Thanks! That was my thinking too. But wasn't sure if I was missing something. I'm not into tech/sound stuff and didn't know if it'd be something people would be excited about.

For resale, get rid of them. No doubt.

But don't pull the wires, just leave a note as to what/where they are!

mtvhike might have a good idea there. An audiophile would probably appreciate.

There are so many wireless speakers with high quality sound that wired, in-ceiling speakers are quickly going the way of the buggy whip. There’s no problem with leaving the wires in place, but repair the ceiling perfectly as I predict those wires will never be used again.

I'd replace them. You can get a pair of speakers for $40 (example), far less than the cost of repairing the holes in the ceiling you'll have if you remove them. And you won't risk a bad ceiling mud job.

How would you power "wireless" speakers in the ceiling?

You wouldn’t. You’d place them in a more useful location that functions better acoustically.

For someone in a similar situation, if you chose to go the route of replacing, what and how would you go about that? We have the ceiling speakers in a few rooms and a spot with a ton of plugs for cords and I don’t know the first thing about making something like that functional. I also don’t want to deal with patching the ceiling and having it not blend. Any advice is super appreciated!

Where do the existing wires go?

If you have existing speakers and the wires are running to a common point, then you just hook them up to an appropriate amplfier and your audio will play through the speakers. Many larger amps can drive multiple speakers (3-4 pairs), or there may have been a separate switching device to select which speakers are being used. However, technology has changed over the years and few people are buying the old conventional "receiver" that includes an AM/FM radio, amplifier and connections for a record player, tape player, CD player, etc.

Leaving the speakers and wiring in place is fine, but you may never have anyone who wants to use them again. Making them functional may also be straightforward, but you need the right type of receiver to plug in where that "ton of plugs" comes together. If someone in the family wants to experiment, I have seen many high quality receivers at the local Salvation Army store and at estate sales, and they are not expensive.

Bruce

Have you climbed up and looked carefully at the speaker (s) you show? Do the bezels come off to allow you to look there? I think Bruce has a good idea.

Thanks! Thats very good insight. Up until recently I only I understood hooking speakers up via aux cords lol. I’m gonna try to find a cheap amplifier and cords to see if they even work before proceeding. The speakers up there currently have yellow tinting from age, so I wouldn’t mind replacing them. Hopefully the wiring is still intact, but I don’t have great access to assess should any problems arise.

If the speaker grill is not fabric, you could just spray paint the entire speaker cover white.

Recently moved into a home wired with a-bus system. Sent Crutchfield pics of system. Within a few days they sent me recommendations including tech to update the system. Was able to do the whole thing myself and now have refreshed sound system throughout the house in 6 rooms. One day we might replace the 20 year old speakers but for now it’s good enough and meets our needs.

If you're not going to use them, then I'd probably remove them (assuming you can patch over them and it looks flawless - otherwise, paint the grilles the same color as the ceiling). If you do remove, leave the wiring assuming it's still there. If a buyer wants to install their own speakers (even if you put new speakers, whoever buys the house might want to put their own "new" speakers in), having the wiring would save them $. We just did a remodel and had to pay a lot to have the wiring done. Wireless speakers only work if you have somewhere to put them. In an open concept living/family room like ours, there are no side or back cabinets around the chairs/sofa to place a wireless speaker, so we had to go with in ceiling.

And if you remove speakers, be sure to offer them up on Craigslist/FB free sections, or donate to the Habitat Restore, etc. Sometimes they can be pretty good speakers, and there are people who tinker with this stuff. Just don't toss things that work.

juubli Can you please tell me how much it cost to refresh your sound system? We don't have a receiver, etc. but have the wired speakers throughout our house and the bunch of wires coming out of the wall near our TV entertainment area. Planning to renovate that area and thought we would have all the ceiling speakers removed when the rooms are painted. Now I am questioning whether that's the right thing to do.

@lsulli1: "We don't have a receiver, etc. but have the wired speakers throughout our house..."

1. How many speakers do you have? Are they in pairs (for stereo) or single speakers?
2. What are the sources of audio you listen to (streaming (e.g., Spotify), CDs, records, radio, etc.)?
3. Would you want to play the same material everywhere or different audio in different places?

Wdccruise - There are 6 pairs of speakers in 5 different rooms including a pair in our lanai. We usually listen to Spotify or Pandora using a Bose portable bluetooth speaker which is small and easily moved where needed. We would listen to the same music everywhere but usually don't even have music playing unless we have guests over.