# Outdoor Speakers.



## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I am looking for some decent outdoor speakers.
I am looking to spend in the area of 300-400 for all four.
I am looking for 2 in cieling out door speakers, and two on the ground (i.e fake rock or similar.) The free standing speakers do not need to be disguised as plants or rocks, they can be just normal free standing speakers. Any help is appreciated. 
I have this amp to run them... http://www.crownaudio.com/amp_htm/xls.htm
It is the 402.
Thanks!


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I may go over my budget.
I was thinking two of these:
http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/hfulpebrrosp.html
And two of these:
http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/mu6werecesp1.html
I am open to any suggestions you may have. 
The hanging style like these may work too:
http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/patiospeakers.html
Do I want omni speakers?
I don't really know where to start.
Thanks!


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

Hey Dannyn!

I guess my question would be what is your application? Like for example, do you have a long porch or something where you are going to be doing a lot of sitting? If so, recessed speakers should be good. Understand... you'll lose a fair amount with them recessed, but they should work fine if you are sitting right below them.

As far as the outside speakers, what size area are you trying to cover, and do you have landscaping and stuff? If you do, you might be disappointed with ground-level speakers. Mainly what you are getting with the outdoor speakers is NEMA rating for water and stuff. Also, depending on how far away you are from your receiver, I might run some heavier gauge speaker wire.

You've probably already thought about such things. I've just seen some people spend decent money on outdoor speakers, but be disappointed because they were inaccurately engineered, or didn't do what they wanted.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

My application is outside on my patio.
We just put a hot tube in and we we would like some speakers to compliment it. 
I was thinking of putting two speakers in the patio, then two either on the ground, or now I am thinking two of the hanging style point twards the hot tub.
I can post a picture later when I get home and you wull understand better what I am trying to do. 
I do not know if you looked at the amp, but it is not a normal amp. It is a concert amp that I am not using right now, and should have more than enough power.
I do have landscaping but I am not to worried about astetics, I would rather have it sound good.
Thanks for your help!


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

Hello, Danny! Well, I looked at the amp, and you're correct; it is for sound mixing/ audio and such like that. Now, I don't know what kind of signal a mixer generates; so I'm not sure if you can "fool" the input signal in there. You might have to purchase a mixer, then hook your tuner, CD player and such into the mixer. Thing is, if you do that, you'll have a pretty sweet Karaoke set up too. 

As far as speakers, it appears that it is two channels; either 4 or 8 ohm. If you choose to hook up four speakers, you'll need to get four 4 ohm speakers and wire in series (2 on left; 2 on right), or an 8 ohm speaker and wire in parallel (2 left; 2 right).


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I do have a 4 channel mixer with a left and a right xlr output.
I have cd players and the sort.
I am thinking I am going to use an iPod, with a weather proof remote, but that is beside the point.
I just need help with the speaker part, but thanks for looking out for that.

The way the amp works is it has two channels.
One amp channel would be left, one amp channel would be right.
The way I think I would do it is with 4 4ohm speakers.
I would wire two on each channel of the amp.
So two left speakers, two right speakers.

I do not know all that much about power, but I know a lot about processors, mixers, DSP, and all that stuff.
I am thinking I am going to wire the speakers like this:
http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/learningcenter/car/subwoofer_wiring/4SVC_4-ohm_2ch.jpg

Unless you see a flaw in my plan, I think its down to what speakers do I want.
I will try and get pictures tomorrow beacuse it is to dark now and that should make things a little clearer.

Thanks!


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

dannyn said:


> The way I think I would do it is with 4 4ohm speakers.
> I would wire two on each channel of the amp.
> So two left speakers, two right speakers.
> 
> ...


Notice in the attachment from Crutchfield, that if you wire it up that way, your resistance at the amp channel is 2 ohms. Your amplifier won't like that.

You'll either need to wire in series, or get 8 ohm speakers instead. Then, you'll have 4 ohms at the amplifier channels.

Then like you say, it's just picking out which speakers you think will best fit what you want. This is just totally opinion thing, but I would go with four speakers mounted up off the ground. That way, you can turn them where you need them to go.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

You are 100% correct.
My amp would be very upset with me.
I want to get 4 8ohm speakers. Two on each channel.
http://www.djzone.net/pg/0008/te00084.shtml
Diagram 2 is what I am thinking.
I have attached a picture of what I am thinking about installing. 
The hot tub is going to be moved into the blue taped out region. 
So now I am looking for 2 8 ohm in ceiling speakers, and 2 8ohm hanging speakers.
When I say hanging I mean this type: http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/patiospeakers.html
Any suggestions?
Thanks!


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

Danny.. impressive picture with the color diagram. How did you do that??

I think your planning looks pretty good. The diagram 2 should work. As far as outdoor speakers, I really don't have any suggestions. I would... at least try to buy some you can listen to first. Or, buy them from somewhere that you can return them. Even spending decent money on them, you might get some speakers you don't care for.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

The diagram is very very awful.
Bad photoshop job.

I usually use Visio to do that kind of stuff but I was just to lazy.
I will post a Visio when I get further into the project.

So I think I am just going to have to pick some speakers and go with it, and if I do not like them I can return them.

Whit DSP and other things, I can get bad speakers sounding not all that bad.

Ok, now to another changeling part of the project.

How In the world am I going to control this rig. 
The only possibly way I think I could do it is to put a 1/8 inch input at the hot tub. 
Buy one of these for the iPod, http://www.h2oaudio.com/waterproof_armbands_and_cases.php

I want to do it wireless but I just have no idea how.
My problem is, if I get this whole mess together, the 1/8 inch is going to run into my garage. Well the wires for the speakers are in a cabinet inside. No problem you say, run it into the crawl space. BUT! the garage floor is concrete, no crawlspace access. There is a room above the garage so I cannot run it up either.
I think my only option is to run it over cat 6 and patch it into my cabinet. Unless you can think of a rf solution.


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

Danny, I am not that proficient with the wireless things. If it was me, I would just run wires out to the speakers and be done with it. It looks like your house has an attic. Can you run the wires from your cabinet straight to the back porch? Too, you could run a couple of extra pair of wires, and solder RCA connectors on them. I believe the Ipod base accepts an RCA output.

Too, if you're pretty sure that most of the music will be driven by your Ipod, just run the speakers to the porch and use the Ipod base.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

Here is the plan for wiring:

I have wires already in the wall to where the speakers where placed in that diagram. 
I have the Crown amp in that cabinent now.
The problem is how am I going to control this???
So the plan I devised was, I am going to put an iPod into a water proof case, and run 1/8 in all the way back to the cabinet. That the the only way I can think of to control volume and track.
I am worried about it being such a long run that the sound being nonexistent by the time it reaches the cabinet. It is about 400 feet. 
So I am kinda stuck on how do I control this?
I would just run and iPod dock, but 1. I want more power than that, and 2. I want a permanent install. 
Thanks!


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

I don't understand the 1/8 reference. But.. you are correct, the farther you have to run, the larger gauge wire you will need. If you pull a #12 AWG, you should be OK. If you have some exact wattage and stuff, and you know it's 400 feet, we can calculate the drop and the needed gauge and all.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I will get a Visio drawing up so that you will understand what I am doing better.


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

I do not have time to make a Visio, tooo much homework. Sorry.
Here is how I am going to do it.
The run is way too long for rca. So, I am going to use two of these,one for each end, or similar.http://www.svideo.com/500027.html
Or maybe something with better quality... http://www.smartavi.com/Video-Extenders/AR-100.htm
All I will have to do is run Cat 6 to outside, I have Cat 6 in my garage and I will patch it together to that cabinet.
Thanks for all the help that you have given.
P.S... After looking into more specs on that amp is can handle 2 ohms, so it looks like pretty much any speaker is fair game.
Thanks.


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## Drabdr (Nov 26, 2007)

Well... I don't think I've been much help, but it sure has been fun. 

Now note... if the distance is too far for RCA cable, it may be too far for the other cable also. 

You can get two rolls of THHN from Home Depot or something and run it the entire distance. Then, just solder (or compression screw) RCA connectors on the wire. Just a thought.

Please do, let us know how this proceeds. It sounds like a fun project.:up:


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## dannyn (Nov 9, 2007)

The reason it wont be too far for the other cable (cat 5) is because it will be ip. That's why I like the second one I posted best. 
I will post more as the project comes along, I am sure I will have more questions.


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