Re: Outdoor Speakers (WAS: whole house component suggestions)

["paul gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

>At 08:08 20/06/00 +0000, you wrote:
> >This kind of stuff is obviously "specialist" (read
expensive!)  :-0
>
>Of course, but cheaper than a remote control preamp :-)   ... but read
on,
>there may be a bargain to be had!
>
>The Rockustic ones start at £100 inc VAT each and go up to over £1000
(for

Wife...


>a sub speaker which is about 1m^3 (you bury 2/3 of it!) and weighs
>113.7kg!  That's even heavier than me!)
>

Wife!!! - NASCIH!! (Not a Snowball's....) - I haven't even managed to sneak
a sub into the living room yet!


>They also have "Audio Design Services 'Mole' Underground
Loudspeaker, which
>costs £150, and the JBL Control 1 AW ('W' is weatherproof) for
£400/pair,
>and various others at the same sort of prices.

Wife...


>
>What might be of more interest (I've not heard them myself) are the
"Audio
>Design Services Nautilus" speakers, priced at £17.33 +VAT for a
>pair!  Worth a shot- I'd not noticed them in the catalogue before, or
I'd

Yes, this is of more interest! - got any details/URL's/contacts?


>have had a pair of those in the bathroom instead!  They won't be the
>highest-fi at that price, but might be fine, and probably better than
car

Likewise - I could also do with something for in the bathroom...

>speakers.  Bear in mind that car speakers have the benefit of a nice
echoey
>car- the mightn't sound so good outside.

Judging by some of the ******'s that drive past my house with their
mega-bass tubes rattling my house windows, perhaps it might actually sound
better outside!!!!

Cabriolet's?? Or, if the space inside the "rock" is left hollow
(as in
mounting option 2), would this not provide at least something of a
resonance
chamber? - at least akin to small bookshelf hifi speakers?

>
> >more, (say about £60/pair) some half-decent quality ones can be
had. This
> >would be more than hi-fi enough for my garden!
> >
> >The hard bit is figuring out the best method of construction and
> >weatherproofing....
>
>There are several things-
>1) You need to keep water off the speakers themselves

Yep, but I don't see that as being particularly difficult as they would be
enclosed in concrete!! - obviously there has to be somewhere for the sound
to "come out", but water can't run upwards!

>2) You don't want the waterproofing to mess with the sound too much
Agreed - I'm kinda thinking that gravity may be of some assistance here -
water can't run uphill, and I'm not prone to flooding or standing water in
my garden. At worst perhaps a moisure barrier aroung the entire car speaker
before fixing into the "rock"? - in the past I have put
bin-liners over my
hi-fi speakers to protect them from being filled with beer/fag-butts during
wild parties! - I never noticed any degradation with that arrangement...

>3) You need to protect the cones from UV, or they probably won't last
more
>than a year

I envisage them being totally 100% covered (from above anyway), and so
never
exposed to UV - however, what about when car speakers are used in their
"correct" environment - the rear shelf of a car gets LOADS of
UV... these
would be better protected than in normal use!

>
>If you can't find a waterproof speaker that you like, you'd probably be
>best to either remove them when you're not using them, or make a cover
that
>will keep the light and rain out, but not completely sealed to avoid
mould
>and condensation building up- eg open at the bottom.

I would envisage that whichever construction technique I employed, the
enclosure would not be totally sealed - I'd have to leave somewhere for the
sound to radiate from, so there would be an opening somewhere.

>But at that price, the Nautilus ones must be worth a try!

Definately! - especially if it saves me all that work!

>
>Nigel
>

Finally, I do remember seeing a review in What Hi-Fi several years ago for
some "proper" indoor HiFi speakers that were constructed of
concrete -
mightily expensive and quite well rated IIRC...

Paul G.


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