Here at MicroNova HQ we have used many different speakers with AmpliPi. I wanted to quickly share some of our experiences. If anyone else has had good / bad / indifferent experiences with other speakers please post it here!
The most cost effect speakers we have found have been the Monoprice In Ceiling Speakers:
https://www.monoprice.com/category/audio-video/speakers/in-ceiling-speakers
For the price they are hard to beat, however some of the lower end models can sound a bit tinny (bass is not that great). FYI, there are some newer models that look cool we have yet to test.
For mid range speakers, we have found the Yamaha in ceiling speakers to be very nice. Specifically we have used the NS-IW480C and it sounds very good:
They are a bit more expensive than the Monoprice speakers but feature better base and overall a more fuller sound, at least we think.
For high-end in ceiling speakers The Origin Acoustics speakers are amazing. I ended up putting the Director D85 speakers throughout my house:
The D85s have amazing low end bass, great mids, and awesome highs. Origin does have more economical speakers such as the D81s. They are still very very good speakers and in my opinion have much better highs and lows than the Monoprice speakers, but are not as good as the D85s for the mid frequencies.
For outdoor speakers, we really like the Polk Atrium series. The Polk Atrium 4 is great for most all applications:
For larger outdoor areas or if you really want to make some noise, we have used the Atrium 6 and like them alot:
For smaller rooms in the house such as bathrooms and laundry rooms, a dual voice coil speaker is great. This is a single speaker that has stereo audio inputs, you run a 4-wire speaker cable to it. Monoprice makes a very decent version that we have used and like:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=4619
We have tried higher quality stereo speakers but the truth is we really didn’t notice much of a difference in these smaller rooms, YMMV however.
For speaker wire, we tend to stick with either 12-ga or 14-ga wire CL2-rated wire. The CL-2 rating is safe for in-wall installs in residential buildings. Monoprice has some nice wire that is high purity bare copper:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=2817
When wiring up a new home, you will want to run a 2-wire speaker cable to each speaker you install. You will want to run a 4-wire speaker cable to the stereo speakers in the smaller rooms. All the speakers should route back to a single location to be connected to the main AmpliPi unit and Zone expanders.
Many of the local big-box home improvement stores also carry speaker wire. Lowes usually has 500 foot rolls in stock that we commonly use for wiring up zones: