Sonos...I Beg You For Outdoor Speakers!



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Userlevel 2
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by placing a play one inside a water proof seat. When the weather is nice outside.. Out pops the play one. I know its not ideal. I was just lucky I already had a water proof outdoor plug on my balcony
Perhaps because of the many available outdoor speakers that can be wired to a Connect Amp? Works very well at my place.


This. Very simple to run weatherproof wire to an outdoor speaker mounted under an eave. I have a dual voice single speaker on my deck that sounds great.
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There is a guy on youtube who has set up a Play 1 to run off an external battery. He has shown video of it working, a strip down of the Play 1 and states the third video (when he has done it) will show us how it's done 🙂

1. Demo of it working

2. Strip Down

3........ waiting

Not for the faint of heart though 😮
Badge +2
How about getting something like the rCube from Arcam before they become completely unavailable - a bargain at around 200GBP. This is battery powered Kleer reciever. If you combine this with a Kleer transmitter eg from a pair of Sennheiser RS180's that takes analog input at headphone jock level and delivers "CD quality" Kleer wireless to any paired Kleer reciever. Not sure if you can get a transmitter on its own - great if you could but if not then at least you have a pair if good wireless headphones as well. I have not tried this combination but I I imagine it should work.
If you combine this with a Kleer transmitter eg from a pair of Sennheiser RS180's that takes analog input at headphone jock level and delivers "CD quality" Kleer wireless to any paired Kleer reciever.
My experience of Sennheiser RS180s with 2.4GHz Kleer wireless was distinctly unfavourable. They clobbered SonosNet to such a degree that I returned them the next day.
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There is a guy on youtube who has set up a Play 1 to run off an external battery. He has shown video of it working, a strip down of the Play 1 and states the third video (when he has done it) will show us how it's done 🙂

1. Demo of it working

2. Strip Down

3........ waiting

Not for the faint of heart though :o


Thanks for that link!
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My experience of Sennheiser RS180s with 2.4GHz Kleer wireless was distinctly unfavourable. They clobbered SonosNet to such a degree that I returned them the next day.

That's a shame - I assume there was no avoiding it with channel changing. I have the 170s and have not really noticed a problem - though I do my best to avoid SonosNet wireless anyway (previously with structured Cat5 and now in new property with Powerline). I was thinking to buy an rCube some time ago but the price was high - I may now give it a go.

EDIT:

http://www.avforums.com/threads/arcam-rwave-with-sennheiser-rs180-headphones-is-kleer-association-possible.1817203/

suggests it might not pair anyway.
That's a shame - I assume there was no avoiding it with channel changing.
The Kleer wireless frequency-hopped over the entire 2.4GHz band. Here is my original post on the subject.
And buying a bluetooth equivalent. I could obviously install outdoor speakers and buy a Connect Amp but the whole point of Sonos is convenient wireless networking. Doing an outdoor installation will cost more and require me to drill holes in my walls which i would prefer not to do. It would be nice if Sonos let its customers know if any outdoor speakers were in the pipeline though.
Userlevel 4
Badge +4
a few years ago i hard wired two B&W outdoor speakers to a connect amp in my basement. its awesome. a few tips:

Get the largest outdoor speakers you can afford/fit. I was worried they would be too large. they aren't. its amazing how the open space swallows up the sounds. i've used the same speakers in a summer cabin and they blast the indoors but outdoors they work perfect.

that said, even though they are waterproof i bring them in for the winter. i'm in boston, we get real winters so no need having them go thru that.

its worth it to spend the time to wire and mount the speakers. they are great to simply flip the switch and they are on. so convenient.

you might also consider putting them in a position to use as outdoor speakers for an outdoor projector based movie. the projectors are coming down in price and super fun. the kids love it. hang a sheet and your rocking.

finally, enjoy! outdoor music just rocks.
Userlevel 6
Badge +11
Logitech made the Squeezebox Radio years ago which was a battery powered network player, no idea why Sonos can't do the same. A battery powered play1 would be awesome
Logitech made the Squeezebox Radio years ago which was a battery powered network player, no idea why Sonos can't do the same. A battery powered play1 would be awesome

I do love my squeezebox radios, that are battery powered. I simply unplug them and carry out to the deck and it's a nice feature to have.