In wall vs regular speakers?

A buddy of mine had tower fronts and in-ceiling surrounds, and I thought it worked surprisingly well.  The rear speakers being behind the listening positions produced a nice, diffuse surround sound that created a very seamless and immersive experience.  That's what I'd do if I was creating a home theater since it worked so well, with the obvious added benefit that the speakers were completely out of the way and basically invisible. If you're thinking of getting seriously into surround music I'd probably use traditional box speakers. 

Sounds like you don't use a center channel speaker?

I do, I forgot to mention that I have just ordered a matching Rethm center, should be here next week, looking forward to it.  Before that I used a paradigm center.

Although I can say that spending a week or 2 now without a center, I can honestly say that the two fronts are doing a good job at mimicking it.

If you're tight on space, in-wall speakers can be a good option, but I'd recommend getting sealed units that have their own enclosure. This is essentially like placing a shallow bookshelf speaker inside the wall, and will give far better acoustics that an unsealed unit. Definitive Technology has some good options in their UIW line, as do many other manufacturers. Let me know if you need any help picking out some appropriate options, and I'll be glad to assist in any way I can.

Take care,

-David

In walls can be used for rears without much compromise since rears are usually for ambience and surround effects.  I personally wouldn't want to rely on them for fronts and center, and an in wall sub makes no sense to me at all

It really depends on what your listening requirements are going to be.  If it is mostly two channel than at least you can tower the two front.  How big is your basement HT room?  I had all in walls in my own 17x21 dedicated theater room with two subs.  All speakers were RBH and the sound was great.  I am building a new theater room in a new home with super acoustics and I am going in wall again except for two subwoofers.  In wall speakers get a bad rap.  I researched in wall speakers for a year.  It came down to James and Triad, both of whom build custom in wall speakers and Dali Phantom Helicon.  I could have easily gone with RBH again and wanted to try something different.  Tekton is just now coming out with a slimline on wall speakers which for a theater room would be kick-ass.  I also considered Legacy Silhouette's which if money was not an object I would have purchased those.  I ended up with the Dali's because I got an unbelievable deal.  The bottom line is that I have had a great experience with in walls for my theater room.  My two channel room consists of Wilson Audio Duette 2's and a Raven Reflection Integrated MK2 tube amp.