Replacement material for dirt when using in-ground outdoor omnidirectional speakers

[taylornobody]

I have an unorthodox question.

I bought outdoor omnidirectional speakers that are supposed to be buried say 4 inches into the ground to have optimal performance (according to manufacturer and everyone else that owns them):
TIC GS5
Amazon.com: TIC GS5 5" Compact Outdoor Weather-Resistant Omnidirectional In-Ground Speakers (pair): Home Audio & Theater

The catch is I can't bury them (we can go into the details later). So I was planning on putting them in large planter/flower pots. However, I don't know if adding soil into the pot to pack in the speaker will yield the same result as as burying them since soil in pots tends to be dry/looser/less compact as burying them in the ground. I was trying to determine what the best material would be to fill in the flower pots.

I originally was thinking just concrete, but that might not bond to the plastic of the speaker and therefore eventually decouple because of expansion/contraction/vibrations and then just vibrate up against rigid concrete which could add/subtract weird sounds when used. Then I started thinking about maybe using a mix of clay and soil which I could control the density to replicate soil. I would think the best material would ideally compact to form a nice tight surrounding around the speaker but still be able to dampen the plastic vibration and mimic the resonance of the speaker when traditionally buried.

Does anyone have any ideas/thoughts/comments/etc?

Thanks!

 

[chrisb]

Crushed glass sandblasting media? I’ve used in the past for filling hollow metal tubed equipment & speaker stands, as well as large void chambers in speaker enclosures.

 

[tomchr]

Large flower pots/planters filled with gravel should work.

Tom

 

[taylornobody]

Crushed glass sandblasting media? I’ve used in the past for filling hollow metal tubed equipment & speaker stands, as well as large void chambers in speaker enclosures.

Thanks!. Why did you end up choosing that material vs something else? Pros/cons/etc

 

[Galu]

Clay absorbent granules?

Oil Absorbent Granules | Clay Granules | 20 Litres :: YellowShield

 

[chrisb]

Taylor, I chose the crushed glass as is was a readily available and much cheaper alternative to lead / copper gun shot that was in vogue before ROHS became a religion. I’ve also used clay based kitty litter for filling enclosed speaker void, it doesn’t have the mass density of glass, and I’d be a bit concerned about moisture with it. Decorative landscape rock or pea gravel would certainly work as well.

But there’s probably many ways to skin this cat. PETA relax, that’s just a figure of speech

 

[Refugee1]

Building sand is pretty cheap and dense. It really depends on what is under them. They could just be clamped to the floor. I guess that they are an infinite baffle design so there would be very little movement in any direction anyway.