Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Outdoor Speaker Recommendations

Hello all:
Now that I have everything settled inside, I am starting to look for stuff for the outside. Any recommendations on outdoor speakers?

Thanks!

John,
the biggest question of all will be what is your climate like? If you're in a drier, warmer climate, and plan to mount hidden from rain/snow, just about any speaker will do. Some people have even claimed success with Axioms.

If your speakers will be vulnerable to the elements, or you wish to leave them out year round, you may want to look at specially designed outdoor speakers. Sorry, I don't have any specific brand recommendations. Good luck.

John, there are probably a number of good outdoor speakers out there. You might begin your search with these. I've not heard them myself, but I sorta have it from the horse's mouth that they sound pretty good.

Sid,
Forgot to include that in my original post. We are in South Texas, between Houston and Port Aransas, making our climate quite humid. The speakers will be mounted under our patio cover. But down here, we have to wash the house exterior to rid it of mold build up. So, the speakers would be getting nearly direct moisture during this process.

Thanks for the input. John

that will be a tough one Don. One offering you may wish to check out are these outdoors from Energy Loudspeakers. They are a very well respected Canadian company who've honed their skills at the Canadian National Research Council much as Axiom has done.

I still think a pair of M3s would be a great fit, but you would be forced to take them down when you washed. While the cabinets are hardy, I'm sure they weren't meant to take regular doses of water. Of course, Axiom should be able to provide you with some more meaningful info on outdoor use.

I looked for outdoor speakers over the past year - shopping with Circuit City and Best Buy gift cards - and listened to everything at both stores and checked out the reviews at audioreview.com. Ultimately, I went with:

Dual Outdoor Speakers (LU50PW)
•2-way design
•60 watts peak power •5 1/4'' woofers
•1/2" tweeters

We listened to speakers from Polk, Infinity, Bose, Athena, Yamaha, and Klipsch among others and the only speakers that sounded better were a $400 pair of Klipsch. I got the Duals for $50 on a gift card (so essentially free). I was initially quite biased against them because I wanted to buy "good" speakers from a known, quality manufacturer and I have always liked Klipsch and my main system is Polk - but every time I listened to the Duals they sounded good - and I just couldn't justify adding $300 to my $100 gift card when I could get the Duals for "free". So my overall take is that you can probably find some decent speakers in the <$100 range - such as the links that have been provided - but the truth is that none of the outdoor speakers sounded "great" and if you're really looking for "great" you're going to have to put a fair amount of money into it. I hope (but I'm not optimistic) that this helps.

Foghorn,
Any relation to Leghorn?

Thanks for the information regarding the speakers. In our old house I installed a pair of outdoor speakers from KLH that were pretty good. Installed them just before Halloween, he-he. My only complaint, and this might be true for most speakers of this typ, is that they lacked good bass. Unfortunately for me, I live in a small town that lacks either BestBuy or Circuite City. Closest ones are nearly 2 hours away, so listening to them before buying will difficult.

Thanks again everyone. You are giving me some good options to look into.

How about "really foul weather" as a custom finish for the in-home speakers?

Last summer, right after buying a new house, we had three,- count 'em, three, major hurricanes attempt to knock this new house down.

Ok, so when we evacuated, I took my M3s with us, I did! ask the wife and family.

So, what do I do this coming hurricane season? And the next, and the next, when I have my less easily transportable M50s?

How bout "really foul weather" as a custom finish?

I'll take a pair in mildew.

"My only complaint, and this might be true for most speakers of this type, is that they lacked good bass."

Agreed. So my advice to you is to not buy the speakers that I thought were inferior to the Duals - after that you are on your own. Then if you want better bass, get one of those subwoofers disguised as a rock and let me know how it works out.