SpeakerCraft AIM8 One in-Ceiling Pivoting Speaker

Great speakers, very clean! Very simple to install. I have 4 gunna prolly get 2-3 more..

Fantastic speakers, however the lugs which tighten against the drywall are poorly designed. They put a lot of pressure on a small area of plasterboard and two of the speakers on tightening have damaged our ceiling.I'd still recommend these as they sound great. But I'd look into putting a supporting ring on top of your ceiling.

This company has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I had a problem with their amplifiers and speakers and they said they cannot help me. They said I had to find some local expert to fix it. I have done sound reinforcement for 30 years and never had a worst experience than with this company. Change to NuVo, I did.

Very disappointed in these speakers, I bought the Aim 8's 2's thinking I'd install them as my surround in place of Cambridge Sound Works speakers I bought when we finished the basement. I went to install these beast and had to make adjustments for the size, figured that anyways, had plenty of left over ceiling tiles no biggy. After some minor aggravations I had one installed and could NOT install the Speaker Grill, after screwing around for almost a 1/2 hour I see the Woofer is tilted at a weird angle, I tried to adjust it to no avail, the tweeter adjust easily, I decided to try the other speaker and found the woofer moved but with lot's of effort. So, try and adjust these speakers in a drop ceiling, one difficult at best the other forget it. I returned them, reinstalled my Cambridge SW's el-cheapo's and will shop for something else. As for sound quality, who knows, never made it that far, but they sure did look pretty nice.

Awesome speakers with great sound and nice design.I ordered 4 and unfortunately 1 of the grills for the speakers were dented upon arrival.

easy to install, great quality and powered by a Yamaha n500 network receiver for whole house audio. plenty of power and very pleased with the seller and the purchase. This was the second pair I purchased. Good stuff

I have worked in the professional music business for over 12 years and have been in the home building business for many more. SpeakerCraft is one of the big names in high end in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. They make great products and they charge accordingly for them. This review is for the AIM8 ONE. Not to be confused with the AIM8 TWO, THREE, FOUR or FIVE which are the other speakers in the AIM8 Series. This is the entry level speaker which features:* Pivoting and Rotating 8" Polypropylene Woofer* Pivoting 1" Silk Dome Tweeter* NO Bass or Treble Adjustments* Accu-Grille* Gold-plated Spring Loaded Speaker Wire Binding Posts* Installation Template, Paint Masking Cover, Instructions & SpecificationsThis speaker (this is just ONE speaker, not a pair) is designed to be installed after the drywall is up. The included shield cover does allow you to install them before painting. It will protect the inside components from dust and paint while allowing you to paint the trim ring. The grill will need to be painted while off the speaker. I would recommend using an air sprayer or use thinned paint with several applications. The grill holes are easy to fill with paint and will hold paint in them. If you do get paint in the grill holes you can use compressed air to clear out the paint if it is still wet or even a toothpick. You will need to be careful to not soak the white backing with paint as it would reduce the sound transparency of the material.The speaker is very well made and fairly easy to install. If you have access to the top side of the ceiling it is being installed in then it is really simply to move the existing insulation if any, out of the way and use the circular template to make sure there is room between the ceiling joists for your planned location. I usually take a small screwdriver and poke it up thru the drywall in my planned location, I have already used a stud finder or magnet to locate the joists (or metal drywall screws in the joists) before I poke the hole. If I have top side access then it is a simple matter to find the screwdriver and move the insulation out of the way so that it doesn't fall down the hole I am about to cut. I can then cut the hole from the top side using a drywall knife and let the dust and drywall cutout fall into a plastic bag that I taped to the ceiling before hand or a helper is holding. I often use the empty box the speaker came in to catch the debris if I am cutting from below, usually on a ladder, and with a drywall knife. Then it is a simple matter to install the speaker from below. Turn the four screws that extend the dog ears that will then screw down onto the top side of the drywall and pull the speaker up snug. Don't forget to replace any moved insulation afterwords.I own a professional drywall hole cutting tool that attaches to a drill and has a hard plastic shield surrounding the hole cutter to catch everything. If you own one of the these they are great. The one I have is made by a company called Labor Saving Devices. I can cut up to a 10" hole which is great when you are installing big speakers like this one. There are other manufacturers out there that make similar products that you can buy at your local big box outfit, but they are usually limited to a 6" or 7" hole max. Be sure to check.If I don't have access from above I usually try to determine the joist layout as usual, but then I make a small hole with a philips screwdriver in the center spot of the desired speaker location and then make a wire probe that is the same size as the radius of the needed speaker cutout dimension. I push this probe up thru the hole and then spin it around 360 degrees to see if it hits any hidden obstructions before actually cutting the hole. Patching drywall is not fun! Take your time if you haven't done this before!This speakers does sound great. It is expensive however. I like the fact that the woofer pivots in any direction, but you are paying for this convenience. Less expensive, but no less quality speakers like Proficient Audio LCR speakers are angled in the housing in a fixed location and at a fixed angle. When you install them, you aim them before fully tightening the mounting screws. They are 1/3 to 1/2 the price and to me sound just as good.The AIM8 FOUR or AIM8 FIVE (who came up with the naming system for these!) on the other hand are completely different beasts altogether. They cost much more. The AIM8 Five is $850 as I am writing this review! This AIM8 ONE is only $250. Only is a relative term! The FIVE features all the specs that a previous reviewer wrote for this product and are GREAT SPEAKERS Indeed! You do pay for that greatness!While I do like the Speakercraft line and would take any speaker made by them and put it in any residential home out there, I think you are paying premium price for features that simply are not necessary or necessarily justify the cost. If I was designing a home theater or even a stereo in-ceiling system and money was not object, I would go with Speakercraft AIM8 FIVE's. If I was designing the best home theater or listening system I could I would never put the speakers in the ceiling. It's always a compromise. You can purchase in-wall speakers or better yet speaker cabinets to get the best sound quality and staging with the least amount of unwanted reflections, nodals and the myriad of other critical attributes. Don't get me wrong, these are great polypropylene woofer/silk dome tweeter speakers. Probably the best out there. But in the end they are exactly that - polypropylene/silk. These are only one step above cheap car audio speakers made with paper cones! You have to get into kevlar woofers and aluminum tweeters to get better performance and you can for $250 with other manufacturers. Price/Performance. These remind me of those homemade racing cars that look a lot like a Ferrari, but underneath it was just a V6 engine! A good one but nothing special.If I had a budget of $250 per speaker, I would make sure I was getting at least an aluminum woofer and tweeter. If you are really looking at this speaker then you must A) have a lot of money or B) just getting into the trade/hobby. I would do a little more research. There are a lot of big money items in home audio/video out there. It get's really crazy. Like spending $3000 for two 3 foot speaker cables, or $500 for a 6' long power cord! And you don't always hear the difference. You can brag to your audiophile buddies but, your system is only as good as its weakest link. If you are an audiophile, you probably aren't reading this review anyway because you already know the specs on this ONE.I gave this speaker 4 stars because it is a very well made speaker and sounds great for what it is. I took away one star because it is overpriced and overbuilt (in my opinion) for what it is.

outstanding sound for the price, easy to install