Polk Audio RC65i 2-Way Premium in-Wall 6.5 Speakers, Rectangular Indoor Speakers, Perfect for Damp and Humid Indoor Placement - Bath, Kitchen, Covered Porches (White, Paintable Grille), 1 Pair

I'm an Audio Engineer by trade. I purchased 4 sets of these because Amazon was throwing in the 8" subwoofer and I couldn't be more pleased. I created a 7.1 environment. One speaker didn't get used but whatever. I paid under $600 for the entire setup with shipping n' all that. Forget paying the $300+ for a center speaker. IF you have all of the same, then the timber of the should should be even. When I score films, I use the same speaker types for the 5.1, 6.1, 7.1. Installation: The installation was a walk in the park! I had to cut into a wall stud to make the center speaker fit but that was the hardest and most time consuming part. Installing them in the dry wall took all of a few minutes for the 3 speakers (L/R/C). I do recommend getting some insulation and putting that in first before you install your speakers. It dramatically increases the performance and sound. The wall I was installing them in didn't have any so I went up in the attic and cut out some small pieces from a part of my ceiling. IT worked like charm. :-) Once those were done we cut into the ceiling and started installing them there. Those were a little tricky because in some parts I had Drywall and in another I had some form of concrete or something like that. It had wires n' all that. After we broke through it (extremely messy) the installation of those speaker went just as smooth as the others. Just had to patch and paint a little but it wasn't too much of a pain. Running the wires weren't too much of a pain. There was a closet on the other side so I just drilled a hole and ran the speaker wires into the closet. THEN I drilled another larger whole over by the receiver and ran all of the wires through that. I have an attic so when I ran the wires from the ceiling ones, I drilled another whole in the closet (top) and dropped all of the wires down form there and then into the larger hole by the receiver. Eventually I'm going to use wall plates but I didn't have them and I was too excited! I recommend getting 200 feet of speaker wire. Be liberal with it because more wire is better than less wire. These speakers have tweeters that can be angled. I recommend you angle them to your listening position. Sound: Once I turned on the receiver I said "oh... I guess it sounds ok". Then I started to justify it... "I only paid $500 for it so I get what I pay for...". DON'T GO DOWN THAT STREET! I started to play with the receiver (Sony) and I started tweaking the levels: FLAT EQ and adjust volume settings according to your room. FOR THE RECORD, LOUD BASS doesn't mean your system is good. You want to have an even sound. The bass will stand out but too much bass can really mess up the listening experience. Anywhoo, after making the adjustments I realized that I was watching my regular cable 1080i on an OLD movie that didn't really have too much 5.1 let alone 7.1, SO I did some tests: ** Avatar: 4 of 5 - I liked it a lot but it didn't have enough for me. The speakers performed very well. I had it about a quarter of the way up in total volume. No issues... ** G.I. Joe: 4 of 5... Explosions, lasers, sword fighting the works! I was starting to get hooked on the speakers! I had this one turned up about half way because I wanted to hear all the crazy stuff that goes on in the fighting scenes. Speakers performed very well ** Star Trek: 5 of 5... They did a WONDERFUL job on this. In this movie I cranked the speakers up about half way as well. It was "loud" but no fatigue or signs of distortion. ** 2010: 5 0f 5... This movie had so much CGI and destruction I just had to try it. This was cranked up about 3 quarters of the way up. It was LOUD but you can REALLY HEAR EVERY SPEAKER in the 7.1 playing something different. AWESOME TEST! The speakers held in there and at that point I was satisfied completely satisfied with my purchase. Conclusion: The 7.1 (Polk RC65i and the 8" sub) is a WONDERFUL combination. I'm very pleased with the performance and sound. I would recommend this particular configuration to anyone looking. You will not be disappointed. Make sure you get the right receiver that puts out the right amount of wattage. I have a Sony STR-DH810. It puts out enough power to do these speakers justice. Onkyo makes some good ones as well. If you under power these speakers you WILL lose out on sound. GET A GOOD RECEIVER WITH THE RIGHT POWER. If your room is larger and you decide to get the 8" version of these speakers, get a larger sub like a 12". The others will go deep enough to capture most of what your looking for and you can tweak the larger subs crossover and have it push out the REALLY low frequencies. I hope this helps anyone out there looking!

Purchased four 6.5 inch rectangular units to replace bookshelf speakers in my home theater. Audiophiles may find issue with the sound, but they sound great to me. Bass may be lacking, I have dedicated subs for that so I can't speak to that. I have two for each left/right and two in parallel for center since wall studs prevented a single center channel speaker in the correct place. Next sale I'll get two more for surrounds. PRO TIP: Use the mounting screws to push off the covers prior to install, don't try and pull off the covers with a paper clip. PRO TIP: If you have to remove from the wall, slowly unscrew the mounting screws with a screw driver, constantly twisting back and forth to detect when they are free to swivel out of the way. If you just go nuts with a screw gun, don't be surprised if the tabs come off and drop down the wall.

Yup these rock! Super easy install. Paired with a fossi ht45 amp Might need to add two small speakers in the rear but just these 2 walls and sub seem pretty loud and clear!

I just ordered my second pair of rectangular RC65i Polk speakers. They are really good speakers for the price. Especially at Amazon's price. I paid $249 for my first pair at a big name retailer locally. I went with the rectangular 65i's because they fit my application better and looked better in my media room, but the round Polk speakers, like the RC60i's are actually a better speaker. The sound and components of the round RC60i's are just a bit better and provide a better overall audio experience (just compare them side by side at any store and you'll hear the difference). But having said that, ALL Polk speakers are great. I have enjoyed my RC65i's. They install easily with simple wire stripping and insert type install. The speakers clips easily clamp onto the wall and the provided wall cut-outs make installing easy. But I do agree with one of the other reviews that said they are a bit more difficult to remove. If you unscrew the clip screws just a bit too much then the clips fall off and are difficult to reinstall. But as for sound quality and manufacturing quality, you just can't beat Polk. So if you have no space or design conflicts, I would go with the round RC60i or RC80i's (just a size difference). If not, then these RC65i's are a great deal.

I'm using these for side surrounds and are paired up with some RC60i in the ceiling for the rear surrounds. They look and sound great, and go well with some TSi400 towers in the front and a CS10 for the center. I'm using a PSW110 sub which does the trick for the LFE. I was able to get really good deals on all the speakers by shopping around, but the RC65i seem to be in higher demand so don't expect to find them discounted as much. That said, Amazon was the best deal I could find and they shipped as promised and I have had no issues at all. I noticed the RC85i are almost same price so if you have a room for bigger surrounds, that's another option but you don't really need the extra base for side surrounds, especially with a decent subwoofer. All in all I'm really happy with my set up. I'm using a Denon AVR791 to push all these speakers and it does so with out breaking a sweat. Even when I crank it up for LOUD music everything still sounds find and nothing catches on fire! I'm becoming a big fan of Polk speakers. I also have some older Bostons in the house I use for listening to music and maybe I'm just used to them but I think they sound a bit cleaner but I also paid a lot more for them and that was 10 years ago. For the money you can't go wrong with these, especially considering for a 7.1 set up you are into it for 7 speakers + a sub that will mostly be used for sound effects like explosions, gunshots, and stuff like that (I like action movies) so why go over the top? These work great for home theater, and are very decent for music.

The livingroom in our new home just doesn't have a place for free-standing speakers due to the floorplan (very open to the rest of the house, with a fireplace in the front corner). This ruled out using my existing (high-end) theater speakers (large towers). I went to the local big-box store, and the only set of in-wall speakers they had that I thought were worth buying were a set of Klipsch that came in at $600 per set. I almost went for them, but after measuring I found they were about 2" too wide for where I needed to install one of them. The $300 Infinity set sounded horrible. They didn't sell Polk Audio or Boston Acoustic, which was actually what I wanted to look at. So ... I figured at $140 from Amazon, the RC65i's were worth a shot. I'm glad I did - price vs. performance these are an excellent set of speakers. Decent dynamic range, and actually a surprising amount of bass if you don't have a subwoofer (though I recommend having one - you can only get so much out of a 6" speaker). Now ... are these "amazing" speakers? Well ... no. They do not compare to my aforementioned towers. Those towers were also $900 a piece. They also are not nearly as good as the $600 Klipsch in-walls I looked at. If you think you're going to get amazing clarity and dynamic range for $70 a speaker ... you're going to be disappointed. What these are is a great everyday speaker that will sound decent to most people under most conditions. They are a *slight* bit muddy, but not for the price range. That's the thing you really have to do is compare them to other speakers you could buy for so little money. And even some that cost a little more - the Infinity set I listened to at the big-box store was twice the price and didn't sound any better. It also helps if you have a good receiver that lets you control the dynamic range being sent to your speakers. I have a high-end Yamaha that allows me to cut the low frequencies out of the main channel and only send them to the sub (12" powered down-fire). Doing this, you get rid of most of the "muddy" issues. Summary: Can't beat them if this is how much money you want to spend. Period. I liked them so much for my application that I ordered a set of rc55i (the smaller ones) and installed them for the back surround channel. When I finish the basement I'm thinking of getting some of these (rc65i) to use for the back-channel.

I replaced some expensive ceiling mounted speakers with these (much less expensive) in-wall speakers and I cannot believe the results! I installed these speakers in the wall, right behind my seating position at ear level. I cannot believe the improvement in my home theatre system!!! This might be the best money I have ever spent on any of my audio systems. I'm sure the improvement is a combination of the relocation and the speakers themselves, but the change is dramatic. I love it and it makes me want to watch more good sounding movie tracks.

These speakers have very high quality sound. Polk in general is a quality brand for speakers. These were very easy to install into the wall. It comes with a stencil to cut your hole and has simple winged anchors that clasp to the wall. Lastly, one of the best benefits is that these are paintable so they are almost invisible on your wall. One tip is that when you paint the grill, you will need to use a very small brush and dip your brush into the paint very lightly. I attempted to use the cheap sprayers that others recommended, but those only work with very specific types of paint that didn't work for my scenario. Nonetheless, it don't think a sprayer is necessary regardless of your type of paint. You can simply just paint it very lightly and slowly. Keep in mind that BEFORE painting the grill, you will need to remove the piece of fabric on the back of it and then replace it once the paint is dry. Lastly, any paint globs over any of the holes on the grill will need to be poked out as you go using a paper clip before drying. Overall, a fantastic set of speakers.

These speakers sound Great!

I have a 7.2.4 ATMOS system POLK ceilings and surrounds, honestly spending loads of money on ceiling speakers and surrounds is not needed in my humble opinion, yes if you are loaded then go for it….. but personally spending £200 plus on one ceiling speaker whether it’s THX etc, is NOT going to make a plane going over your head for a split second sound this kind of money better. The polks are a quality built speaker, and do the job you want them for. Highly recommended

A great speaker, easy to fit and directional tweeter helps to guide sound to the mlp! Highly recommended as front height speaker's!

Shockingly good product. The sound is incredible. Paired them with an NAD receiver. Anyone who is an audiophile will be absolutely blown away with clarity and sound from these relatively inexpensive speakers.

Las compre para instalarlas en el techo, parte de mi sistema 5.1.2, y por el momento todo excelente, no requiero exigirles trabajo duro ya que las configure como “small”, que el subwoofer haga lo suyo, pero en cuanto a agudos y graves todo ok. Hay mejores marcas, pero para surround, y relación calidad precio quedo satisfecho.