oh, and by the way, you can get virtually arbitrarily colored cables with XLR connectors - I got white for the high spousal approval.

My wife can play anything she likes from her iPhone over Bluetooth, without wi-fi glitches, Amazon Alexa speech recognition imperfections etc. from any corner of a rather large room that the kitchen is connected to.

Sonos units and their all-in-one-competition from Apple and others, as well as portable Bluetooth speakers, are not even close in sound quality. Neither I ever heard comparable in-ceiling or passive bookshelf speakers.

I believe this arrangement improved the diversity and quality of dishes my wife cooks, as she doesn't mind spending significant time in the kitchen, listening to the music and podcasts she likes

 

[MediumRare]

A somewhat surprising finding for me was just how good and cost-efficient are medium-grade studio monitors in combination with a decent Bluetooth-enabled DAC.

Neither I ever heard comparable in-ceiling or passive bookshelf speakers.

I believe this arrangement improved the diversity and quality of dishes my wife cooks, as she doesn't mind spending significant time in the kitchen, listening to the music and podcasts she likes

Wow, sounds like a double win! Great suggestions!