Are in-wall / in-ceiling speakers as good as box speakers?

Good in-walls from serious manufacturers are far better than their reputation. The category's bad name comes from builder-grade units chosen on price and installed in a bare cavity, not from the concept.

Start with what a box speaker gives you: a cabinet engineered as part of the acoustic design, and the freedom to move it. An in-wall trades both away. Placement is fixed once the wall is closed, and the "cabinet" is your wall, which is why the manufacturer's back-box or enclosure matters so much. Without one, the speaker's bass tuning is whatever the plaster and studs decide, and the drywall becomes a passive radiator you did not order. With the specified back-box, a good in-wall behaves like a proper speaker.

What in-walls buy: invisibility, safety from children and cleaning staff, and a room that stays a room. In a lot of Indian homes that is not a small consideration. A living room that has to look like a living room on Sunday and work like a theatre on Saturday night is exactly where in-walls make sense.

For Atmos height channels, in-ceilings are frequently the best solution rather than a compromise. A real speaker at ceiling height, aimed at the seats, beats a module bouncing sound off a ceiling that may be too high or too textured to cooperate.

Two non-negotiables. First, plan the wiring before civil work finishes, including conduits to speaker positions you may only populate later. Second, use proper back-boxes where the manufacturer specifies them, and coordinate with whoever is doing the false ceiling so the boxes are not sitting on an AC duct.

The one place I still prefer boxes is the front left and right of a serious music system, because you can position and toe them in to taste, and a good tower is hard to match inside a wall.

At the interiors stage? Talk to us now, not after the painter leaves. Wiring a room before it is closed costs a fraction of opening it up later, and I would rather mark positions on your plan than on your finished wall.