Anyone have the M3's installed in a drop ceiling? I have fiberglass tiles and looking for a decent bracket to use for mounting them. Any other tips?

Our family room has lighting installed through fiberglass tiles. They used 1/2"x2" (maybe thinner) strapping which spreads the weight across the tiles and likely is then supported by the t-bar itself.
Its a pain to work with but it does work.

2x2 3/8" plywood on top of tile with cutout. It's how you mount stuff to tile without screwing into grid as well.

I used 1/2" ply, 2 X 2 squares, painted flat black (lesson learned: I wish the paint could have been flatter). Could have put the ply on top of the tile, but I worried that as you tighten the bracket to secure the speaker, you would be compressing the fibreglass and creating ugliness.

I also had to buy additional cross tees, couldn't find black so I bought white and spray painted them, that worked well.
Results:

Those are just $150/pair Polk speakers, though.

Thanks for the tips. I thought about the plywood, but my ceiling is SUPER tight. It is only about an inch or two away from the studs and I have to bend the tiles to get them in and out. Plywood would be tough. I picked up two brackets to mess around with....




The first one would compress the tiles as you mentioned. But maybe you can leave the speakers a little loose? It's the t-bars that hold them up anyway.

The second one is interesting. I was thinking about removing the t-bar/bracket from the pot and screwing them directly to the side of the M3. This way I do not need the flanges on the speaker to secure it. Those t-bars also have a height adjustment screw, so I might be able to adjust the speaker so it's not compressing the tile.

I am going to call Axiom on Monday and see if I can order an in-ceiling M3 enclosure, without the speaker. This way I can experiment without spending the money on a speaker I may or may not be able to use.

There is a way to make the plywood work if you want. Keep the option alive for ya. You put the pre-cut plywood on top of the tile, not replace a tile. Then make your tile cutout with the plywood on top already. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

If you can take out one of the 2' Tees you can get the plywood 2x2s in easy. Move the surrounding tiles so the grid can flex a bit. There is a tab you push in with a flat screwdriver to let you take the 2' bar out. After, tweak the tab back and they will snap back in when you are done. The plywood will actually be closer to 23 3/4" or so. Just measure a tile.

Good idea to ask Axiom if the dog ear brackets will mount to 1" or greater material thickness. It's gonna be around 1" I'd guess when stacked up if you go 3/8" ply.

Thanks, for the advice. Worth a shot, a sheet of plywood is also cheaper than the brackets. I would imagine the weight of the wood would squish the tile down, so when I tighten the speaker it won't compress as much. Thankfully, I have plenty of extra tiles to play around with. Do I need to secure the plywood to the ceiling with wire or do you think the grid should be able to hold the speaker it up?

Its force over area so I would guess the tile wont compress much. The plywood will transfer all the speaker weight to the grid. If it was installed correctly (and it looks like it's great) it should support 25lbs no prob. No need to tie. We put troffer lights in weighing more and they are never an issue. I think the IC M3s are around 12lbs or so. Cant remember.

you guys are overthinking this, just run some deck screws in and call it a day.

Yeah, the installer did a great job. The room is 10' wide so he did not need to splice anything. It's pretty solid. I'll play around with it more once the floors are installed. Thanks for the tips. Back to my main thread now...lol.

Lol, I blame my OCD. I spend waaaaaay to much time on the details.

Overthinking....me....never.