At CEDIA Expo 2024 — the Consumer Electronics Design and Installation Association's annual trade show and the largest dedicated AV industry event in North America — the XSCACE Ghost in-ceiling speaker was recognised as the Best New In-Ceiling Speaker. The CEDIA Expo 2024 best in-ceiling speaker award places the Ghost alongside the most scrutinised architectural audio products of the year, evaluated by the very professionals who specify, install, and live with these systems in luxury homes and custom integration projects around the world.
The recognition came as part of a landmark year for XSCACE. Writing in Outlook India in December 2024, journalist Manish Saini described XSCACE as "a premium Canadian audio brand renowned for its ultra-slim, award-winning speakers" — a characterisation that the CEDIA honour had already made official.
What CEDIA Recognition Means in Architectural Audio
CEDIA Expo is not a consumer show. The judges and attendees are AV integrators, custom installation professionals, and industry veterans — the same people who specify products for high-end residential builds, home theatre rooms, and architectural audio installations in luxury properties. Their opinions carry particular weight precisely because they are not casual listeners: they install and critically evaluate hundreds of competing products every year, and they understand the real-world constraints of in-ceiling audio better than any reviewer writing for a consumer audience.
Winning the Best New category is especially meaningful for a brand that only launched globally in 2024. The Ghost was evaluated alongside established European and American brands with decades of integration pedigree. For XSCACE to enter that field as a first-year entrant and leave with the top recognition for in-ceiling audio is a signal that the product stands on its own merits — not on legacy relationships or brand familiarity.
For integrators who have been wondering whether XSCACE belongs on their shortlist alongside incumbent architectural audio brands, the CEDIA jury has answered that question directly.
The Ghost In-Ceiling Speaker: Why It Won
We designed the Ghost to do something the in-ceiling category has rarely achieved: disappear completely into the ceiling plane while still delivering the kind of wide-dispersion, bass-extended sound that justifies its position in a serious audio system. The Ghost's grille and trim ring are engineered to sit flush with a painted ceiling surface, leaving no visual footprint in a finished room. Beneath that minimal surface lies Nano Resonance™ driver technology — our proprietary approach to moving air from a shallow cabinet depth that most competing drivers cannot match.
The technical brief that impressed CEDIA's integration professionals:
- Nano Resonance™ driver technology for extended low-frequency output from a shallow ceiling depth
- PrecisionXover Array™ crossover for accurate frequency handoff and clean off-axis response
- AeroFrame 6061 aluminium chassis — lightweight, rigid, and thermally stable in ceiling cavities
- Standard 2.0 circular form factor — compatible with existing rough-in backboxes from previous installations, reducing retrofit costs
- 50W output capacity and 95dB sensitivity — high-efficiency performance that integrators can drive with standard multi-zone amplifiers
- Wide horizontal and vertical dispersion for even room coverage without hot spots beneath the driver
The 95dB sensitivity figure deserves particular attention. At that efficiency level, the Ghost delivers reference listening levels from amplifier power that would leave a less sensitive speaker sounding thin. That headroom — combined with the low-frequency response not typically associated with in-ceiling form factors — is what differentiates the Ghost for integrators designing systems where the ceiling plane has to carry real acoustic weight.
XSCACE in 2024: A Year of Global Validation
The CEDIA win did not happen in isolation. Across 2024, XSCACE moved from a Toronto-based audio company into a brand with distribution footholds across Canada, the United States, Europe, India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico. A December 2024 feature in Outlook India by journalist Manish Saini documented the pace of that expansion and the depth of customer response — noting that tens of thousands of Cane, Bonsai, QuadCane, and Ghost speakers had been sold since the global launch, with reception in India described as "phenomenal, especially among ultra-high-net-worth individuals."
Saini's piece characterised XSCACE as "a premium Canadian audio brand renowned for its ultra-slim, award-winning speakers" — language that reflects how the brand has landed with press and buyers in markets where architectural audio has historically been dominated by European and American incumbents.
Looking ahead, the expansion footprint is set to grow further, with Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and Cyprus among the next markets on the roadmap. Each new market brings the same product line that earned the CEDIA recognition — a line built on the conviction that ultra-slim architectural speakers should not require sonic compromises. Our tagline, Size Defying Sound, is not a marketing position. It is an engineering brief.
The CEDIA recognition confirms what integrators who have been installing XSCACE already knew — that a speaker this thin should not sound this good. If you are specifying or sourcing in-ceiling audio, explore the full XSCACE in-ceiling range and see why the AV industry's most demanding judges picked the Ghost above all others in 2024.