Dayton ES65W 6-1/2" 2-Way In-Wall Speaker Pair

Ordered these and the lower-end CS model - these blow the CS speakers away. I returned the CS model and bought another pair of the ESs. Hard to beat the sound quality at this price level.

One thing to note: if you're going to listen to them before installing them - with the idea of maybe sending them back if you don't like them - mock up some sort of enclosure. They won't sound very good in free air, or with a baffle step. I cut a large piece of styrofoam to serve as a fake "wall", laid that on a cardboard box of about 1.25 cu ft, and dropped the speaker into the opening. Night and day.

This is a well thought out in-wall. The adjustable tweeter is a nice touch. The sound quality is nice but you will obviously want a sub.

With respect to performance this certainly deserves the 5.0 however it utilizes a mounting approach that may not work for everybody. This speaker has rotating "ears" that clamp the speaker to the drywall. For those that are mounting it in the middle of a stud cavity it doesn't matter. For those who need to mount next to a stud the ears don't work. The preferred alternative to the "ears" is a steel frame which allows the speaker to be mounted next to a stud, electrical box or what have you. Also this alternative is handy on ceiling installs as you can attach the frame leaving it at the end of the long screws supplied and allow the speaker to hang in the opening allowing you to check out the system prior to buttoning up and allowing tooless removal to check things out. Most of the PE speakers I have used utilize the frame mount so if you need this feature there are plenty of alternatives at PE but forget Monoprice - all of their LCR speakers use "ears".