Sonance - MAG Series 6-1/2" 2-Way In-Ceiling Speakers (Pair) - Paintable White

These are very capable in-ceiling speakers for the money. Considering the solid build, aesthetics, thoughtful design and noteworthy performance, these speakers cant be beat. I'm replacing a pair of 6.5" Pyle in-ceilings I've had for a year and although they sounded ok I was never happy with them so I started shopping for replacements. Looked at Yamaha, Klipsch and Polk but have always overlooked Sonance due to the MSRP. Also dont think they're worth $600 but definitely a steal for $150 sale price. Glad I waited for it to go back on sale. The Pyles dont even compare to these Sonance speakers. I'm using them for surround sound and they integrate well with my set up. My system is consist of Def Tech BP9040 towers with A90 Atmos toppers, CS9060 center channel speaker and a single SVS SB-2000 subwoofer.  All powered by Denon AVR S740H and I'm delighted to say the Sonance MAG6R speakers are able to keep up with my set up with grace especially in movies where tonal timber was very noticeable with the Pyles when sound moves from front to rear. Stand alone they sound decent with more emphasis on the highs in both music and movies. Mid range is satisfyingly crisp and clear. I'm hoping it would sound even better after the break in period but happy with them as is The speakers are made of high quality materials and the packaging is excellent! Install was a cinch. Had to make the original opening bigger to accommodate the size of the Sonance and it took me about 2 hrs including prep work without wiring. They cleanly sit flush in my ceiling as shown in the pictures I uploaded. Check them out. If you're moderately handy, have the proper tools and can follow instructions go for it! You'll be glad you did. Side note: you're probably considering in-ceiling speakers because your space is at a premium or just dont prefer seeing a room full of black boxes (both my case) but desire theater sound. With that in mind dont compare these to full size or even book shelf speakers. Keep it real and they wont disappoint.

I was skeptical based on the current sale price but figured they are a common size so noting to lose if the sound quality isn’t on par with my Definitive towers and powered center. Installer put them in today and I’m blown away by the sound quality. If I didn’t already have new high end speakers I would bury 7 of these in the ceiling and get a powered sub. These are the perfect surround speaker at a bargain basement price.

These speakers sound and look great. They were an amazing bargain.

I bought 2 sets of these. Put one set in the wall with the tv, and one set in the ceiling over the couch. I also put a center speaker in the wall above the tv and have a Polk subwoofer, all hooked up to an old Onkyo receiver/amp with a digital audio connection from the tv. It sounds pretty amazing!! Great speakers for the price. Note that these are too deep for a normal wall, but I have an extra deep wall. I also painted the grilles. The grilles can only be sprayed, as brushing won’t work with the tiny holes. I used my dark green wall paint, thinned it a lot and used an HVLP sprayer. They came out great. I did not paint the ones in the ceiling, since it’s white. Installation is very simple. They come with a good, stiff template.

These speakers sound great while watching movies and listing to music at low or high volumes. They pack a punch without distortion. Both the main speaker and the tweeter can be positioned independently to direct the sound exactly where you want it. This is great for helping to create the perfect sweat spot in a home theater. Installation was really easy, cut the holes according to the included diagram. Connect the speaker wire and screw the 4 points on the speaker in. The speakers lock right in and are flush! Since these are in a theater, I like showing the woven silky speaker cones off but the magnetic covers hide the speakers easily and look great doing so. Audibly I could tell there was a difference in the sound profile from the Klipsch speakers in my theater system. Audio Files will understand what I mean it’s not a bad thing just different.

These speakers sound really good and blend in nicely to my setup. After rearranging my living room, my Sony floor standing speakers didn't really work in the space and in-wall speakers seemed like the perfect fit. I picked these up on a hefty sale and they were quick and easy to install. Some key features that were nice were the paintable grill speakers - super easy to do with a paint prayer or spray paint, and the ability to adjust/point the tweeter and woofer, which was nice for my less-than-ideal seating arrangement. They sound great with the rest of my 5.1 setup.

We just purchased a new home, and I've been installing a whole-home audio system. Our house already had 3 sets of in-wall speakers installed, and I needed quite a few more sets for our 14 zone audio system. The Sonance MAG6R were on sale at Bestbuy for a ridiculous price, and I purchased 6 pairs and installed them. Build quality is stellar, as noted in the other review, with nice features such as good side protection, wonderful easy to use mounting tabs (especially with a power driver), and easy-mount brackets that hold them in the ceiling while you're installing them. The magnetic grill is fantastic, and very slick and slim when installed. They mount basically flush on the surface, and the wife approved of the look. On first listen, it was just a jaw-dropping WOW, you've got to be kidding experience. The bass was so deep and clear, and the "voice" of these speakers so natural, I was extremely impressed. These speakers sound fantastic, including (and especially) at low-volume for ambient background music throughout our home. We tend to keep the XM Classical channel or XM "The Bridge" on as ambient music, and these speakers are wonderful. We have them installed as both stereo speakers (in various bedrooms and living areas) as well as mono-speakers (in hallways, entryways, and offices). They shine in either application They can handle a decent amount of volume as well, such as for the occasional party; we're driving them with very good (though older) B&K CT610 amplifiers at 60W/channel (with a total of 18 zones of available amplification - it's taken me a month to get this all installed and running). One last important point: these are advertised as "ceiling speakers" and they mean it! They are quite deep, and will NOT fit onto a standard wood-framed wall without some modification. As several speakers I was installing required a wall-mount (not ceiling), I had to do a bit of modification to get these to fit my standard depth walls. This is not a simple DIY project, and requires some tools and skill. I removed the rear cover and circuit board, and ground down the circuit board mounts to place the circuit board below the level of the rear driver magnet. Finally, I traced the position of the magnet inside the mounting hole, and routed about 1/2" of depth off the drywall on the OPPOSITE SIDE of the speaker cutout to allow just enough room to wall-mount these speakers (I used a DeWalt drywall cutter with depth guide for this, with tons of drywall dust in the process). In sum, mounting is possible on a standard-thickness wood-framed wall, but not recommended for a novice DIY installer.

First off, let me say that I purchased these when they were on sale at a very steep discount versus the MSRP (as it appears did the other reviewer). I was shopping for speakers for my new house at around the $400 a pair price point, so I can't really speak to how these size up to others in the $600 a pair/$300 each category. That said, I have been able to compare these side by side (in a test wall built for this purpose) to Polk V60s (not the VT60s which are half the price), Polk MC60s, Outdoor Speaker Depot MK-650s, Infinity CS60Rs, and Russound RSF-610s. I have also compared the Polk V60s to Klipsch R-3650s and R-1650s, and previously ruled them out for my purposes as in my opinion they placed too much emphasis on the high end of the frequency spectrum. What I think can easily be lost in someone who picked these up at a discount rate is how good these really are. As a general matter, if you were to just purchase in-ceiling speakers from any manufacturer and install them in your home, you probably will think they sound good (or, as I think some who purchased these might think, these sound "good for the money" as they are skeptical of the deal they got on the speakers and don't want to give too positive of a review). But, when you do a real comparison, side by side, with switch buttons to allow you to go from speaker to speaker mid-song (and test a broad range of music you will listen to), that's when you really notice where a speaker fails miserably or shines. Okay, up-front qualifiers and level-setting out of the way, here are my thoughts. Build Quality. Amazing. This is one of those things you will CERTAINLY overlook if you are not auditioning various speakers (and seeing the physical unit outside of the box and not just mounted in a display). Most manufacturers build these with very thin plastic, and handling from the back feels like you're going to break something. You also typically see a circuit board on the back that's completely unprotected (with the better speakers having some sort of protection and/or the board being a full circle around the speaker to add strength as opposed to just a portion. This thing has a complete encasement of the board, and you can actually set the speaker on its back and it will be completely supported. Also note the nearly complete encasement of the speaker from the side (this is important because (1) you get more bass response and (2) you avoid bits of drywall crumbling off on your speaker and getting behind your cone). Also note that with these speakers you are able to pivot the tweeter (a given for higher priced speakers), but you can also pivot the cone itself (a very high priced feature). Next, take a look at the connectors on the back. Gold plated, push-down connectors (not the flimsy tab-types you see on most speakers), and they are incredibly smooth versus those of the Polk V60s for example. Also, note that the grills are magnetic (so you don't have the lip of the speakers showing when mounted), and the magnets are impressively strong versus what I've seen of competitors. You also have metal spring tabs that come with these (pulled them out in the photos I took, as they are a bit too tight with these on for my pre-construction brackets), which hold the speaker in place in the ceiling in order to give you time to pick up your tools to finish the install (just, wow). Next up, sound. Cheaper speakers usually have a color to the sound (typically a pronounced mid-range). Think 80's music played through stock speakers on an old truck. More expensive speakers tend to lose that color. To some this can sound like you're "missing" part of the sound, but if you listen to a live album you can really see that "live" sounds right on a speaker such as this, whereas on a more entry level speaker it will still sound like an album recording. As your ears adjust more to a speaker like this, you really see how tainted you've been by other speakers, and when you switch between them you'll hear that color I've been describing. Also, note that these speakers actually have a very impressive amount of bass for ceiling speakers (due in large part to the mostly encased enclosure). When I say "for ceiling speakers" I don't mean to suggest you're lacking at all with these speakers. You won't get the same sound you will if you had an additional subwoofer in your mix, or something like an 8" shelf speaker. But, you'll still have rich, full sound. I'm not going to add anything to these in my whole home setup. Now, let's talk value. Sonance is a pretty expensive speaker brand. This particular model, the MAG6R, appears to be a Best Buy/Magnolia exclusive ("MAG" probably means "Magnolia," 6 is the size, R is for "round"). The comparable "rest of the world" line appears to be the Visual Performance series. If you compare the features (pivoting woofer, pivoting tweeter, woven woofer cone, silk tweeter, etc.), you come to the conclusion that this shares features from the 62R, 64R, and 66R speakers (coming in at $400, $500, and $725 a pair, respectively at MSRP). In other words, the MSRP price is probably accurate for this set. If you got them on sale, you got an amazing deal. If you're thinking about them at MSRP, check them out and compare to comparably priced speakers and see what you think. But, please do yourself a favor and do a side by side to whatever else you're considering.