I'm not a big fan of the fidelity of wireless speakers either. For our setup, I have Squeezebox Duets that handle the tunes wirelessly. I have two Squeezebox receivers, one that handles sound inside and one for outside (in the pool house). This comes with a remote that can control both inside and outside receivers, and they can sync up, which is nice. With this setup, I can listen to my iTunes library (my computer needs to be on to do this), or listen to internet radio like Pandora. I think similar things can be done with the Apple TV box.

For set up, the Squeezebox receiver connects wirelessly to our home WiFi. The Squeezebox feeds audio into a separate stereo receiver in the pool house, and we have two sets of speakers in the back yard, one set near the house and one set hanging off the eaves of the pool house. Overall, the system works quite well, but was a little pricey to implement. If I were to do this on a budget, I would probably get either a roku box or the Apple TV box and use a separate stereo receiver (I seem to have plenty of these since upgrading the one in our home theater setup to 7.1 channel!), and then power the speakers this way.

The cheapest way to do this, but most time consuming, is running speaker level output from a main entertainment system to outside. It is doable, but it lacks control over volume and content. It is possible to add stereo level controls (see outdoorspeakerdepot.com for more details), but this will not give control over what is being played.

Blackberry makes a product called the Blackberry Bluetooth Stereo Gateway (or something similar) that looks to be just like this product. I have one that I use in my car to stream music from my (non-Blackberry) phone to the car stereo. It got it on sale at Newegg for the same price as the Monoprice product and now wish I would have gotten two. It's powered through a mini-USB port, automatically reconnects every time, is about the size of a matchbook, and sounds good to my non-audiophile ears. While you're waiting for Monoprice to restock, keep an eye out for a sale on the Blackberry equivalent.

As for my pool tunes, since I had a 20 year old pair of the venerable Minimus 7 speakers in my garage, I made brackets from an L-shaped shelf support, hang it from a small hook on the side of my garage when needed (speakers are not weatherproof,) and connect it to speaker wall plates installed under a weatherproof electrical outlet enclosure. My iPod is connected to an amp via a dock that has a basic RF remote.

Check out AudioEngine if it hasn't already been mentioned. Great product for wireless sound. Customer service is excellent. Have had the AW1 product for 3 years now and it is flawless.

My outdoor setup is a pair of Yamaha speakers connected to a Denon receiver. I use an Apple Airport Express connected to the receiver via optical to send iTunes from my laptop(wireless). I then use my Apple Ipod touch with the Remote app. This lets me use the touch as a remote control outside at the pool to access my 15,000+ song library.

I finally got my rock speakers hooked up and they work great. Found me a pioneer receiver on closeout for under 200.00 dollars and even has ipod hookup and control on it. The only downside is it is in the garage and if I want to do anything, I have to go in the garage to do it.

My plan once the pool is done is to use the extra channels from my amp to some proficient rock speakers at the pool. It's not wireless but it's a new install and I have to run conduit anyway. In will have a separate volume control at the pool but everything will be controlled from my sonos system. I have 4 sonos zones and the patio and pool will be on the same one since they will be 20' apart.
I think it will work well.
I agree I have not found any wireless speakers that work as well as wired.

The insignia rock speakers from Best Buy work great and can be had for under 100.00.

You need to get one of these, discussed in this thread:

genius-device-for-creating-outdoor-remote-control-t36141.html

I have one hooked to my rec. behind SS doors in my outdoor kitchen, and I can control the rec. from over 75 ft away, no line of site required. They work GREAT!!!

FYI. C-Ya!!

Thanks that looks neat. I have not had the need to make changes to the radio as we usually turn it on and leave it where it is.

Thanks for that link though.

Based on advice from TFP (gkruske and others), I purchased 2 TIC GS-3's off of Amazon and have been very impressed with their performance. The backyard area they cover is approx 50' x 70' and I have all the sound in need throughout the back yard. I'm mostly using them for background music, nothing too overpowering, but they do really fit my needs well. I've cranked them up quite a bit and they do get too loud for my comfort (worried about bothering the neighbors), but they definitely have extra capacity I'm not using. My setup is:

Apple Airport Express -> Pyle Mini 2x75w Amp -> 14G CL-2 speaker wire (approx 50' runs) -> GS-3

I usually play from iTunes or Pandora via my iPhone. I'm loving the setup and want to say thanks (yet again) to all the help from the TFP community.

I would check out this site http://www.monoprice.com/home/index.asp some good deals and you tube videos on wiring. They have a you tube video on fishing wires through a fire block like you were concerned about.