Won’t all speakers sound different depending on how they are placed in a room?
That's true. I guess, I'm trying to figure out how does one design a "good" in-wall and/or in ceiling speaker. If you take a free standing speaker, it's a finished product, you know consistently how it performs if you were to take the room out of the equation, and the manufacturer has much more control on how it performs.
Whereas, in-wall and in-ceiling speakers, you are dependent on the installation, there's so much more variables resulting in inconsistencies. As such, if these speakers naked does measures well, there's probably very little science that goes into the installation, even with professional installers, certainly not Revel R&D level science.
I have serious doubts about in-wall and in-ceiling speakers in general. But I'm hoping to get more science on how good/bad in-wall and in-ceiling speakers are.