2002 Best Outdoor Speaker? (1 Viewer)

[Alec M]

Time to bring this one up again...I want a good pair of weatherproof speakers with good bass that can rock a party

From previous posts I have come up with the following list:
B & W WM6 $500/pr list
Def Tech AW100 $400/pr crutchfield
JBL N26AWII $170/pr ($120 + $50 for brackets) Buy.com
(Only weather resistant)
NHT Outdoor One $330/pr 6th Ave
Niles OS 25 $425/pr Yahoo!

The JBLs get great reviews, are awesome for the price, but they will be totally exposed to the weather so I am worried about that...

 

[HarryR]

Boston Acoustics Grand Voyagers sound awesome. I did not want to spend that kind of money so I bid for some JBL S36AW on Ebay and won for something like $150. Sound great. Also bought some N24's for the shop and they sound great too.

 

[Dan Joy]

My neighbor has some 1year old Klipsch outside. Lets say they kick some serious a$$. They are great with bass but are a tad large. He powers them with his 3801. I am very envious when I step outside!

 

[Jason Ly]

Alec,
I just hooked up a pair of n24aw on my back porch. The sound is quite good for an outdoor speaker. Also the construction of the speakers themselves seems to be very rugged, I don't worry at all about the weather damaging them. BTW, since they are not series II, I was able to pick them up from the local Beast Buy for $139 on closeout.
P.S. The N24's come with mounting brackets included you just need to get 8 1" #10 screws to install them.

 

[james e m]

I havn't heard them but you could check out the Paradigm Stylus line.
James

 

[Aaron H]

I was at Sound Advice yesterday and saw the B&W LM1's. They say that are ok for outdoor use, when covered, which is perfect for me since they'll be on a covered lanai. They are going for $129/each on sale now. I bet the Klipsch's do sound really good, which this store sells, too. SO when I get ready to purchase out-door speakers, it will probably come down to a set of the Klipsch's or the B&W LM1's.

Aaron

 

[Alec M]

I need some suggestions/feedback on weatherproof - they will be totally exposed in FL.

I am leaning towards NHT Outdoor Ones and Niles OS20s.

 

[BrianChim]

May want to audition Sonance as well.

 

[Gil D]

Alec,
I purchased NHT Outdoor Ones from 6th Ave about a year ago on sale for under $200/pr. They sound good but I do bring them in for the winter. I wasn't aware of that B&W model - it must be new, possibly a replacement for the WP-1 which I thought was lacking a bit in bass. What I like about the NHT is the 6" woofer and the ability to get some bass out of it. For under $200, I would be inclined to try the JBLs which unfortunately I didn't have a chance to hear. I did not like the Niles at all when I auditioned.

 

[Shane Martin]

I was heavily in the market for outdoor speakers when I did some discovering and learned quite a bit. Depending on how loud you want them to play and how much power you have to supply them you will want to consider that.
If I had the $$, I'd go with the Klipsch's. They are easy to drive and can play loud. The only problem is, I didn't think they were $200+ better than the Russound's I heard. Nor did the local dealer seem to care for them. That being a more expensive speaker didn't make sense from a financial perspective.
Klipsch link:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/reliable...psa1newmo.html
238.95 plus shipping for SA-1.
SA-3's which have a 8" woof and 95db sensitivity(read easy easy to drive) are 429 at the same site.
Below is a link of the Russound's. They have a 5 year warranty and are totally resistant. Since I didn't require loads of volume, these work quite well. I'm going to end up buying these quite soon!
http://www.russound.com/catalog/item.lasso?item=OB41
They'll run you $200 out the door or a little cheaper from a local dealer.
Now, The Boston Grand Voyagers were quite nice as well as the Outriggers from Infinity.