Receiver/Speaker/Wifi Options

[hende]

We are completing the renovation on our pool originally started in 2020. Some finishing touches we'd like to put in are a bluetooth receiver/amplifier and four outdoor speakers and another wireless router or wifi extender to use for streaming media. Every internet search I've done so far ends up confusing me to what the best solution is, so I wanted to poll TFP for suggestions.

In my crude diagram below the blue boxes are existing outlets, green shapes are the speakers and receiver and the red rectangle is where I plan to put a wireless access point. What has worked best for you?

Thanks

 

[wayner]

I put in an outdoor Wifi Access Point(WAP) near my pool - this is on my pool cabana and I ran ethernet cable underground from the house to the pool cabana. The WAP is a Ubiquiti Unifi access point which is what I also use through my house - I have about 4-5 of these inside my house as well.

For speakers I have a four zone amp that feeds two zones around the pool and another zone by the hot tub. The amp and speakers are connected by regular speaker wire. The amp is part of my Control4 Home automation system - I have many zones inside the house as well. For audio sources I can have streaming music from services like Spotify or the TV that is in my pool cabana.

Sonos would be an option for you as well, but it all depends on what you want and it may make sense to tie this into the rest of your house as well. Sonos also tends to be expensive on a per zone basis, but can be simpler to implement and is wireless, other than power.

 

[Greybush_]

If you don't already have a whole home audio setup Sonos is a little expensive, but great and simple. I have two Sonos amps, one newer style and one older white one. The newer one is hooked up to two Niles rock speakers, and the older one came in a kit with two Sonance speakers (I think the kit goes on sale at Best Buy once a month in the summer, now with the new amp). I also have an older Sonos playbar I picked up from craigslist in a screened in room, I leave out all winter. The Sonos app lets you control all volumes together or independently, and its all over wifi so no dropouts you get from bluetooth. You can leave the amps inside and just run speaker wire outdoor to your speakers. They say the amps can run two or four speakers each. Sonos is also nice because if I have the tv on, the playbar can share the sound back to the other Sonos amps with the sound in sync. If you go the Sonos route definitely check craigslist or Facebook marketplace and you can probably find some good deals on used stuff. I have a decent mix of new and used Sonos gear and I'm yet to have anything fail. All the other speakers just plug into an outlet and connect to wifi to work but aren't waterproof. We keep a small Sonos one in the bathroom on low volume playing the same music as outside. It works with all the popular streaming services as well as local music on your phone or computer, or being fed from another receiver indoors if you have buy the Sonos port. I set the Sonos system up after trying to use a regular amp and speakers for years along with apple airplay one and some 3rd party software. Sonos has made the setup dead simple plus no going inside to turn things on and off. I highly recommend Sonos even though though its a little pricey.

 

[hende]

Thanks for the input. I may try a cheaper route and get an Orbi outdoor repeater for my Linksys router and see where that gets me before digging a trench for a CAT 6 wire.

For the speaker - what type of speaker wire would you suggest to bury underground? I don't have Sonos so I'm looking at other receiver options.

Thanks

 

[markayash]

Depends on what you want, I have a Yamaha receiver and outdoor speakers but 95% of the time I use a portable Soundcore connected to my phone. You can even get more then one and have them all
In sync.

 

[Greybush_]

Thanks for the input. I may try a cheaper route and get an Orbi outdoor repeater for my Linksys router and see where that gets me before digging a trench for a CAT 6 wire.

For the speaker - what type of speaker wire would you suggest to bury underground? I don't have Sonos so I'm looking at other receiver options.

Thanks

CL2/CL3 in wall rated speaker wire. Some say direct burial but I didn't see a difference between monoprice inwall speaker wire and the direct burial wire I paid more for, from a different company. I have had both outside for a few years now without any problems. I also have an original Orbi 3 unit system (wifi5/802.11ac), no outdoor unit, but one of my units is 6 feet from a sliding glass door and it covers my back yard very well from there. Being all orbi units it does use one band for a backhaul vs being a normal repeater. I have 500mb up/down fiber and wifi is very fast with the orbis even without a wired backhaul. I have an Apple TV hooked up to my outdoor tv and it doesn't buffer. As for not having Sonos, you just buy an amp and it would work with the app... so it would be a start of a system. I mainly went that route because it auto turns on, off, and remote volume from iOS/android devices, but you can probably get a better, higher powered receiver for the same money and wire in an outdoor volume knob for cheaper.

 

[markayash]

Thanks for the input. I may try a cheaper route and get an Orbi outdoor repeater for my Linksys router and see where that gets me before digging a trench for a CAT 6 wire.

For the speaker - what type of speaker wire would you suggest to bury underground? I don't have Sonos so I'm looking at other receiver options.

Thanks

On the Wi-Fi side I got a 3 part netgear orbi wireless router on Amazon that was “ refurbished” for $74 and love it. Looks brand new and no issues. Setup near a little tricky so can see why a non technical person might return it ( says can’t find other devices and failed when in fact they were already connected )

 

[Ps6fsu]

As some mentioned, Sonos amps are the easiest way to go but can add up quick if you have multiple zones. If all 4 speakers are on the same zone you can get away with only one sonos amp. That amp can power 2 sets of 8ohm speakers fine. You would just need to run wires to 2 speakers closest to amp and then wire the other two speakers off them in parallel. Not sure what speakers you plan to use but if mounted, Polk Atriums are a solid value. If you prefer rock speakers, Outdoor Speaker Depot has some good options as well for cheap (RS670 or RX805). This would cost about $1k. Another option would be a 70v system with 10-14 satellite speakers (depends on size) that look like landscape lights. You would still need a media streamer like a sonos port or an older sonos connect to stream music. This would allow you to really blanket the whole area with even sound (more speakers playing at lower levels). Prices vary based on speaker choices. You can do a Dayton or OSD system for just over $1k and add a used Sonos Connect for around $200. If you add a sub that would change significantly. There all also some all-in-one packages like Sonance sold at BestBuy but those are over $2k.

 

[hende]

Thanks for the reply. I wanted to go cheaper with an option to upgrade later so I got an Orbi extender for WiFi and a Pyle receiver with 4 basic rock speakers. I haven't buried the wire yet but it sounds good with Pandora linked through bluetooth. I have an outdoor subwoofer ordered that will hopefully be here soon so I can finish everything off.

It was about $500 all in for both WiFi and Music. That will get me through this year with an option to upgrade next year.