Ian,

I saw you mention in another thread that you would be soon introducing outdoor speakers. I'm terribly interested in hearing more about this. Can you give us some timelines on these? Will they be available by summer?

Thanks.

We are doing the acoustical design work on the outdoor speakers at this time. We are looking at having them available by June this year.

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer

Ian, will these speakers have their own volume control on them?

We are looking at a couple of options, like a volume control, on the outdoor speaker and at this time it will have one. All the various features will have their final decision in the next month. Are there any other features you would consider important on an outdoor speaker?

Ian Colquhoun
President & Chief Engineer

Any updates on the progress of these speakers? I've already bought and returned some 'lesser' brands and I'd love to see what you guys have come up with.

Wow. You dig pretty deep!

I'm interested, too. Although if I bought some outdoor speakers, I wouldn't look forward to running the wire. I don't think I'd even fit in the crawlspace under the house.

Hmmmm, I wonder how many years I have to wait for my yet-to-be-born son to be old enough to follow directions. With some sort of bait, probably not much after her learns to crawl....

That search feature is mighty handy!

I'd bought some cheap outdoor speakers (RCA on clearance for $50) sounded pretty good actually but the tweeters began to buzz which drove me nuts!

Did a quick search to see if anyone had inquired or recommended a good pair. Then I saw the post from Ian indicating that Axiom was developing some that should be out in June. I called, no dice, still in development and not a priority now.

I've listened to most of the stuff at the local retailers and they're all horrible. I just missed a $100 rebate on some Klipsch's that actually sounded really good, I just can't seem to buy them knowing they'd have cost me $100 less last week!

Sigh.

I'd like to know as well - im in the middle of back yard landscaping, and dont know what to do about music out there

Here's my solution: I have an FM transmitter hooked up to my home stereo. I've also got an older Denon ministytem (that sounds pretty decent) that I use for back-of-house and outdoor music. When I want to listen to the same music outside that I've got on in the house (like in a party situation), I turn on the transmitter and tune the minisystem in to my personal station.

I posted this site once before but here it is again.
A neat idea for outdoor speakers.
I have no idea how they sound nor have i seen any reviews from any source on them as of yet.

A pair of these is always playing outside one of our local Mexican food restaurants. My precocious car hiding tot exclaimed, "Daddy...those rocks are singing!!".

Those Rockustics were used outside a home in Vegas that is featured in a magazine I have. Everything else that guy had was top notch and/or very expensive. I would guess that they're pretty good.

My brother-in-law (soon to be ex-BIL) bought some metal, boxed, outdoor speakers about 5 years ago that have since rusted up and quit working. I'm wondering how anyone could design a decent speaker that would REALLY hold up outdoors 24/7, 365 days a year.

I have heard rock speakers before at a local flooring warehouse. They might have not been the ones your talking about but i think theres only one. And they sounded pretty horrible and they are pretty ugly too.

Probably the Chinese ones they have at costco. They sound just like cheap 2-way car stereo speakers - in plastic rocks.

I've heard them. They sound like plastic crapola speakers. And they didn't really look like rocks.

Judging by their 4 ohm impedance, then probably are car speakers incased in plastic fake-rock(tm).

Ooh, this is my favorite quote from the site:

"Rockustics utilized professionally manufactured crossovers for exceptional performance."

Wow, professional manufacturing. As opposed to the monkey-designed-and-built crossovers MOST speaker designers use.

I picked up some JBL N26AW at Best Buy when they were on clearance. $99 for the pair down from $249. They actually sound pretty good! I'm running them off my old HK AVR20II that also powers the sound in my MAME cabinet.

If you can find these speakers for under $150 I'd say they're good for outdoors at a good price.

Frank

That's pretty ingenious. Not only do you have music on the patio that way, but by the pool, the garage, the front yard. Whereever you take the minisystem. All without wiring!

Roughly what did the transmitter cost you?

Here's the URL to the site I bought the transmitter from: http://www.hobbytron.net/product534.html
It cost me $170, but it was worth it. There are less expensive ones available, but this one has a range of 300 ft (without obsructions), so with the transmitter centrally located, I should have whole-house coverage even when I move into a larger house.

Thanks for the suggestion. This will solve several other wish list items I've been working toward, plus it opens up so many additional possibilities.

I couldn't tell from the photo are those L/R RCA inputs on the back? Is there a dial or adjustment to set the broadcast frequency? So do I run the pre-out right and left from the receiver to this unit?

Sorry for all the questions I want to make sure I understand what I need before I jump in.

Yeah. They are stereo RCA jacks. Unfortunately, the docs don't tell you which one is the right or left channel. I still haven't bothered to test it out.

There are three dials for adjusting the unit. Two of the dials adjust the input levels for the RCA jacks. You have to open the case to get to those. I keep them about halfway.

The third dial (accessible through a hole in the bottom of the case) adjusts the frequency. To get the right frequency you tune a radio into the station you want to use (one without any station near it on the dial) and then adjust the dial until you can hear your music on the radio.

I suggest buying a small plastic screwdriver from Radio Shack and use it to adjust the dials. The metal one I used interfered with the magnetic field near the dials and made it difficult to adjust accurately.

Oh, and as far as choosing an output method from your receiver, I just use my Onkyo's "Tape Rec" (tape out) since I don't have a pre-out. I think the pre-out should work perfectly, though, since you want the volume to be independent of the receiver's settings.

You mean, the pre-out wouldn't work so well, because the pre-outs are dependant on the volume of the receiver/integrated amp/etc.

Hey, I'm a big fan of tape-out. Although I've never owned a tape deck in my life, I use those things all the time...

You're right. The pre refers to the amp, not the other thing.