Two Jamo outdoor speakers are mounted under eaves to deliver music to the backyard patio. Credit: Joseph Hilliard
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My husband and I are losing friends fast. It’s not that we’re horrible people. It’s just that they can’t stand to listen to our music system anymore. Whenever we get together with our friends—and typically happens at our place—the tunes get turned on. We’ve got a great music collection, nobody complains about that, but the playback is horrible.
During the summer, most get-togethers happen outside, so we’ve tried everything to make the music sound better. We invested in a pair of wireless speakers a few years ago and have since pitched them in the trash. We’ve hooked up our ‘80s style stereo in the “clean” portion of our barn and cranked it. We’ve carried out boomboxes. And yes, we’ve even blasted music from the speakers of someone’s car stereo. Pretty sad, I know. I’d love to revisit the wireless speaker solution, but frankly, the bad experience we had with our first set has left me somewhat skeptical. I decided to call a few custom electronics professionals to help set me straight. Most of them, as I expected, advised against wireless.
“There just seems to be too many problems [with wireless],” says Howard Zebersky of Automatic Home Systems in Hempstead, N.Y. “We’ve done just about everything under the sun to get speaker wire feeds hardwired to where they need to be outside.” I agree that hardwiring is ideal, but trenching wire is not something I want to do across our 5-acre lawn. We’d need speakers by the volleyball net and the firepit, oh, and also by the pond, the deck and the barn. That’s just too much ground to cover.
Finally, I received some positive feedback. Yes, there are I can have wireless outdoor speakers, and yes, they really do rock. Michael Curtin of EPI Systems Integration, Pelham, N.Y., touted the AW822 transmitter and speaker setup ($129) from Acoustic Research as one of the best. With a range of 200 feet, music will be able to reach the pond, at least.
Another option recommended by Jeff Cooper of Simply Sight & Sound, Sun City, Calif., is the Outcast ($799) from Soundcast Systems. This system plows through 350 feet and transmits audio from either a stereo system or an iPod. According to Cooper can feed music to two wireless speakers. What I really like about this system though, is that I can control the music remotely by pressing buttons built into the top of the speaker.
Any time sound has to travel, it degrades over distance. Amplifiers can give your system the audio muscle it needs to go the distance, and the best place to put them is as close to the speakers as possible. Curtin found some great wireless amps that’ll work with any speaker I choose. The 5.8GHz Digital Wireless Audio Transmitter/Amplifier system ($199) from Amphony comes with an amp for each speaker. These amps can be located up to 200 feet from the transmitter.
While I like the idea of being able to keep all of my audio components safe inside my house, I’m not totally against carrying out something with me to the deck and patio—especially if it’ll make my music sound amazing. For a higher fidelity experience, Curtin recommends the Sonos 150 Bundle system ($999). It comes with a transmitter (ZP90) and receiver unit (Sonos ZP120) that plugs into a power outlet in the outdoor listening area. Wireless speakers attach to it, and a super-cool wireless controller puts your entire music collection in the palm of your hand. You just scroll through your library like you would on an iPod. A built-in screen displays the cover art and song titles. The transmission distance from your indoor audio gear to the Sonos receiver is less than the other setups—100 feet, but the nifty controller makes up for it.
Features to Look for in Wireless Outdoor Speakers
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People who play music in their backyards are bad neighbors. Not everyone wants to hear your music. Please, keep your music indoors.
Paul, I am a HUGE fan of Russound’s Collage
Start with this story and click through:
http://www.cepro.com/article/russounds_ingenius_powerline_audio_system_to_debut_at_ehx/
Nuvo also has a powerline audio system in the works
http://www.cepro.com/article/nuvo_renovia_delivers_whole_house_audio_over_powerlines/
Expect more to come.
Hi Julie,
I was browing Russound’s website, and noticed their Collage series of products that would work well where you don’t want to run wires, but do have power run to the location. The Collage control wires into an electrical outlet, and uses your homes existing wiring as the transmission medium! Apparently you can install up to 10 control panels onto one media manager, and communicate between boxes with the built in intercom. While not cheap, it bypasses the need to run long runs of speaker wire or cat 5.
Each control panel has an MSRP of $849, and the media manager is $549. An iPod dock and analog source bridge are still forthcoming.
@Julie: Sorry, I didn’t think to document the whole process, so I don’t have pictures. If I convince my wife to let me install an outdoor theater this summer though, I’ll document it and let you know, as I’ll probably add theater speakers to the outdoor setup via the buried cables.
@BeQuiet: Putting in a properly sized sound system outdoors should not be about noise polution at all! If anything, I’m trying to keep the noise limited to the area that I’m at, and not trying to blast music from the house all over the property. Before I installed the outdoor system, I would open a window and blast music out of a bedroom! That was way more noise than what I’m doing now, and what I think of when I read your comment.
We chose to have 4 speakers on the patio rather than two so that wherever you are sitting, you are less than 10 feet away from a speaker. This allows us to keep the overall volume lower, as sound is better spread over the whole space.
Similarly, if my children have friends over and are using the pool sound system, the volume cannot go loud enough to bother me when I’m sitting on the patio because I designed it that way!
Finally, we do not have speakers within 30 feet of our neighbours property, and have an 8 foot stone privacy fence so any noise polution from our home is at an absolute minimum.
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@Good neighbor: I think you arguement is flawed:
1) I am not a bad neighbor if I have music in my back yard and people off my property can’t hear it because the sound is only affecting my property.
2) I am bad neighbour if I have music in my backyard, and play it loud enough to bother people not on my property. Not respecting your neighbors makes you a bad neighbor, regardless of what you are doing.
I agree that my music should not be disturbing to my neighbours, not that I shouldn’t be allowed to have it.
Sadly, common sense isn’t that common, and loud music outdoors is only the tip of the iceburg when it comes to being disrepectful of your neighbors.