Question

Outdoor Weatherproof Speakers


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I want to make two irrefutable statements of fact:

1) Sonos is the best wireless speaker system in the world with a very intuitive app that makes wireless audio amazingly simple.
2) Sonos management cares little about customer feedback and is leaving millions on the table.

While that might sound kind of harsh, consider that the Sonos Community has viewed a thread over 46,000 times and I've seen online blogs begging for an outdoor speaker FOR YEARS! How many millions of dollars could Sonos have made by simply delivering on this request? I've personally looked for weatherproof enclosures for both the Connect Amp and Play speakers and nobody has an elegant solution.

It's completely aggravating when I come to the Sonos website after over a year of owning my system and still there is no answer to the community by management letting us know: A) when a weatherproof speaker is coming, or 😎 why it will never come. And I'm late to the party, which means others were ignored for over five years before me!

Should Sonos offer a weatherproof speaker?


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56 replies

I've had a pair of 3's on my patio for 5 years now, they are mounted just under the rain gutter, if the weather is very heavy, they get wet and snow... but they just keep on going, I have had zero problems with them what so ever.

The last couple of years I've had them wrapped in plastic artificial ivy vines, so that they are practically invisible and I tell myself that it must keep some of the worst rain away.

It should be noted that I live in Denmark, the weather here is shit 80% of the time.
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Thanks for all the feedback and comments everyone.

As a rule, Sonos doesn't share a roadmap or development plans outside of the company. Because of this we generally don't talk about what's coming in the future. There isn't any official news right now on an outdoor or weatherproof speaker.

@digirati, I know it can be frustrating when there's a feature or product that you're rooting for us to produce and we don’t confirm or deny if it’s even on our roadmap. Everyone has features or suggestions that are close to their hearts and we all can get disappointed when these ideas don’t show up or aren’t addressed.

I can assure you that our development teams and management does care what the community is saying. There’s a full team here dedicated to reading every thread and getting involved with you all, answer questions when possible and facilitating discussion. We also share popular feedback within the company. High thread views, amount and regularity of requests are all great pieces of information which we watch closely and make sure to share. However not all requests, even popular ones get added to the roadmap.

Keep up the discussion and suggestions everyone, and let’s all remember to stay friendly.
These sorts of discussions remind me of the three year old, "shaming" its parents in a public space. It's just a negotiating tactic toward the lollypop. We see older citizens reliving this tactic on social media.
Pretty sure that Sonos outdoor weatherproof speakers are imminent. How do i know this? I dropped a $1000 on 2 connect amps to hook up 4 Polk weatherproof speakers in my yard arpund my pool. A royal pain in the you know where to run a few hundread feet of 12 gauge wire but its done and i do love it. :D:P;)

1) Sonos is the best wireless speaker system in the world with a very intuitive app that makes wireless audio amazingly simple.
2) Sonos management cares little about customer feedback and is leaving millions on the table.

Isn't 1 a consequence of 2?! It can't just be an outcome like the cliched million monkeys typing stuff for a million years and by chance then producing Hamlet.

As soon as I realised I needed music outside, I installed wired external passive speakers long before I bought into Sonos. Bringing them into the Sonos fold was a simple addition of a Connect.

Anyone that has temporary good weather needs for music outside, and has safe to use mains power, is better served using a play 1 unit.

Sonos could have made the required but would have decided to forego the "millions" in preference to more money to be made by using the same resources elsewhere. That's how every profit objective driven company must operate, it cannot afford to satisfy all the needs of all possible customers.
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1) I'd like to see weatherproof speakers if only to serve as an expansion of the Sonos ecosystem. I personally would not buy at least in the short term (I have fixed outdoor speakers wired to a Connect:Amp safely tucked away inside my house).

2) I am not sure that the OP's statement's qualify as "irrefutable statements of fact".
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I completely understand and I appreciate the response. Even a response is a major plus, because then we at least know we are being heard (and not just me, anybody). I rarely go to forums and typically try Google instead, but just saw blog posts asking the same thing. Love your products and will continue to buy them (and I've told others about Sonos as well). Thanks!
If you have to run a few hundred feet of speaker wire, more than likely any wireless speaker would be out of range. Personally, I doubt Sonos is going to build a truly weatherproof outdoor speaker. The logistics of outdoors, AC power, and WiFi range make for an engineering and support nightmare and is probably not worth the ROI.
Even with a next generation battery, it will not work too well for a permanently installed speaker, to be bringing it in for recharge even occasionally. It will support only taking the speaker out temporarily, within WIFi range; and to a large extent this can be done with play units in sheltered spaces even today provided a mains socket is not too far away.

Probably why Sonos is leaving this on a back burner.
Love the Sonos product! In my last house I wired speakers throughout the whole house and outside. My new house is bigger and multiple stories and wiring speakers was looking like a daunting project. No worries... in comes Sonos and all is solved! LOVE the product and the ability to easily play other music on some speakers to easily adjust volume on different speakers. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT... Now get busy and MAKE OUTDOOR SPEAKERS PRONTO!!!!!! (Thank you!)
Personally, I wouldn't get an outdoor Sonos speaker if they offered one. Price wise, I can't imagine in would be less than $250 per speaker. I would need at least 4 speakers in my yard, so that's $1000. It is cheaper to get a connect amp, plus 2 $150 pair outdoor speakers, plus wire. If there is any issue to the system due to weather, all I have to replace is the passive speakers, not the entire system.

My yard is also wide, but not very deep. Therefore it was preferred to put speakers along the back fence line then, sound coming in, then attached to the house, pushing sound to the neighbors. So my speakers are completely exposed to the elements. I wouldn't want to do that to Sonos speakers.

Besides that, I kind of enjoyed the wiring project. It's great that setting up Sonos is easy, but sometimes I missed having to do a little work.
A cover won't work because getting it to be weather proof AND acoustically transparent is close to impossible. And then there is still the unsolved problem of getting mains power in a way that is safe.
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Think it's a bit harsh to claim Sonos "Management" is ignoring this request. I'm sure it's a collective decision by their product development and engineering team that this is not a priority. Frankly I can agree. I would rather they focus their efforts on next gen Sonos speakers integration with voice assistants and being in the mix with smart homes than divert resources to solves the issue of certifiably weatherproofing a self powered sonos speaker from rain, sun, heat, ice, etc. The elements are brutal. Weatherproof speakers is one thing, weatherproof powered electronics, whole other. Also, agree with other perspectives... an outdoor speaker is a funny thing. There's many different preferences there. Lately it seems people want hidden/camouflaged speakers outside. Additionally, you have to consider a vast array of conditions that could hinder the Sonos practicality. Having access to electrical outside isn't a assumed thing. Many people would have to install new outlets to locate speakers where they want them. There's a reason the outdoor nest cam has a 25ft power cable for instance. Finally, WiFi coverage, while getting easier to solve with mesh networking etc, is also potentially problematic outside for average homeowners. All that said, perhaps you and others are prescient and we'll see Google or Amazon beat them to market with a smart outdoor speaker.
Tens of thousands? Hardly...
Tens of thousands? Hardly...

There weren't even 10,000 posts for the Windows app, and that thread was all one and dones sent here by Windows Mobile evangelists.
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I would think "views" would be an indication of interest, right? Over 40,000 for this topic.
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Notice the replies is just 13. How many of those by Sonos management?
Notice the replies is just 13. How many of those by Sonos management?

Sonos "management" have never posted on this forum, it's unrealistic to expect them to. I doubt the management of any company the size of Sonos interacts directly with users in that manner.
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I don't get the demand for an outdoor Sonos. (And I am no Sonos fanboi that defends them left and right -- I have plenty of grievances of mine own; outdoor speakers just aren't in that list.)

Sonos already delivers the optimal solution in the form of the CONNECT:AMP (or CONNECT if you want to feed a distribution amplifier because you live in a mansion and have lots of outdoor speakers to cover your outdoor area). There is no good reason to put the brains of a Sonos unit in an outdoor enclosure; in fact its probably detrimental to do so because the outdoor Sonos will very likely be out of range of your network to receive the audio at all. And outdoor form factors vary wildly (e.g., hiding speakers inside fake rocks, etc.) so no one set of outdoor speakers will suit all people. You're much better off just getting the outdoor speakers that best fit your home and power them from a CONNECT:AMP/CONNECT.
I would think "views" would be an indication of interest, right? Over 40,000 for this topic.

I view every thread whether I agree or not. Views mean nothing.
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I completely understand and I appreciate the response. Even a response is a major plus, because then we at least know we are being heard (and not just me, anybody). I rarely go to forums and typically try Google instead, but just saw blog posts asking the same thing. Love your products and will continue to buy them (and I've told others about Sonos as well). Thanks!

Thanks! We love your support too. Feel free to stick around here, lots of great suggestions and some fun tricks and tips too. Let me know if I can help with anything else.
10 year customer, have Sonos at 3 properties, #1 issue is 2 of the 3 is the need for outdoor sonos. Wifi connection is not an issue. Please please hare when we might get this overdue product!
As has been noted in many of these threads, Sonos doesn't "hare" (sic) their product roadmap, for the most part. In my memory, the only time they have done so is the integration with Amazon's Echo system. If they do end up making something like an outdoor/weatherproof speaker, we'll all find out when they release it.
Seems like the only option for outdoor speakers is to buy the sonos amp and connect weatherproof wired speakers to the amp. Not really ideal for speakers far from the house as i would have to run a few hundread feet of speaker wire. I wish there were true Sonos outdoor speakers that plug and play like the existing line of speakers. Ive read that Altec is coming out with weatherproof wifi speakers that were displayed at CES.
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If you have to run a few hundred feet of speaker wire, more than likely any wireless speaker would be out of range. Personally, I doubt Sonos is going to build a truly weatherproof outdoor speaker. The logistics of outdoors, AC power, and WiFi range make for an engineering and support nightmare and is probably not worth the ROI.

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Anyhow, I used outdoor landscape wiring, and it was very inexpensive. Grab a few hundred feet of that, a shovel, and a beer. Hide the wire and get some outdoor speakers that are designed for exactly the purpose. And keep the amp safe-and-sound in the house (and, in range of strong wireless signals).

You will not regret it.