Here are 10 tips and tricks when using your outdoor speakers
It’s no surprise that using and installing outdoor speakers presents challenges that we are not accustomed to indoors, and it is always tempting to use indoor methods for outdoor conditions. The truth is that outdoor environments requires an entirely new set of strategies to produce high-quality audio from your outdoor speakers. We’ve written a guide on 10 tips and tricks that you should remember with using and choosing outdoor speakers.
1. Check your speaker’s material construction (then check again!): Most outdoor speakers are capable of handling ordinary outdoor conditions such as rain or rust, but higher-quality outdoor speakers are designed to handle more severe outdoor conditions such as heavy rain, high temperatures and direct exposure to sunlight. It’s often said the best outdoor speakers are the ones that can even survive a hurricane. So before you purchase outdoor speakers, it’s always vital to ensure that you check their material construction to ensure that it can withstand severe outdoor conditions.
2. Point your speakers downwards: It’s always important to ensure that your speakers point slightly downwards ideally towards your garden patio or pool for better sound staging and focus. Furthermore, this allows your speakers to avoid accumulating water within the speaker cones, which is want you want to avoid.
3. An amplifier is a must if you want bass: Sound amplifiers do a great job in enhancing your outdoor sound experience by powering your outdoor sound speakers. Since outdoor speakers fire into open space, it’s important to use amplifiers to support your outdoor speakers, especially in terms of bass output, where the results are immediately apparent. Basically the more power you put into your outdoor speakers, the better your outdoor audio will be.
4. Rock speakers are meant for the garden: We know that rock speakers look enticing and unique but please do not use them for the indoors – indoor speakers will sound much better and are built for indoor conditions. Rock speakers are designed to be placed as axillary audio out in your garden to supplement your overall outdoor experience. While it is not uncommon to use rock speakers as a supplement to your main outdoor speakers, it is perfectly possible to use them as primary audio in smaller outdoor settings which adds to the aesthetics of the surroundings.
5. Test your outdoor speakers before mounting them: Do not make the mistake of drilling a big fat hole into your patio to mount your outdoor speakers, only to find that the sound quality and staging is not as you expected. A good way to test your outdoor speakers is to place them on a ladder at various positions and get a feel of how they sound. Once you’re satisfied where to position your speakers, then that’s where you want to install your speaker brackets.
6. The Ideal Distance: When placing your outdoor speakers, the golden rule is to place them 10 feet apart. This is a nice distance that works well with almost all outdoor speakers without any professional tweaking and installation. Do not place outdoor speakers anything more than 12 feet apart, as this might mean ending up hearing sound from the speaker that you are closest too and does not deliver a balanced sound image. So to be on the safe side we’d recommend 10 feet.
7. Avoid garden speakers that run on batteries: There is no greater hassle in life then running out to your garden, unmounting your outdoor speaker, opening the battery compartment and replacing it with a new set of batteries just to get your outdoor audio going. Plus, outdoor speakers (except for portable outdoor speakers) that run on batteries will probably not be able to deliver powerful dynamic sound that you need in the comforts of your backyard. Always buy outdoor speakers that are powered by wiring, preferably from a good sound amplifier for an amazing outdoor audio experience.
8. Speakers vs. Volume: Sometimes the best way to achieve good audio performance from your outdoor speakers is not by turning the volume up but by using multiple sound speakers to cover more area. Of course, many high-end sound speakers are designed to blast audio out into open space from a single location, but this may disrupt your guests at that location due to high volumes. It is better to distribute the workload among multiple speakers to ensure a good spread of sound in your garden.
9. Burial Wires: If you are planning on burying your wires into the soil or outdoor conditions, be sure to get high-quality burial wires that are actually suited for this purpose, as opposed to ordinary rubber wires that may corrode or get damaged by animals. As an added safety, consider placing burial wires into small pipelines that run through your garden for maximum protection against the elements.
10. Prepare 20% more wiring: When you are wiring outdoor speakers in the garden or to your patio, always consider using 20% more wiring to ensure that you have enough wire to go around just in case!
We have also featured some of the best outdoor speakers in our top reviews, such as the top weatherproof speakers, patio speakers, rock speakers, outdoor ceiling speakers and rugged portable speakers, so be sure to check them out!