Yamaha NS-IW280CWH 6.5" 3-Way in-Ceiling Speaker System (Pair, White)

Perfect for my economic yet awesome sounding home theater! My wife requested that we upgrade our home theater (awesome right?) to get the wires out of reach of our upcoming baby. By moving all of our speakers to the ceiling it's one less thing to be pushed over, unplugged or broken, so I went to town on researching the best options for this upgrade. After some searching, Yamaha seemed to be the mix of quality with cost, so I went this route. I was not disappointed in any way. One of the biggest perks for using all Yamaha speakers? They use the same template regardless of speaker size. I used an 8" 2-way Yamaha for the center channel, everything was the same as these 6.5" that were used as the front and rear side speaker. You cut the same hole, use the same template, and everything works. Makes me feel better about if I have to replace any future speaker, should one fail. The installation was a piece of cake... find where you want to put it (make sure to not do it over a ceiling truss or you'll be patching holes), trace the template, cut the hole, run the wire, plug in and then tighten the speaker into the hole. I used banana plugs throughout the setup, makes it extremely easy to do the wiring. The electronics used with these speakers are also covered w/ solid plastic, creating a water-resistant setup. Which is perfect for being in the ceiling, though it shouldn't (better not) see any water. Once everything was plugged in, the sound comes out just as I expect. Adding a subwoofer to the setup almost makes a 3-way speaker not needed, but it's good to get some of the higher frequency bass coming out of the speakers. For a simple home theater, this is the perfect addition that won't break your bank. Yamaha speakers are phenomenal and I will recommend them to anyone that asks.

No denying, I am an audiophile. I love when music sounds great and the way it was intended to sound, but I also notice when it doesn't. Even my wife enjoys the sound of great speakers, but when it comes to having a living room full of large floor standing speakers in order to enjoy surround sound, she'd rather prefer them "invisible". When I didn't come up with any invisible floor-standing speaker models at affordable prices, in-ceiling speakers seemed like a reasonable alternative. My research led me to these Yamaha NS-IW480CWH speakers, but because I couldn't see or test them anywhere, I had to purchase them "unheard and unseen". Scary thought for an audiophile! I had never installed in-ceiling speakers before and wasn't going to pay an installer almost the price of the speakers to get them up. A friend of mine recommended a "Roto Zip" tool with circular drywall cutting attachment and this made the installation fast and easy (plus I had the wife involved, holding up the vacuum cleaner to capture all of the drywall dust). Another recommendation I got was to get insulation and stuff it into the hole before installing the speakers, which made sense to me so I followed the advise. We're proud of having installed them all by ourselves (actually not that hard) and the sound is surprisingly good for speakers at this price. In fact, good enough for an audiophile. They work great for music and movies (surprisingly loud, great for action movies), but I do recommend a powered sub-woofer for the really low parts. So if you are looking for affordable, quality in-ceiling speakers that are easy to install for a DIY'er (and his wife), you can't go wrong with these.

I had a pair of these professionally installed this afternoon, and both me and the installer were really impressed with the value. Under $80 for a pair of well built speakers sent overnight (thanks Prime) is really impressive. The woofers are slightly angled, which allows you to easily direct the sound to the listening position. They installed very easily, and the included cardboard template was much nicer than templates I've seen in cheaper kits. The speakers have nice binding posts, and a large crossover. The two tweeters are suspended above the woofer, and are aim-able. The speakers were well packed, and arrived undamaged. The grills easily snap into place, but Yamaha also included some sticky strips to use with the grills if needed. I opted to go without them. Sound quality is very good, especially considering the price and convenience. I installed them as rear channel surrounds in a simple 5.1 setup. I can easily see them being used as side surrounds in a 7 channel setup. One little bonus, they have a relatively narrow bezel, which contributes to them being smaller overall. Some speakers I've seen have 1" or more in bezel alone, not the case here. There might be cheaper speakers out there, but this pair is a great compromise between value and quality.

I was nervous about installation having never mounted one before. The template provided worked fine, don't cut any smaller than the hole you have traced out. I learned to cut just outside the line for best fit. I found the best tool for cutting the dry-wall was a jigsaw blade in a vice-grip. The connectors for the wires are a very high-quality spring-loaded design. Very easy to connect he wires with when you are up on a ladder. The cosmetic grill that covers the speaker can snap into place without any tools or need of the included adhesive pad. Worst case, you may have to pry or pound it in with your fist gently. Sound great so far. I also used a lot of leftover inslation around the spaker between the floor joists to accoustically insulate them. I have one set of these in my basement ceiling and don't want too much noise upstairs, so I even used that thick lead-weight barrier material for automotive speakers above these to help prevent that. IMHO, Yamaha strikes the right balance of cost, quality, and performance.

This is the 4th pair I've bought because these speakers are great. Let me explain the dimensions a little better since the 6.5" might be confusing. The actual hole you make in your ceiling is 10 inches, the woofer is 6.5 inches with the two tweeters in front of it. The great thing about these speakers is that the woofer is angled and positioned within its casing so the woofer speaker can be pointed in the direction to where you are listening. The two tweeters are also adjustable so they can point in the direction of the listener. This is super important to do when installing these, so make sure to point the woofer by turning the entire casing to the desired position so its angled towards the listener, then move the individual tweeters to point towards the listener as well. It comes with an easy card board template for cutting out the hole, so place it on the ceiling and use a pencil to draw the cutting line, just make sure you go in the attic or use a stud finder to make sure you cut the ceiling BETWEEN the studs with enough room for an 8 inch diameter hole. These speakers also have a nice white grill to cover the speaker, put a 3 or 4 of those black sticky things on the edge of the grill and carefully put the grill in the speaker (be sure to take out the plastic insert inside the grill, that plastic insert is just for shipping the product). The black sticky things are to keep the grill from ever falling. When installing the grill make sure not to force it, make sure all edges of the circle go in evenly..otherwise you'll bend the grill. That's it, so super EASY install, great sound... and remember, these take up an 10" hole even though it says 6.5" because they are talking about the woofer. Hopefully this helps anyone installing.

Mounted these in my house over family room in a 5.1 system. I bought 3 pairs, put the 6th speaker in the kitchen as an aux speaker running off a switch. I wanted 3-way speakers that were name brand but affordable. I have a third zone in my living room and bought the 6.5" 2-way Monoprice speakers and they sound fine, not as good as the these and the monoprice speaker components were exposed unlike the Yamaha's with caps, coverings, and clear plastic coverings on the top of the speakers. Very strong quality build and feel. The sound is great, I use them for surround sound off my Pioneer VSX 521 and it sounds amazing for this entry-level setup. I have yet to crank it, but I know it has the punch & sound. Combined with my Pioneer 8" powered Jones Sub the sound is more than I could have asked for. Cutting and installing was easy, took minutes per speaker and I did it alone. My wife can't believe the separation in the surround sound. We were watching a baseball game the other night and someone at the game in the background of the broadcast kept yelling every pitch. My wife swore it was a neighbor kid or someone in our backyard making the noise = me with a huge smile :) Great product at a great price. With the right components and good install, 9 out 10 people would think i have super high-end audiofile equipment. UPDATE - I have cranked it to 11! The whole house shakes! Its a must buy. Problem is people now want me to come install these speakers in their house!

FIST OFF I WANT TO SAY IF U ARE READING THIS OR HAVE FOUND YOUR WAY TO THIS SET OF SPEAKERS U CAN STOP SEARCHING. I PURCHASED 2 SETS OF THESE YAMAHA CEILING SPEAKERS FOR MY LIVING ROOM SET UP INSTALLATION WAS A BREEZE !!! THE SET COMES WITH A CUT OUT TEMPLATE OF THE SPEAKER SIZE, THE ONLY DIFICULT PART FOR ME WAS THE ACTUALL PLACEMENT OF THE SPEAKERS,BUT WITH DIRECTIONAL TWEETERS ONE CAN WORK AROUND THAT. I GOT THE TEMPLATE OUTLINE ON THE CEILING FOR THE 4 SPEAKERS AND THEN WITH A REGULAR SHEETROCK SAW BEGAN CUTTING AWAY AT MY CEILING. SPEAKERS FIT IN THE CUTOUT PERFECT. ONCE ALL THE CEILING SURGERY WAS DONE I DECIDED TO HOOK UP THE FRONT 2 SPEAKERS TO THE SUB AND TEST THE SPEAKERS ALONE WITH OUT THE SUB, CUT ON THE XBOX AND WITH ONLY THE 2 FRONT YAMAHA SPEAKERS I WAS AMAZED AT THE GREAT SOUND QUALITY. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THESE BAD BOYS TO ANYONE THAT IS LOOKING TO PUT TOGETHER ANY TYPE OF SPEAKER SETUP IN THEIR CEILLING. ITS BEEN A WHILE SINCE I ORDERED THESE BUT I WANTED TO TEST THEM OUT FOR A BIT BEFORE A REVIEW AND THROUGH THESE 6+MONTHS OF MOVIE WATCHING,VIDEO GAME PLAYING AND HAND FULL OF PARTIES I CAN VOUCH FOR THE YAMAHAS . I AM VERY PLEASED AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

These are great speakers for general listening like whole home audio application and as surround sound. Surprisingly crisp clear sounds. After Almost 2 years - These are still my favorite speakers, I listen to them almost every other day in a whole house music settings. Sound is very fulfilling, clear and good amount of bass without a sub. I did end up swapping these out for the 8" drivers - the next step up in Yamaha in ceiling speakers, and placed these in other areas. I found that the 6.5" speakers and 8" have the same cutout size! The 6.5" driver is angled where is 8" driver is straight down facing. They are both awesome speakers. I have 4 of these in my living room/kitchen area 2 of them in parallel (4 ohms) for each channel and hooked up to an Onkyo receiver. Fortunately, my receiver can support 4 ohms. I have had other cheaper speakers, but the sound quality is not that great, and the construction quality is also not good. These are really good for the price.

Easy to install and sound great. Have 4 in my kitchen and the sound is even and rich.Benefit from a very good receiver.

Connected and enjoyed it throuout the house beautiful sound

great speakers. bass is a bit poor but for the price they are spot on.

Excelente!!!!

Sound good and easy to install