Client has Monitor inceiling speakers. Wants me to upgrade to something else. Feels that they are just not clear enough. Older couple, (yes their hearing is probably getting poor). I can make fun of this all day, but looking for suggestions. Cut out of Monitor is 9 3/4 so could go bigger if makes sense.

I've always found KEF to sound great and somewhat bright depending on the power behind it, so might help with their perceived dullness. What is powering the Monitors?

In 30 years of AV installations, I've had 2 calls out of the blue from customers months after the installation, just to simply tell me how much they love the sound of the speakers...30 years..

Both installations were Monitor Audio.

That being said....Now that I'm officially a geezer, I understand what they're going through.  I'm starting to struggle to hear some sounds and certainly the nuances of music. I second Goldens comment... find some brighter speakers...The lows are just muddy and frustrating.

I think some equalization might be in order rather than new speakers.

What model Monitor Audio are they?

What are the electronics behind them?

"Not clear enough" is not a complaint I ever hear with Monitor Audio. You arent going to find in-ceiling speakers that are "Clearer"

We have talked about this extensively on the forums before (although it might have been over on IP); about clients in denial over their hearing loss.
This is a trap!
There is probably nothing wrong with the speakers, it is probably their hearing. And they will have you swapping speakers out till they have gone thru every brand and model on the planet.

As mentioned above, you need a DSP on this setup. Start with some compression, then some EQ: boosting the midrange and cutting some midbass.

How do the Monitors sound to you? If they are not clear, perhaps the culprit is room acoustics, in which case swapping speakers won’t help much.

We use Klipsch with horns for the hard of hearing.

Klipsch in ceiling speakers dont have horns.

Amplification could be one of the issues.What are they connected to?
How high are the ceilings? That will also have an impact.
With the cut out size these should be a very good speaker, unless someone cheaped out and put the Pro 65 or 80's in which are really a background speaker.

Have to remember that people typically are not looking to play in ceiling speakers loud, but you still need good amplification to get good sound at lower levels.

I see someone else already asked this:
OP did you listen to the system, maybe there's something wrong with it.

You can put the world’s biggest, best and most expensive amp and speakers in and if it’s a bad sounding room it won’t matter. If you think that’s the issue and it’s possible to reinstall something into a wall or bookshelf at least you could test in different positions with any pair of in-room speakers first.

This^^^. Listen to Carl from Sling Blade.

- "It ain't got no gas in it!"

Do the simplest thing first. If they say they don't sound good, you listen and see what you think. If they DON'T sound good, then start looking at new speakers, amplification, etc. If they do, ask the client what they perceive as lacking and go from there.

My bet would be acoustics too.  I have a client with documented hearing loss.  He's got a beach house and a canyon house and I've installed two identical surround sound systems (one at each property).

The beach house is a dedicated media room with acoustic treatments from RPG that were engineered & installed during construction.  This house was completed first and he loves the room and thinks it sounds great.

The canyon house has the exact same speakers, amps, pre-amp & sources, but it's located in an open Great Room with plaster walls, wood flooring and lots of windows and sounds terrible.  The reverb time in this room reaches almost 3 seconds and he has a difficult time understanding dialog.

I set the expectations about how bad it would be when the house was in the design stage, but he was still surprised at how much difference the acoustics made.