Outdoor Speakers

[Hammersmith]

I'll post this here as well as in the home audio forum. I have a 3 season room on my new house right off the brick paver patio where we do most of our entertaining in the summer. I would love to mount a decent set of outdoor speakers on the outside of that room and feed them from my PC.

If anyone's done this please let me see your setup. Thanks !

[Mk1Racer]

I've got a set of Polk outdoor speakers I've had for years. They work great. I've also seen ones that look like rocks. I have mine hooked up to a regular stereo receiver though, I don't know if a PC would have enough power to drive them.

[Bladecatcher]

http://www.amazon.com/Dual-LU43PB-In...utdoor+speaker

I've had these for almost 13 years - 12 of which were completely exposed the sun/rain/snow. Other than turning yellow (I spray painted them back to white) they have been great speakers for the money. They're not going to blow any audiophile's mind, but they're perfect for a patio/deck.

I have them hooked up to an old receiver inside that I then connect a laptop/mp3 player/phone to for the source.

[Phrost]

I have a pair from BestBuy I bought that work alright
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Insignia...&skuId=7682769

When I built my house I fished heavy gauge speaker wire from my living room to my back yard soffits for this purpose. Swap out banana plugs, and then I just use my living room entertainment center to power outside speakers.

I never really have mine that loud since its outside and I have neighbors. But it's great just to have medium-volume music for entertaining.

I've been ordering a lot of stuff from MonoPrice, and found their speakers are GREAT. If I did it again I'd probably order some of theirs instead since they're so inexpensive. I still might add 2 "rock speakers" to my setup just to add to the fun
http://www.monoprice.com/products/se...utdoor+speaker

[69flyguy]

bought a pair of rock shaped speakers a few years ago from best buy.
outside on the patio exposed to all the elements w/no complaints.

[Rockhead261]

Check out the offerings from TIC.

I have THESE

They're 10 years old and still sound good, except I occasionally need to extract a wasp nest from the speaker cone...

You can get them for alot less than MSRP through eBay or Amazon.

[GeoffD]

Check out the offerings from TIC.

I have THESE

They're 10 years old and still sound good, except I occasionally need to extract a wasp nest from the speaker cone...

You can get them for alot less than MSRP through eBay or Amazon.

$64/pair on Amazon. That's incredibly cheap. Their GS3 speakers look really cool, too. ($70.89 each on Amazon) They're 8" drivers instead of the 4" drivers in the GS10 you are recommending. You can bury the GS3 in the ground. They also have a GS50 passive subwoofer. I'm intrigued.

http://www.ticcorp.com/omni_speaker_gs3.htm

I loved this testimonial quote:

bought a set of speakers around 1988 and buried them as described in the directions. We live on the Ohio River and have suffered through 5 floods of consequence during this time, each flood covered the speakers for more than a 48 hour period. This last time I cleaned them there was at least two inches of mud atop the diaphragms and I thought they would surely be ruined. I "hosed " them off and fired them up and they have perfect sound. I could not happier with these speakers.

[Hammersmith]

I've been toying around with mounting a small amp inside the house to power the speakers and then connecting a laptop to the amp.

I have seen a couple that have a 3.5mm input so I was thinking about connecting a laptop to the amp inside the house and pulling my music over the wi-fi

Also intrigued by the Logitech Squeezebox but that might be down the road.

[Rockhead261]

I've been toying around with mounting a small amp inside the house to power the speakers and then connecting a laptop to the amp.

Here's my setup:

RF Link transmitter half is hooked up to the audio outputs on my bedroom DVR. It rebroadcasts whatever audio is coming over the cable box - I have like 80 commerical-free music channels. It transmits audio AND video, but I've never tried the video side of it. I have the DVR/transmitter in the bedroom closet behind the TV. It's RF, so it has no problem transmitting through walls/landscaping.

The receiver half is outside at the pool, about 120' from the transmitter and maybe 70' from the house. It's connected to the audio inputs of a cheapee home receiver; I think I paid $49 for an open box 200-watt Sherwood from Best Buy.

Sherwood receiver drives the aformentioned TIC omnidirectional speakers.

My cable provider (COMCAST) has a free smartphone app that allows me to control the DVR - if I get bored of Classic Rock and want to listen to the Disney Channel I don't even need to get out of the pool.

RF Link works VERY well, much better than the cheaper X10 unit I tried and returned. Of course, I can also plug an iPod or laptop directly in to the Sherwood receiver right at the pool if I want - 3.5mm x RCA adapter costs less than a cup of coffee. I toyed with the idea of streaming computer audio via WiFi, but this solution offers more flexibility whenever friends come over and want to hear their playlists.

[Phrost]

I've been at parties (temporary setup) where they would have a flatscreen tv in their garage used as a monitor for a PC. People would walk up to it and use (insert your favorite online radio station) to create playlists. Was pretty cool since it was on a big screen and everyone could see what was coming next