A different approach to outdoor music...

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H

head gamez

0
Feb 16, 2012
161
Winston Salem NC
Our pool is far enough from the house and garage that I am planning to install a standalone stereo system around the pool deck.

I am planning to use a Sony Marine grade head unit and connect it to a few outdoor speakers. The head unit I am thinking of using is http://www.amazon.com/Sony-CDXM60UI...507785&sr=8-1&keywords=CDX-M60Ui+Xplod+Marine .

I am hoping to mount the unit in a deck box that will sit at the edge of the deck and have a panel on the back for banana plug speaker connections.

I do not require high quality sound, I simply want to have decent sound and the ability to liten to FM and iPhone.

Anyone doen this that can recommend a head unit or give comments on the one I am looking at?

Mike
 
Most marine head units are not very good quality, and they really aren't very waterproof. I've been through 3 in my boat :x If you want to go with a car stereo, you can get a better quality and use a box like this

Overall, I think you'd be happier with a home system installed indoors or in a weatherproof box away from the pool with a waterproof remote at pool side. For a marine or auto system, you are going to have to use a power converter to get the 12V, and cheap ones tend to cause a hum in audio equipment.
 
Well... we are one season into our pool, and I am finally pulling the trigger on music.

I am planning to go with this unit surface mounted in the deck box (or possibly a custom built deck box - by me)......

http://www.amazon.com/Infinity-INF-...1358660118&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=inf-prv250

This unit will be out of the direct elements.

I plan to connect it to 4 of these in parallel....

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007RSZX0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I will place banana plugs on the back of the box, so I can bring it in during the winter. I will also use an AC/DC converter that will be concealed from them elements....

My pool is a good distance away from the house, so "normal" setups will not work (although I am open to suggestions otherwise), and we do not have an "in home" sound system.... just a Samsung Blue ray / surround sound. I just want decent music with BlueTooth Connectivity out by the pool!

Thoughts?
 
If you have an old desktop computer you could use the power supply from it. You could also wire up a charging outlet for your iPhone. The important thing is to do your research on volts/amps of the power wires. You can search the internet for the wiring diagrams for a specific power supply. I've hooked many in-dash CD players to a converter over the years and have had the same two results. The converter will run hot, and sound will be distorted at high volume levels due to lack of power through the converter. The distortion may not be as big of a deal if the converter is oversized, but you would still have to keep it cool outside.

Just another way of tackling the power supply issue. Besides, you can use the cooling fans from the computer tower to keep air flowing over the cooling fins. I've wired up an in-dash mp3 player in this fashion, I just haven't made up my mind how I want to build the box.
 
I first stumbled on that reciever on a "Spa Accesories Website" by searching for Marine Bluetooth Stereo (or something like that). I went ahead and ordered it (and speakers) tonight. I am going to hold off on the power supply until I get the unit, but I will be researching. The spa site I found it on sold the appropriate power supply (and appeared to be waterproof) but was $80. In the end, that may be a great price.... I am in research mode for it right now. I wanted to get the head unit in so I could start getting its "box" built.

I am excited... having my iPhone in the Lifeproof case out by the pool and playing music will be great!
 
My speakers arrived yesterday (shipped from amazon), and boy are they bigger than I thought. Dummy me never even looked at the dimensions, as I had this idea in my head of how big the were. Oh well... they will work.

I connected one of them to my stereo in the detached garage, and turned the fader so that only it was playing. It sounded great, and could go really loud without distortion. My stereo in the garage is not the greatest (just something I acquired for free), but I was happy.

I contemplated sending them back and getting the smaller versions, but what the heck..... they will be buried, and they have the ability to get loud if I ever decide to.

RIght now I am dreaming up how to mount the receiver. I originally thought I would hide it and flush mount it on the side of the deck box, but now I have thought of making a table / cabinet to go next to the lounge chairs and doing a stucco or rock veneer covering (similar to the outdoor kitchens). I would tile the top, and put some vents in it for cooling (maybe even a PC fan). Maybe I am going overkill, but I really wanna try my hand at the stucco or veneer options, because I want to build a little outdoor kitchen later this year.

Once I get the receiver, I will get to work....
 
This thread is a little old, but I recently registered and have been reading...and absorbing...and reading...and...

Anyhow, I also used a marine radio head out by the pool. A JBL-MR32. It's been in for several years, when I installed it I wanted a CD player for my then younger kids, back then they and their friends seemed to be burning mix discs, etc, and they'd play those out by the pool. That need has since morphed into an needing an AUX input for ipods, etc. The head has both.

I built a housing for the JBL head, it's mounted near the main seating area out by the pool patio. The housing looks like a bird house. The head is built into the front wall of the bird house. There is an AUX port for them plugging their ipods into, as well as a small pull-out shelf that they can put their ipods on. The roof of the bird house lifts off, inside is the power supply and wiring.

I bought an inverter to power it, a MeanWell s-150-12. All has worked well for years. Maybe 7 or 8 years now? No component failures.

The big upgrade? SONOS! I love it. I added a SONOS box inside the birdhouse, so we now have a wireless zone out by the pool. Using the SONOS handheld controller or a smartphone (or whatever), SONOS allows the JBL to play pretty much anything; iTunes libraries or playlists on our computers or on a NAS stored inside the house, or any song or artist from Rhapsody, Pandora playlists, etc. If you like music, I can't think of an easier way to make it accessible. Often times we'll have a group out by the pool, someone asks "what was the name of that song..." or "...what band...", and in 10-15 seconds you can have that tune playing via SONOS and Rhapsody. Nice.

The SONOS now plugs into the JBLs AUX input, and the jack for their ipods plugs into the AUX input on the back of the SONOS box.

I have four outdoor speakers out by the pool. They are Yamaha's, I'm pretty sure they are an earlier model since they've been in so long, but they look exactly like the Yamaha NS-AW570 speakers. I do remember shopping for a bass-heavy speaker, as bass can dissipate outdoors. In the showroom these had plenty of bass and they sounded clean at loud volumes. The JBL head can power them very well. My fenced in area is around 60' by 80' and these speakers fill that area quite nicely.

We simply bring one of the SONOS remotes (or smartphone if you have the SONOS app on it) out by the pool. Full control over the music (from volume and balance, etc, to artist/song/playlist) is then at your fingertips.
 

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Decided to simplify it all and put the head unit in a homemade "lounge level" table.

5BFD9DC6-8F22-4E29-B535-EC9009817390-7445-00000ADDF27270B3_zps6a62770f.jpg


Also, I am connecting 4 of these that will be placed in "whiskey barrel" flower pots at each corner of the deck.

D0FD6792-03D1-4824-8298-A93685808F88-7445-00000ADE06C51005_zps341c9cbb.jpg


The system has rocked the garage for months now, but should be in place by the pool by the end of the week.

I really like the bluetooth connection!
 
In reply to the earlier post advising to purchase 4 Ohm speakers, This is a bad idea as most amps will not work if you put less than a 2 Ohm or less load on them. A lot of amps don't like less than a 4 Ohm load.

Ohms law.

Hooked up parallel (Don't bother with series, its way more headache than its worth).
16+16=8Ohms
8+8=4Ohms
4+4=2Ohms
4+4+4= ~1 Ohm. (Overheating/overloading/dead amp.)

Generally amplifiers will put out more wattage with a lower impedance load but only to a point. That point is usually when it shuts down for thermal protection or starts to burn up. The better consumer amplifiers will be made to take a decent amount of abuse but they will still only take so much.
 
Well, I think I figured out how I’m going to do music for around our pool. I have an old computer that I’m going to install the Ubuntu version XBMC (http://xbmc.org/) on. It’s a really cool application! Then, I’m going to map all of my music from an external USB drive, that’s connected to my router, to XBMC. For my output, I’m going to connect from my sound card to an inexpensive amplifier, then run the lines to my speakers outside. XBMC also allows me to add thousands of streaming radio stations, movies (maybe I’ll install an outdoor TV someday), videos etc… But the cool part is that I can control everything from my iPhone! And all of the software is FREE!
 
Outbreak... Here are a few preliminary pictures. I still have to clean up the wiring in the "table" and put the lid on hinges. On the other hand, I decided to use a cover for a tailgate grill that I had when the unit is not in use just because I know waterproof isn't always waterproof.

It sounds great and allows the volume to be low enough to talk but still hear it everywhere on the deck. We can also crank it up if we are out in the yard.

Speakers... 4 of them installed like this one at each corner.
C5CF4047-BD2B-4784-AA01-BFDF1FD455E9-3873-000004A49A71A39A_zpsafc24cca.jpg


And the head unit "lounge chair height"
D3E91382-F7C5-48D3-9FFD-33E641C01489-3873-000004A414E56EA3_zps8400c1b9.jpg
 
head gamez said:
Outbreak... Here are a few preliminary pictures. I still have to clean up the wiring in the "table" and put the lid on hinges. On the other hand, I decided to use a cover for a tailgate grill that I had when the unit is not in use just because I know waterproof isn't always waterproof.

It sounds great and allows the volume to be low enough to talk but still hear it everywhere on the deck. We can also crank it up if we are out in the yard.

Speakers... 4 of them installed like this one at each corner.
C5CF4047-BD2B-4784-AA01-BFDF1FD455E9-3873-000004A49A71A39A_zpsafc24cca.jpg


And the head unit "lounge chair height"
D3E91382-F7C5-48D3-9FFD-33E641C01489-3873-000004A414E56EA3_zps8400c1b9.jpg
Click to expand...

I live this set up. Do you have any pics of the inside of the cabinet, how you got power to it and you ac to dc converter. Also is that head unit powerful enough to drive those speakers ? I want 2 of the 150 watt once a with the sub. May have to add a amp in there. Thanks.
 

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