Installs Permanent outdoor sound system

[Anonymous067]

Slightly off topic but...

I have a pool house that we built at my house last year. It is aprox. 10*12*14 (lwh), and completely weathered and four seasoned...well...minus the no heat factor.

I want to put a small sound system out there...
Something along the lines of 2 outdoor speakers mounted under an overhang, and two inside (probably mounted to the wall).
I'd like to actually run a professional version of this, not your "home stereo" setup.

Any ideas?

I'm really in need of good outdoor speaker recommendations.

Seeing that I won't be using a distributed audio receiver like in home theaters, should I be worrying about stuff like limiting and clip protection?

I would like to have a small lockable cabinet inside with EQ, limiting, mixing (4-8 input channels idealy), rack mounted radio, and ipod (1/8" hookup), and the amplifier.

Any other thoughts?

 

[avkid]

If you really want to go for it Community R Series is the answer.
R-SERIES

One Systems also makes some attractive options.
One Systems USA

If you wish to spend ridiculous amounts of money I could have a short run made by my "people".

 

[derekleffew]

OWI makes a line of very good weatherized loudspeakers. I especially like these:

L.A. Rockers Speakers

 

[rwhealey]

I see JBL Control series outside at amusement parks and such. I'm not too familiar with the product line, but I've liked what I've heard.

 

[museav]

There are many options for outdoor speakers and many speakers can be ordered in 'weatherized' versions, but for overhang mounted Community (either the R or WET series) or One Systems that Phil mentioned along with Technomad are the first that come to mind as being intended specifically for that type of application.

Also consider what you use for cabling and connections outdoors, you might want a direct burial type cable, I specify the West Penn Wire Aquaseal cables for many outdoor systems.

As far as limiting and clip protection, that all depends on the components and even more on how you operate the system. If you select the components to provide plenty of acoustic and electronic headroom and don't push the system then it may not be critical, but if you might push the system hard sometimes then I would consider it. You might even want to look at a DSP that would let you process the indoor and outdoor speakers separately. And if it has some external control inputs you could probably pretty easily use the DSP to mute and/or adjust the volume for the indoor and outdoor speaker pairs.

 

[BillESC]

I'd take a look at EV's EVID series of speakers. We've installed lots of them in outdoor applications, both home and commercial. Excellent coverage and reproduction.

EVID Series - Electrovoice

 

[dvsDave]

my uncle had a nice pair of Bose 151 or 251 (can't remember exactly) marine speakers that have been on his back deck for a decade and they still sound great. He took great care with wiring and making sure that the wires could withstand the elements as well. Make sure you take wiring into consideration when spec'ing out your project.

 

[Anonymous067]

I like.....

EVID 4.2 - Electrovoice

these.

Any suggested amps?
Professional amps that is...

And what about zone controllers?
I was looking at dBx's...but they're all using UNBALANCED rca ins. I refuse.

other options?

 

[BillESC]

Denon/Marantz makes several tuner/amplifiers that feature multi zone control.

 

[Anonymous067]

I see EV has two models of each the 3.2 (3.2t), 4.2 (4.2t), and 6.2 (6.2t).

I understand the difference is the 70 volt vs the 100 volt. One of them is switchable between the two (the "t" version I assume?). But what voltage is the plain "6.2" or 4.2"? 100 or 70?

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous067]

Better question...

which one of these should I get if I want to hook it up to a standard Pro-grade amp.
(not home-theater stuff).