Took me a while to grasp the different between car audio and home audio, and why car speakers aren't great in a large space.
So, how do outdoor speakers compare to car/home audio.
Yes, materials used are different. Sound quality is sacrificed for more durable components. Are they still suitable indoors ?
So, how do outdoor speakers compare to car/home audio.
Yes, materials used are different. Sound quality is sacrificed for more durable components. Are they still suitable indoors ?
Outdoor loudspeakers usually are mounted on-wall, so their frequency response are tailored for those conditions - they have elevated mid to high frequencies, because proximity of wall will reinforce low frequency band. Also, their crossovers usually are overly simplistic - just capacitor as tweeter filter and nothing else.
Mounted on walls. I have listened to lots & lots of speakers outdoors and not once was there a wall involved.
dave
dave
I've used a lot of the JBL outdoor speakers, 70V and also non transformer. Some of them would do well inside, but there might be better choices for the money.
Of course they can be mounted on poles or trees where there is no wall in proximity. But in my practice most of the application were in patios/courtyards, where the walls were inevitable (and very helpful).
Almost all outdoor speakers have subdued bass, so the wall provides necessary bass boost.
Broad projection/dispersion is not a characteristic of outdoor speakers only. In fact, most of them have short horn/wave-guide for the tweeter.
Not so sure about the design of the speakers for the listening environment, I think it really comes down to their ability to deal with the weather.
I wouldnt think necessarily so regarding SQ. I mean, it's still gotta be a speaker worthy of actually listening to - who makes some; Bose, Klipsch, JBL, Definitive Tech - or it would not sell so good. Presumably; maybe they're all crap and to market to the North American consumer, all you need is a believable brand name. The technology is definitive, so it must be good, right?
Does an outdoor speaker measure differently than its indoor counterpart? I've no idea, but that would be the place where I'd start. At least to weed out grist from chaff.
There's all those marine speakers too - the ones that hang from a boat's roll bar the waterskiers hook their ropes to - do they all sound terrible too, just because they're a "boat" speaker? I've never measured one, you? Anyone? I mean whomever builds these must at least try to make it have a flat frequency response across a respectable range, or, who'd not just return them because they sound like ship?
If you have a boat, maybe the whole rack thing the speakers hang from comes off - and you can set it up in your livingroom during the winter. I bet I'm the first to think of that as speaker stands...maybe they even have audiophile versions that are sand filled to damp the stainless steel pipe structure panchromatic resonances - and other highly ambient domains.
Outdoor speakers are weatherized and that usually means coating the cones with some sort of plastic substance. That wreaks havoc with the sound quality in most cases. It stiffens up the surround on the woofers raising their low frequency cut off which is already hurt by being in an open environment so there is no bass boost from walls etc. they are made to make noise not quality sound. In general they end up being mostly mids with no real low or high end. They are also usually small so as not to be an eyesore. Unless you have massive woofers with massive power behind them you won’t have and real bass and who wants that in their yard?
The primary characteristic is dust/water protection (as per IP standard), of course. But almost all outdoor speakers have elevated mid/high frequencies.
https://www.iec.ch/ip-ratings
I disagree. Various coatings are routinely used in hi-fi drivers, many of them are water-repellent by their nature. Much lauded polypropylene cones also.
Surrounds are mostly made of water-repellent rubber/foam (or coated pleated surround cloth), which do not raise the driver resonant frequency by itself. Higher resonant frequency (higher low frequency cut off) is designer choice because of the necessity of higher efficiency (Hofmann's iron law).
Yes, that is true.
That is simply prejudice. What an indictment of all outdoor capable speakers. I suppose my metal cone / butyl rubber surround Mark Audio FRs would only "make noise" until their cones oxidized away after several years of continuous exposure...
For all anyone knows, it might take decades to rot away a metal cone / butyl surround speaker, until which time it would probably still sound as good as right after break-in. Are you sure no one makes an outdoor speaker with FR metal cones, along with some outdoor environment hardened cabinet?
Isn't this true for 99% of 2way speakers that retail upto $200/pair?
(I don't know this for a fact, but I've dismantled over 100 speakers for parts in the past year. Some had no high or low pass filter at all, specially the subwoofers, most had a single capacitor. Literally 3models had a crossover that included an inductor)
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I made the question vague just to find how usable outdoor speakers are indoors.
I was given a pair of unused leviton outdoor speakers, I was going to keep the gold plated binding post terminals and toss the rest but, saw that most of the components are JBL Architectural Edition. they're tiny metal enclosure but stuffed with fiberglass, the 5" woofers have dual magnets, kevlar cones, each cross over has 2 caps, 2 inductors and a resistor. IDK if its crap, these features are nicer than most speakers I've dismantled.
Sound's very crisp. Nothing special about its sensitivity or power handling (88db 1w/m, 65watt rms, 130watt max).
F3 is 50hz. which is a little weird for 5" woofer.
I didnt test them near a wall, just spent a few minutes making sure they work before I dismantled them. Free standing in the middle of my garage they're neither warm nor bright, (very flat). I don't even know if they actually go to 50hz.
These would be for indoor home theatre use, maybe even use just one as a center channel if I can equalize it enough to play nice with the other speakers.
Should I put back together, keep, & test. Or is trying to use outdoor speakers for this purpose an obvious time waster?
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Keep. Outdoor speakers are not intended for critical listening. They fill a void and can often deal with a bit of bad weather. I have a patio I bring a pair out for at Hallowe'en and Christmas, for scary sounds and then hohoho! For real outdoor listening I take indoor speakers outdoors. From what you mentioned about their build, I see no reason to mess with them.
I edited my last post, if I keep it would only be for indoor use. I'm already set with louder more convenient outdoor speakers.
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Yeah - ones that look like GM's avatar... Scares everyone for miles around! ;')