Suggestions on garden, rock speakers?

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H

h2oluver

0
Mar 26, 2015
68
Tulsa/Oklahoma
My pool is undergoing a renovation currently and I'm thinking of changing up the way my sound system is setup. Previously I have been running a homemade setup that consists of a couple old school 80's components (tuner, amp) a touchscreen monitor, old pc and a couple of Yamaha outdoor speakers. The speakers are mounted to to side of my house aimed toward my pool (and neighbors). I'm considering running some speaker cable out to the back side of the pool and putting some speakers out there, aimed back at the house (and away from the neighbors). We've had the cops called a few times in the past after some late night revelers kept turning up the music. I was considering maybe a rock looking type speaker, or maybe a planter disguised type. More toward the rock type though since they are directional. Looking for something not terribly expensive. Does anyone have any suggestions on something that is of decent sound quality without a ridiculous price tag?
 
I am a very big fan of Monoprice.com! I just recently changed all the coax cable throughout my entire house while running Cat6 to all the rooms and also upgrading my surround sound as well as other things too.

I bought all my HDMI Cables, 6.5" Ceiling Mounted Rear Surrounds, Speaker Wire, Optical Cable, Cat 6 Cable, Keystone Faceplates, Subwoofer, Ethernet switches all from them. I couldn't be happier, they have great customer service, great products and great prices.

They offer a few different sided rock speakers. Here's a link.

http://www.monoprice.com/mobile/Cat...goryId=109&categoryId=10904&searchType=Direct

Wayne
 
Z7What said:
I am a very big fan of Monoprice.com! I just recently changed all the coax cable throughout my entire house while running Cat6 to all the rooms and also upgrading my surround sound as well as other things too.

I bought all my HDMI Cables, 6.5" Ceiling Mounted Rear Surrounds, Speaker Wire, Optical Cable, Cat 6 Cable, Keystone Faceplates, Subwoofer, Ethernet switches all from them. I couldn't be happier, they have great customer service, great products and great prices.

They offer a few different sided rock speakers. Here's a link.

http://www.monoprice.com/mobile/Cat...goryId=109&categoryId=10904&searchType=Direct

Wayne
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I didn't even think to look on Monoprice! I have bought from them before as well and been very satisfied with their product. I'll take a look at those. Thanks for the suggestion!
 
I have the Bose outdoor speakers that you bury halfway in the ground out on the far corners of the pool patio and a pair of regular Bose up on the pergola by the hot tub. Like them both.

I use a 2 channel Sony receiver with an A channel and a B channel so that I can turn on one pair or the other or both depending on need.

We generally just listen to the radio but are set up to plug an iPad with pandora on it in as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
We were going to do the buried Bose speakers and attach to our (indoor) Onkyo Receiver and do different zones - but I am thinking I am going to go with the Big Blue Party Speaker - it has great reviews and then I can move it around and take it with me.

We just have so much going on with the build - throwing one more thing like burying speaker wires - running them through the attic over to the receiver and then trying to figure out how to actually make it worth seems like more stress than I can take right now.

Or maybe I am just lazy.
 
I'm really impressed with the RX550's from OSD. Coupled with their low-priced 120 amp they JAM! At mid levels, very comparable to Polk Audio's
http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/rxpe51parosp.html
DSC_2851_zps27fe8787.jpg

DSC_2860_zpsa5b7dd42.jpg
 

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Sunbaby said:
Oh wow - is that a volume control? That looks SO professional! Mine would never look that good . . .
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Yes, good eye, it's a volume control. Funny you ask....it's the only part that failed :confused: Not sure why and it was a trial for the rest of my set-up. My teenage son may have something to do with that..I noticed our old EX-Series pre-amp showed up and then quickly disappeared after his party. I rewired the whole system without volume controls. The speakers are still cranking!
 
I too have a set of OSD rock speakers, I think they are 8". They sound pretty good but after only 2 short years, one has started taking on water. I contacted them, but I was a month or so outside the warranty and they would not help me. I also have a 250W OSD amp, that still works well. It pushes a total of 4 OSD stereo speakers, both left and right channel go to each speaker. I like the stereo speakers a lot for open spaces.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz1wq2Dc0pmVSE5ScTc3UzZTYVE/view?usp=sharing

I also have a set of Polk Atriums, that I like as well, they have been outside for close to 8 years and have no problems.

One thing I would recommend for anyone building a pool, even lazy ones, is to bury conduit for your speakers while everything is dug up. I ran electrical conduit out to the pool for the speaker wire, and a few years later running speaker cable out to the pool was an afternoon project, without any digging.

I also have two volume controls for both sets of OSD speakers, but they are mainly for reducing the volume for a zone, they are best left a full volume for the best sound.
 
Wow, crabboy, that's not good. I wondered how they were designed. Looking closely at them it appears the grill area is not made to be water-tight, so I wonder if they must drain somewhere? Anyway, hate to hijack this thread.....just curious. For the speaker wire, i used the direct bury cable. My set-up is holding up fine for over a year.
 
I would have liked to go with some Omni directional speakers such as the Bose or TIC, but I'm in the city in a neighborhood with a couple of grumpy old neighbors on a couple of sides of me, and they aren't afraid to call the cops. Especially after dark. So, I was thinking rock speakers that I can aim back toward the house and away from neighbors. Does anyone have any experience with TIC outdoor speakers? They make rock as well as the omnidirectional type. Looks like Bose copied their original design on the omni directionals to some extent. Also, any suggestions on outdoor amps, I see a picture and some mentions of some in previous replies.
Like I stated originally , I'm using some 80's era technics micro components for my system and its set up in bar area outdoors and does get some moisture and dirt. I've already had one amp get a bath and go into overload mode. I just buy em cheap at Goodwill or ebay.... But it might be nice to have something a little more worry free. To explain my setup, I bought (ebay) a used kiosk touchscreen monitor (like kind at Walgreens photocenter, in fact mine was yellow and said Kodak on it, now painted) Took an old pc from closet and after searching and trialing many jukebox programs purchased Zenpoint digital center http://www.zenpoint.org/ and installed on old pc. Hooked touchscreen monitor up to pc with jukebox program. Pc was hooked up to old 80's era Technics amp with 3.5mm to rca cable. I have a 2 TB drive full of music that is streamed from my inside pc to outdoor jukebox pc. The touchscreen is mounted on a swing arm monitor mount behind the bar, which allows guests to select any type of music they like and add to playlist (much like a touch tunes jukebox at a bar). The jukebox also (with internet conn) has plenty of internet radio, or using the vintage stereo equip, local radio. I will upload some pics of the setup when i get it back together ( I take everything down for winter, speakers included)haven't put back because pool is being remodeled. Nothing fancy looking but everyone that comes over loves it. Just stuff I pieced together from low cost products.
But back to the speakers and maybe a weatherproof decent sounding amp....?
 
Sounds quite a bit more elaborate than my setup, I have no touch screens for selecting music or to order my poolside pizza. I also use a recycled receiver for the music, but I pipe in music from a satellite receiver. One day I will setup the Raspberry Pi to play music controlled from a phone, but I haven't bothered yet.

When the time comes to replace the rock speakers, I may just bury a post in landscaping and mount some good speakers to them. I'd also probably swap out the 250W amp for a 300W and use the 250W for a dedicated sub.

I probably would not do OSD again, I do like the amp, but I've seen the same amp other places with a different badge on it.
 
Niles Audio is one of the best bang for your buck when it comes to outdoor audio. They have the Garden Subwoofers that you bury, and along with their outdoor rock speakers it is like a serious indoor system. It's awesome and kills the Bose if you get the sub.
 

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