Polk Audio MC80 2-Way in Ceiling Speaker, 8" (Single) | Dynamic Built-in Audio | Perfect for Humid Indoor/Enclosed Areas | Bathrooms, Kitchens, Patios | White

I have been trying to get great sound for our living room for ... years. I have a decent AVR (Yamaha HTR-5990) so am set up for good sound. But before we renovated our house, there was just no way to really make it work. Now we have a rational setup with our couch against a back wall, about 10 feet from the TV/front speakers -- I use these for rear surround. I have mounted the two Polk speakers in the ceiling at about the same plane as the back of the couch -- about a foot or so away from the back wall, and a couple feet out from the ends of the couch. This is not ideal for several reasons, but these speakers make it work beautifully. I aimed the tweeter at the back wall and a little away from the couch. The AVR has an automatic level and equalizer setup, which is great because it saves time and probably does a better job than I would do. In our old setup we had little cube speakers for surround -- same AVR -- we notices that they seemed to audibly be "on" sometimes which was a little distracting. These speakers are totally different -- you never know they are on, so surround sound seems completely natural. Sound fills the room, but in a subtle and effective way; rich and full with even distribution. We had a telling experience. When we first had the speakers set up, it wasn't clear to others that they were on. So I disconnected and everybody immediately realized the difference. I took it another step by temporarily using (and tuning for) my old speakers -- it wasn't the room -- same on/off kind of issue. I am really impressed with how immersive well-tuned surround sound can be, and I am sure these speakers are everything I could need for my purposes. Pretty impressive, and not terribly expensive.

These are awesome! I mounted them in the living room ceiling for music and to also complete the surround sound system. The mountings are included and the actual mounting installation is easy. For me it was the preparation that took a while. I needed to figure out where exactly to mount them, the separation, which way were the ceiling joists running, at which points to cut into the ceiling and wall to minimize holes and patching, how much cabling was needed, etc. I did have to rent a hammer drill and I bought a 54" extension for my drill bit. (ended up getting the extension for free- I returned it because it snapped in half right when I was finishing the last hole). It was definitely a weekend project. That included, cutting through ceiling and wall, drilling through a few joists, running the speaker cable through the ceiling and down the inside of the wall to the receiver, mounting the speakers, patching the wallboard and some touch up painting and I also did the project solo, but if you're handy and plan it well it shouldn't be a problem. I spent the extra cash and purchased premium speaker cable too. I mean if you're going to go through all that work why cheap out on the cable? All said and done it was a project I was very proud of. :) You know its good when even a couple years later you still stop and go "Wow, these sound great!". Anyways, they fill the room with sound and along with 2 front, one center and sub Polk's that we have it really completes the surround sound experience and music sounds awesome too. Once in a while we'll really crank these babies up and they handle everything we can throw at it.

This is the second Polk Audio five channel in-ceiling speaker setup that I have done. As with the first, install was very simple, just cut the holes (I just used a simple rock saw) using the template provided and insert the speaker. The tabs that secure the speaker to the ceiling have a good amount of clearance, so if you have supporting wood or an extra layer of dry wall at a join, this is not an issue. I have blown in insulation above the ceiling that I installed these, so I went to the attic and moved all the insulation away, so as not to make a big mess below. Once speakers were installed, I ran the wire and covered with roll insulation over the top rather than the blown in stuff that was there so as not to get a mess inside the speakers. For this setup, I just wanted to get clean five channel sound without the speakers being easily seen. High and mid range sound is great, not much on the low end, but that is exactly what I expected with speakers of this size. The sound is noticeably better than my other setup using Polk Audio RC60i speakers. I picked up a Marantz NR1403 to power these and it does a good job, you don't need a lot of power for this setup. Tweeters can be aimed, not sure how big a difference this makes. Some people complain about difficulty in removing the covers. These attach the same way as on the RC60i and go on easy and after several years I have never had a reason to remove them, so can't comment on that. Good sound for the price.

Needed an inexpensive in-ceiling speaker for my garage to pair up with a Bluesound Powernode. I'm really surprised on how well these sound! I've had in-ceiling speakers in the past and most of them were 3+x the cost of these but they do hold their own against the others.... these things are legit and a bargin!

I have Paradigm 6.5” fronts and Pyle 6.5” Rears. I wanted something slightly bigger in the Center to handle the mids. The small but bassy 8” Paradigm Sub handles the rest quite well. I am impressed with the Polk, especially at the price point. Very nice sounding speaker.

Easy to install

Awesome sound , love love love them , and easy to install!

Très bon qualité

Good product, sounds great. Dont care for the clips that hold the speaker in place. Especially if you install, remove and re-install. To get around this all I did was cut the plastic at 45 and it made the screw part slide into place.