Placing outdoor speakers

  • 23 August 2023
  • 27 replies
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U
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So, I am attaching some screenshots of the outside of our house. We spend most of the time under the over hang on the upper porch, where I use the Blackstone, but out in front too on the lower porch. I am wondering where would be the best place to put a pair of Klipsch aw650 speakers, I am running them to the inside of the house where we are putting a Sonos amp. I was thinking under the edge of the over hang and pointed to the lower porch, either in an upright position angled in from the corner uprights. Or was thinking directly down from the crossbeam. I could attach them to the house against the wall under the upper over hang, but not sure how the sound would project across the area. 

I am worried about not getting enough sound under the overhang if positioned on the uprights or front beam on the overhang but also worried about projecting sound across from the far wall. Any suggestions? The first picture I put colored lines in the 3 different arrangements I had in mind, the other pics are for reference to the area. 

 

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27 replies

G
Userlevel 7

I would mount them in the yellow position so the speakers are facing out towards both the upper and lower porches.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
melvimbe

Also consider outdoor in-ceiling speakers under the porch. From my experience, this give a nice look, the likely empty space in the ceiling seems to add to the bass of the speakers, and the audio won’t feel like it’s coming from behind you.  I don’t think it will cover the secondary porch as well, but I also think you won’t feel like you have to play it loud for the secondary porch...if that makes sense.

There is also nothing wrong with in-ceiling speakers and the outdoor speakers in the blue position.  Both pairs can be wired to a single amp.

Danny
U
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I don't really want to cut more holes in the ceiling, for architectural speakers, and already have the Klipsch on order. should I place them up high in the corners, or down just a little?

Not really anxious about running cable through the wall being as we have a log house, but metal siding on it. so running it through the wall will probably have to be straight through then figure out how to run it as inconspicuous as possible 

U
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I would mount them in the yellow position so the speakers are facing out towards both the upper and lower porches.

Am I going to need to worry about reverberation or bad sound, being against the metal siding and plastic vinyl ceiling of the overhang? I have the speakers in hand and just waiting for the amp to show up. I ordered it with 2 day shipping on Monday from sonos and it won't be here until tomorrow. 

 

Stanley_4
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I’d not worry too much about the speakers causing the wall or roof to vibrate as it is behind the drivers. If it does adding something like Dyna-Mat will stop that easily.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_15411101/Dynamat-Dynaliner-1-8-thick.html

U
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One thing, if placed on the beam up front I can adjust and turn them to face back onto the upper deck if I want to. Then face them to the lower deck when I want by the turn of just two knobs. 

U
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Finally got my amp today. Got home, threw some banana plugs onto some wire and just set everything up outside real quick. Set the volume control to 90 and only turned the volume up to 50 real quick, and am super happy so far. I think the sound better than my 5s inside. The sound really good, even with the bug zapper going off constantly. 
 

I’m super excited to get them mounted tomorrow though. Going to get a ca800tsw sub to go with them, unless someone can recommend anything different. 
 

 

106rallye
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According to what I see when googling “ca800tsw” this is a passive subwoofer? I do not own an Amp, but am presuming it can only drive an active sub. You should maybe check……

http://assets.klipsch.com/product-specsheets/CA800TSW-Spec-Sheet.pdf

U
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According to what I see when googling “ca800tsw” this is a passive subwoofer? I do not own an Amp, but am presuming it can only drive an active sub. You should maybe check……

http://assets.klipsch.com/product-specsheets/CA800TSW-Spec-Sheet.pdf

But can’t I wire it like this? This is from the manual

 

Stanley_4
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You could wire it like that but you’d have very odd sound with a sub only on the right or left channel. You might want to buy two.

Keep in mind that it will be using power from the Amp and subtracting that from what is going to the main speakers.

U
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Can I use this on an exterior wall to allow me to run the speaker wire through the wall, to another unit of the same, then connect to the amp? It will be attached to an electrical outlet box that’s rated for wet places. Or should I put a faceplate on it, run the wires through the cap on the top of the box and silicone around it?

buzz

I don’t recommend driving the subwoofer from the same amplifier as the L/R speakers. Use a dedicated amplifier for the subwoofer. Your suggested connection scheme will present a lower than desired impedance to the amplifier, there is no high pass crossover for the L/R, and the sensitivities for the subwoofer and L/R are different with no practical means to adjusting the relative levels.

Some will argue that the very lowest frequencies are presented in mono, therefore a mono feed to the subwoofer is no big deal. This was true for the very lowest frequencies when mastering LP’s, but this is not the case with other media. This subwoofer handles frequencies that are higher than would have been given this LP special processing and the stereo image will be a little strange.

buzz

I don’t recommend using these banana jacks to pass through an outside wall.

U
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I don’t recommend using these banana jacks to pass through an outside wall.

Ok thank you for all that. Would you use them on an interior wall, and what would you do to seal where the wire comes through the exterior wall? It’s going to be a straight through hole. 

U
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I have these two different options. The grey conduit thing (I’m exhausted and the name escapes me) I could drill a hole through the top cap, run my wires and then silicone around the hole/wires. And then I was going to glue it to some conduit, and silicone where it meets the wall and enters. 
 

The white electrical box, I can do the same thing with. Run conduit to it, silicone it, and drill a hole through the top plug, run wires and silicone. 

Or I could just punch the hole in the wall, pass the wire directly through and silicone them around in the hole. 

Wall is metal siding over 6-8” logs. 
 

 

Stanley_4
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Running the gray plastic conduit through the exterior side of the wall, make sure to put a fitting inside the wall to secure it to that exterior wall is the way I’d go. At the top I’d come out the bottom of the box instead of the top, that minimizes water intrusion if the seal fails.

Coming out the side of the box with a downward facing elbow would work too. Get one designed to transition from the box to just wire, it will have an internal gasket.

Inside you can use a low-voltage setup, box or just a ring, if you use one designed for retrofitting you can just cut the hole, do the outside wall and then slip the box in. The speaker binding posts would be fine there. That is what I have here in several locations and it is handy to be able to remove the wires for painting or cleaning.

buzz

Water will follow a wire and tend to run into anything it can. Stanley_4’s technique inserts a “drip loop” near any wire entrance and any water flowing along the wire will drip off the bottom of the loop rather than running into something. Never drill a horizontal hole through an outside wall, always angle such that water will run out of the hole, not inside the wall.

U
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I don’t recommend driving the subwoofer from the same amplifier as the L/R speakers. Use a dedicated amplifier for the subwoofer. Your suggested connection scheme will present a lower than desired impedance to the amplifier, there is no high pass crossover for the L/R, and the sensitivities for the subwoofer and L/R are different with no practical means to adjusting the relative levels.

Some will argue that the very lowest frequencies are presented in mono, therefore a mono feed to the subwoofer is no big deal. This was true for the very lowest frequencies when mastering LP’s, but this is not the case with other media. This subwoofer handles frequencies that are higher than would have been given this LP special processing and the stereo image will be a little strange.

So I’ll get an amp for the sub. Can I use my sonos amp to send a signal to the sub amp to play the music its speaker out to a speaker in on the sub amp? Then wire the speakers from the sub amp? or will I need to add a sonos port to the sub amp?

buzz

AMP provides a line level subwoofer output, PORT does not. AMP provides seamless powered subwoofer integration

U
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AMP provides a line level subwoofer output, PORT does not. AMP provides seamless powered subwoofer integration

Ok. But if I am going to get an amp specifically for the sub, an amp that is not sonos, how am I going to get it to play the music it is supposed to with the speakers it is supposed to? I can’t seem to find an OUTDOOR powered sub. 

buzz

An outdoor powered subwoofer would need power wiring and be designed to withstand weather events. This would add substantially to the cost of purchase, installation, and long term ownership because the weather will eventually take its toll.

The subwoofer output of AMP will split the sound, sending lows to the subwoofer amplifier and highs to the satellite speakers. If the subwoofer amplifier supports this, you could use two subwoofers if the satellite speakers are far apart (for example on opposite sides of the house). In your configuration only a single subwoofer is required -- unless you are a super bass freak.

U
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I’m not going to be getting a powered sub woofer. It will be one that is passive. 
 

Since I can’t use my current sonos AMP to power the passive sub, I need to get a subwoofer amplifier from how you’ve made it sound. How am I going to connect the paint sub and amp to my current satellite speakers so it’s all working properly?
 

I do like bass, when I’m playing bass type music. But I’ll eventually be adding 1 or 2 more speakers to this current outdoor setup. But the next purchase will be the sub and amplifier for it. 

 

You have to excuse me, I’m pretty new to all this. 

U
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Would something like this work it is an OSD SMP300?

 

U
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This is an audiosource100vs, would it work to power the Klipsch sub?

  • 50 watts x 2 into 8 ohms or 60 watts into 4 ohms
  • 150 watts when bridged into a single 8-ohm load

And how would I get sonos AMP to connect to it?

 

buzz

In my opinion this is not the best choice. Don’t use the bridged connection when driving this subwoofer.

A mono amplifier would be a better choice for a single subwoofer.

Any amplifier will connect to AMP’s subwoofer output.

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