Micca M-8C

I'll get right to some installation details that I didn't know until I unpackaged them: INSTALLATION: To my surprise (disclaimer: these are my first in-wall speakers), these speakers install just like an "old work" electrical box. That is, they have screws accessed from the front that have plastic flaps on the far end that tighten around already-installed drywall/plaster/plywood/other. This actually makes installation extremely easy, assuming you can access your speaker wire through your new ceiling hole. The reason I'm mentioning this, though, is it actually makes my life slightly more difficult, as I was planning to install these in an as-of-yet unfinished attic room (no ceiling, just joists) so I can listen to my Death Metal through my whole-house-audio system without moving speakers attached to terminals around as I work. FYI, per the manual, the cutout hole needed is 9-3/8" diameter, the outer diameter of the speaker frame is 10-3/4", and the mounting depth is 3-5/8". Obviously, you'll have to find space between joists. Note that that mounting depth may not be enough if you are planning to put these in plaster walls. Ceilings I suspect will always be okay, but plaster walls have plaster seeping behind the lathe that makes your wall cavity too shallow, assuming 2x4 studs. INSULATION & OPTIMAL SPEAKER VOLUME: Every driver (woofer or subwoofer) has a specific interior volume (of a box) that is optimal for getting the fullest sound and best bass. I tested these speakers right out of the box and of course they lack a little fullness in sound quality that way, but as you add barriers around the back, they sound better and better (I was looking in particular for a speaker with a low frequency range since I won't have a subwoofer in this room - and the quoted 40Hz is pretty darn good for a full range speaker - especially at this price). The manufacturer recommends - too vaguely - that you push your insulation back about a foot in all directions and add insulation if you have none to make a faux speaker box in the ceiling. For me, I spent a lot of time insulating my old house, and I don't intend to make big holes in it to negate the positive effects. Also, I don't like "winging it" when trying to get the best sound out of a pair of speakers. I intend to make a box out of 1/2" sanded plywood (which should match up with the drywall I'll use on the attic ceiling), and mount the whole box in the ceiling, covering the whole thing with insulation. This should take care of both the insulation problem (as well as my specific installation problem) and maximize sound, specifically low frequencies. I realize that most people's situations will be a bit different than mine, but you may be able to use this info to your advantage. Note that I think the insulation problem is inherent to all in-ceiling speakers, so I'm not blaming the manufacturer. If you are installing this on the first floor in a two+ story house, you'll probably have to add insulation or a box to get any bass out of the thing. QUALITY: My main home stereo is a higher end Sony Amp with all Infinity towers and my main car stereo is all amplified Polk speakers, so I have pretty high standards. I don't think any in-ceiling/wall solution will ever be as good as a full-on tower speaker solution, but if you're going in-wall/ceiling, I can't imagine getting as much bang for the buck. In fact, as I cannot locate anywhere where they cut corners on manufacturing costs, I am still half thinking it's too good to be true, wondering when I will find out that it really is too good to be true. Even the circuitry looks well done and the spring terminals are much nicer than I'd expect. CON: Even before these came, I knew I was going to want to do upgrade the rest of the second-floor rooms in my house. Addicting. Highly recommended. Update: With installation complete, the only other CON I can think of is that now my desire to stop and headbang is greater than before, eating up more time when I should be finishing the room!

My home burned down on December 31, 2010. After evaluating a lot of options, we decided we would rebuild the home ourselves. As part of the reconstruction effort, I wanted to install speakers in every room of my home (even the bathrooms), and wire my home with gigabit Ethernet. I had looked at a number of speakers before settling on these. In the end, I purchased and installed 35 of these speakers -- two each in three bedrooms, two baths, the kitchen, the dining room, and the sun room; five speakers in the master bedroom (5.1 surround sound); and seven speakers each in the family room and living room (7.2 surround sound). In the rooms where I support surround sound, I also have Polk Audio PSW10 powered subwoofers (excellent subwoofers). The sound from these speakers is simply amazing. I am a software engineer by profession, but I also have a music degree and I spent several years as a professional musician. My taste in music is varied -- from blues and hard rock, to new age, to classical, to electronica and beyond. As a result, I need speakers that will faithfully reproduce the sound I want to listen to -- these speakers do that. When I need lots of bass for electronica while listening to Deadmau5, Pendulum, or Cosmic Gate, these speakers deliver. If I want something to support hard rock with driving bass and screaming guitar like Jimmy Hendrix, Johnny Winter, or Led Zeppelin, these speakers do the job better than the ten-inch JBL's I used to use before my home burned down. If I just want to chill out and listen to Mozart, Greig, or Copland, these speakers faithfully reproduce the strings and woodwinds without any distortion. I have not found another speaker that demonstrate as much versatility as these speakers do. Another plus is that these speakers are very reasonable in price -- less expensive than Polk, Yamaha, Bose, and many other brands. If you are someone that likes to listen to music so loud that it actually hurts your ears, these speakers may not be for you -- in that case I would recommend JBL or Celeston speakers for extreme volume (although JBL's are terrible for classical music as they color the sound too much). However, I have pushed these speakers at 80 percent power using 105 watt receivers and they do not distort at all (and they are very loud). I normally listen to music at a level that allows me to still have a conservation with someone, so factor that into my review (I am not a fan of REALLY LOUD music). As far as mounting goes, these speakers are very easy to mount -- the speaker terminals have red and black push in buttons to feed 14 AWG speaker wire into, and there are four screws you turn to lock the speaker into the ceiling and mount it securely. The speakers come with white grills, and they look great when they are installed. The construction of these speakers is very sturdy, and the cones are reinforced. Also, while these are rated as eight inch speakers, they are actually almost ten inches in diameter when you mount them with the grills -- you will want to take that into account. I have ten-inch floor joists in my house that are mounted sixteen inches on center, which form really nice hollow boxes for mounting the speakers into the ceiling. If there was a slight negative to these speakers, I would say that they carry a lot of sound through walls and floors. Watching a movie with great theater sound late at night can be a problem if you don't want to wake people up, even when the speakers are at low volumes. If I decide to install speakers in my finished basement, I will buy more of these. Dollar for dollar, these speakers cannot be beat.

See the photos provided. Here are a few tips to make the installation easy. INSTALLATION TIPS 1) use a small hook tool to remove the speaker grills, not a nail 2) use painter's tape to hold the cut-out template to the ceiling; don't use the worthless little sticky tabs provided 3) cut out 2'x2' sheet foam squares to hold the insulation in place above the speakers and to prevent any insulation from getting into the speaker cone, which will vibrate and drive you crazy 4) pre-tap the screws before putting the speaker in place. This helps prevent stripping the phillips screw heads when screwing the speaker clamps in place 5) use a *slightly* damp cloth to wipe dusty finger prints from the speaker cone and ring. be gentle. SPEAKER PROs * inexpensive but not 'cheap'. There's a difference. * they sound decent, maybe a tad mid-high heavy, but the mid-bass frequencies are balanced and clear * can't beat the price for performance factor * easy install - I installed 6 speakers in 4 hours, including set-up, tear-down and clean-up. SPEAKER CONs * they sound decent, maybe a tad mid-high heavy, but the mid-bass frequencies are balanced * they are power-hungry. be sure to use an amp around 75-100 watts. Under-powering these speakers will make them sound faint and will not give the bass, mids and trebles 'punch'. MY THOUGHTS Keep in mind these are in-ceiling/in-wall speakers and unless you encapsulate them in sound boxes (like in-wall speaker cabinets) that are perfectly tuned to the cubic volume to maximize the sound, you will get decent but not 'wow' factor sound. Most installations will be with insulation behind the speaker magnets, which absorb bass reflex sound, which is what my installation was. Despite not giving the speakers a good encapsulated and ported environment, they still sound surprisngly good. If I were to use these for theatre surround sound, I would build ported boxes behind each in the wall or ceiling, acting like a speaker cabinet. Although, surround sound speakers don't do a lot of sound work during movies and live programming, so installing these as true surround sound speakers, I don't think a built-in speaker box is necessary. If these were installed as primary sound driver, yes, I would install speaker boxes behind them. MY REFERENCE POINTS to judge the performance and sound of the MICCA M-8C * I use Sonos products to wirelessly connect the entire home, controlled by the Sonos app on my phone * I have a Sonos Arc, Sonos Sub and two Sonos Ones in our family room. * I have a 9.1 Mirage home theatre system in our media room. (two 5' towers, one center channel, six ceiling mounted surround speakers and one 12" subwoofer). It is powered by a Pioneer SC-61 amp. I use a Sonos Port to connect the home theatre system to the whole house sound solution. * I have two Polk Audio Atrium 6 speakers on the back deck, connected to a Sonos Amp inside, which also powers two of the six Micca in-ceiling speakers, located in our dining room. * I have two Polk Audio Atrium 4 speakers and two 10" passive Synergistic towers in the garage, powered by an old Denon stereo amp. Who doesn't like to listen to the game or rockin' music when working in the garage? * I use a Sonos Amp to power the remaining four Micca in-ceiling speakers in our downstairs bar area. * I have 17 guitars, 6 guitar amps and a plethora of sound gear. I share all this to suggest I have been around 'sound' for a long, long time. There's nothing like a well-mixed live sound, which is my ultimate reference for designing my whole-house sound solution. While I am not an expert, I do like clear, crisp, clean unmuddled sound and I think for the price and for the intended purpose (in-ceiling), the Micca speakers do the trick. I couldn't justify spending $500 on two Bose in-ceiling speakers, for example.

I'm not using these for their intended purpose as in-wall speakers. I have a pair of 2-way 1974 vintage speakers where the tweeter burned out on one of them. Rather than embark on an impossible task of finding a voice and impedance matched replacement tweeter I decided to try replacing the internals on both speakers with these units. The installation was a bit involved as the provisions on these speakers are for installing on drywall. The existing main driver on the speaker was a 12" unit, but these were able to fit into the opening with the included grill housing. The difficult part was painting the grills black so that they do not show through the speaker. Once installed you could not tell what was inside by looking at the speakers. I am driving these with a 15W/channel vintage amplifier and the volume had to be increased to get the same level as the old speakers - probably the old speakers had higher sensitivity than the stated 90db on these units. The sound was very close to the original drivers with these being a bit bright and a slight lack in bass which I was able to compensate with the tone controls on the amplifier. The audio quality is not the best on these speakers, but they do hold their own against a pair of 51-year old Pioneer speakers. I have a 12-year old set of Definitive Technology Pro-Cinema 800 speakers installed for home theater use and those sound a class (or two) above these, but they are also priced much higher. Also, I am driving these with a 51-year old amplifier rated at 15W rather than a modern home theater receiver. For my particular use these are a phenomenal value at the price and the audio quality they deliver.

First, I'll start with the sound quality. It's not great. They would not be suitable for main channels of audio in my opinion. They are very clear and don't exhibit any noticeable distortion at high volumes, but they seem to lack a lot of low and low mids. I would still say they do sound good. Certainly a great budget option for ceiling channel speakers in an Atmo setup (my use case). I just wouldn't use them for front channel or any sort of 'music' speaker setups. In terms of the install, it was super easy. The grills are easy to remove if you follow the instructions (no tools needed). They also come with templates that work as both a cutting guide and paint shield for the outer ring. I painted the grills, but not the outer rings. I also just used a 9.5" hole saw to make the cut super easy. All in all, I do highly recommend these for Atmos ceiling channels. The amount of audio that gets passed to these channels wouldn't justify spending 2-3x more for speakers that can handle low/mid a bit better. If a builder is reading this, please do not use these for front/center channel or overhead music speakers. I know builders like to cheap out, but it's just not worth it.

I am using these as middle heights for Atmos with a 5.1.2 setup. Because I'm using them for heights, I am not getting the most out of them. They perform very well in this function. However, if a turn my Denon avr-x1700h to a different setting like Multi-channel, then I can hear them at full strength. They sound great! So I imagine if someone is placing these all over the house for in ceiling music, it would deliver. The speaker feels like it's good quality. I was surprised by the weight of it actually. This was my first time installing in-ceiling speakers, so I struggled at first with Installation. However a quick YT video helped a lot. I am not sure if Micca typically delivers a little pick to seperate the ring from the speaker. My boxes did not, but I had a few pick tools that pryed it open. So you may need something like that to complete Installation. Overall great speaker, great price.

I was lucky enough recently to be able to upgrade my ten-year old home theater setup with a new Receiver (Sony's STR-DN1020, which I intend to review later after I get more familiar with it) and a pair of these speakers for use as side surrounds in order to upgrade my existing 5.1 speakers into a 7.1 setup. I got everything on a Friday, and within a couple of hours, I had these installed in my drop ceiling and pumping out sound after auto-calibrating them with the existing speaker setup with the new receiver. Based on other reviewers' suggestions, and a planned weekend of studying anyway, I was able to break these in with two days of continuous use. I've had them less than a week and have listened to them a few times since the weekend. I cannot claim to be an audiophile, nor is my home theater in a sound-isolated clean room. I like to watch action/sci-fi movies, listen to all kinds of music, and do so with a home theater in an open-floor plan finished basement that has painted cement foundation for walls and competes with spillover noise from the laundry room, furnace, water system, and general sounds from things happening on the first floor above. So dumping hundreds of dollars into high-end speakers would be a waste IMHO without thousands of dollars of related work renovating my house to offer a sound space where something like that could be fully utilized. So, all of that is to say, for the money, these so far seem to be exactly what I needed. The install was incredibly easy, especially for my first "in-celing or wall" install. It was mostly an excuse to get a wallboard saw, because I was working with individual tiles in a drop ceiling, so the side stuff like running speaker wire was cake. However, the instructions were clearly written, and the paper cutout guides provided did the trick. My wife actually complemented the finished installation and the unobtrusiveness of it, so that's a success in my book. Now, on to the actual sound. After a little less than 20 hours of break-in over two days, I can say they sound fine - good bass, good treble, and very full and warm. I will say that you need to point your tweeters purposefully, as the angle really will direct the sound. I've run them in a 7.1 surround sound mode, and they provided great atmospheric effects and awesome explosions. I also had them in a multi-stereo mode, where all the left speakers and all the right speakers run their respective stereo feeds. This was great for testing their range - very good, with solid highs and lows with no strain or rattles, either from the install or the speakers themselves. I listened to everything from Adele to Pearl Jam to Nine Inch Nails. All sounded great. So far, I'd recommend these speakers. I'll edit if problems arise later.

Pretty awesome speakers. The receiver was a juke Audio . Installed 9 and will be installing 3 more once existing system through the home to be controlled at different volumes in each room. Only thing I would say is make the wing tabs out of metal because the ones plastics are cheap and trying to make speakers snugged the were stripping or breaking, or screw would get sucked through the hole hole of the speaker frame. They are great and very loud if you install the adequate amount per room size. We are an electrical company that also does full home systems and found these speakers to be a great fit for the home and budget provided it was easy to use great power.

What a value for money, They are excellent speakers with great hig alow and mid levels with decent bass

Pretty good and easy to install. I have paired it up with my Pioneer SC-1223k from several years ago.

Ya es el segundo par de estás bocinas y la verdad estoy muy satisfecho con su desempeño. Yo las utilizo para Dolby Atmos y me sorprende como suenan. Las recomiendo

I purchased two M8C speakers for my surround channels. Build quality and sound quality is great considering what I paid. Delivery was late by couple days. however, i assume this is because of covid. Used the product for 2 days, happy so far...

So pleased with these. I previously spent over £200 on a KEF ceiling speaker. These outperform then significantly. Great bass, decent high frequencies. Impressed 100%. And yes, I love my equipment and this is the first time I’ve just dived in with a random value Amazon purchase like this. Excellent!