MartinLogan Helos10 In-Ceiling Speaker with Paintable Frame and Grill Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased four Martin Logan Helos 10 speakers from Amazon in November 2009. I am using them for for background listening in a kitchen, and for surround sound in a home theater room.
The speakers themselves produce impressively clear sound, are well constructed, meticulously packaged, and easy to install. The aimable tweeter provides the ability to produce the best stereo image possible when installation location choices are limited.
Whereas I like the product, Amazon has not stood by it as seller. One of the speakers came with dents in the cone and the tweeter detached. It had obviously been abused, returned, and put right back into stock. I returned it requesting a replacement, which is a standard option on Amazon's returns page. No worries, right? Amazon instead refunded muy purchase price, which has gone up by $50 since my order.
I note that there is no place in my past order list to make contact with or make a claim against the seller when the seller is Amazon. I described the problem hitting the "give packaging feedback" link but so far have gotten no response.
The price of these speakers is tightly controlled by Martin Logan, and will be the same wherever you buy. So unless Amazon turns things around on my order, I've got to advise you to buy the product, but not from Amazon.

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A direct descendant from the Helos100, the Helos10 continues with the MartinLogan tradition of exceptional sound.The Helos10 has the ability compliment any décor with it's paintable grill and frame.The Helos20 is amply equipped with a single 0.75 inch soft dome tweeter with a pivoting stem and a single 6.5 inch woofer, creating crisp accurate sound.Frequency response ranges from 47-20,000 Hz.

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Yamaha NSIW280CWH3P Set of 6 Easy-to-install In-Ceiling 3-Wa Review

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(More customer reviews)What a great deal! Three pair of in-ceiling speakers for the price of one high-end in-wall speaker!
Lest you think these Yamaha speakers must sound like a bad office speaker playing elevator music at that price, let me remind you of its decent stats:
* 3-way speakers, 6.5" round woofer, 2 tweeters (one mid-high, one high)
* two built-in crossovers at 6kHz and 9kHz
* 12° pre-tilted woofer, swivel tweeters
* crisp highs up to 28kHz (key for home theater)
* template was perfect for hole-cutting
* swivel screw clamps hold firm to the drywall
* clean finished look
* handles 80W amp comfortably
When I hooked up just one sitting on the floor, I was worried that I made a mistake, but after I got them secure in the ceiling and all working together, the room filled with sound, thanks to my Onkyo 7.1 home theater 80W amp. I am using five for the standard speaker locations: front L/C/R, surround L/R. I have one speaker left over, so I might hook it up as a mono rear surround.
I chose these speakers over the similarly priced Polk Audio speakers because the Polks can't go higher than 20kHz unless you pay $200+ per speaker. If you want to hear glass shatter or steam hissing properly, you need more headroom than 20kHz. These Yamahas go to 28kHz.
You might be wondering about the bottom end of the audio spectrum, below 100Hz. These woofers fall off at 65Hz, and if this were just a small office music system maybe that would be fine, but not good enough for my family room. I filled out the bottom end with two Polk Audio PSW10 subs at half-volume that cover up to 150Hz. My total investment in speakers sounds amazing for under $500. The Onkyo Audyssey auto-EQ and auto-level makes this setup sing. (BTW, never judge a speaker set-up until it's been properly EQ'd and balanced).
This setup is not good enough for a true high-end home theater, where you will need to spend $2500 on speakers, but for my family room...? Yeah, baby. Movies sounds awesome in Dolby Digital and music sounds great in "All Stereo" mode! I rarely am pumping more than 50W per channel anyway, so this was the sweet spot for this room. This beats the pants off any of those all-in-one home theater speaker kits with tiny speakers all around -- if the woofer in each speaker is not bigger than a CD, then forget it.
Best of all, my wife does not "hate those ugly speakers" like she did my previous setup. These things just disappear into the ceiling and go unnoticed until you point them out to guests. And if you have to remove them, just use a couple of paper clips to hook the grill, pull it off and access the screws that loosen the drywall clamps. Easy.
Only thing I might would have done differently would be to put some insulation up in there to catch the stray sound bouncing around beneath the upstairs floor. And I still may do that.
Shipping was quick and the 3 boxes were secure inside one larger box.
Would recommend these for any friend who wants to have a mid-grade home theater setup within a budget. Just don't forget the 10" sub.

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Bose Virtually Invisible® 191 speakers Review

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(More customer reviews)Below is my initial review of these speakers. It's still basically true, but as the frustration with the initial install has faded, my estimation of the speakers has risen (a little). What seemed a thin and limited sound at the time now seems very clean. Just with very little bass compared to some other speakers. When things break on install, you do have to wonder, "who's fault was it, really...". I'll just say that the other speakers I bought at the same time had a much heavier set of clips...
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I am extremely disappointed with these speakers. If you read the product description carefully, you are basically getting a pair of smallish 2.5 in drivers / speakers which are only capable of a thin, limited sound. All the rest ("Virtually Invisible", "Articulated Array configuration", "Stereo Everywhere", "proprietary ported enclosure" etc.) is great marketing, but it does little to improve the sound of the speakers and a lot to increase the cost. There is no Bose waveguide technology here, for example (don't be fooled by the big plastic box hanging off the side). Limited bass? Try zero bass.
To make matters worse, the unusual design made these speakers harder to install (I have a lath and plaster ceiling), while the "virtually invisible" design translates into "make a perfect cut because there is no margin for error". Finally, part of the mechanism designed to hold the speakers in place simply snapped off while I was tightening it.
In contrast, I bought a pair of Polk Audio speakers at the same time for 1/3 the price, they were a breeze to install, and they sound great. I walk from one room to another and cringe when I go from listening to the Polk Audios to the Bose.

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