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I'm building a screened porch on the back of my house and am looking for ideas for speakers. I'm willing to buy used or DIY but would like to stay under $400.The space is 16x20 with a solid wall on one side and screens on the others. I can mount speakers on posts, suspend them from rafters, or put them on the one solid wall. To a large degree, size does not matter.
I can prevent direct sun or rain on the speakers, but can't avoid the temperature and humidity extremes of Washington, DC weather.
Music is mostly jazz and popular. Volumes usually (but not always) moderate.
Thanks in advance for your ideas,
Follow Ups:
on outdoor, weatherproof speakers.
Oh man, I can't remember what I picked up but I just read a magazine article with a whole listing of weather proof speakers. I think nearly all were under $400. Let me see if I can put my hands on what it was.
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I went shopping aboout 10 years ago for outdoor speakers to mount inside my screened porch (we call it the "Florida room"). Didn't know much then and picked up a pair of weather-proof Bose (sacrilidge!!!). They are just fine for outdoor use - I can turn them up without distortion or overloading (not like some others I've heard). There are better, but these have taken it for 10 years, winter & summer, and still sound decent.On another note, you can get a pair of AR 215PS speakers for $50 from J and R. These beauties are not weather proof, but they sound damn good and for only $50 who cares if they only last 3-4 years. I use them in the basement home theatre system (3 pairs for a 6.1 surround).
I don't have the extreme weather you have in DC. You guys have real weather, but where I am at extreme winds, dust, freezing and days of 115+ degree temps are the norm. I bought a pair of Energy Excel speakers, ran my speaker wires behind the fascia board of the house and into a junction box with banana plugs. Next it was on to Home Depot scrounging through the hardware section, getting various and sundry screws and "L" brackets. I then hooked up the speakers in a way that I can remove them from their handing locations by undoing two wingnuts and unplugging the lines from the junction box.Weather bad? Speakers are in the house. I quickly reached the conclusion I could get great sound on my patio on the cheap by employing a little bit of ingenuity. They want an arm and a leg for those lovely outdoor speakers.
If you want to go real cheap.......I think Best Buy has a cheap pair of StereoStone type speakers available for $99.
He listened to several sets of "weatherproof" speakers and found that in general they cost twice the price of good budget speakers which have better performance. Since the speakers were to be protected from sun and rain he took the chance and bought some good budget Tannoy M2s. He figured that if they have to be replaced in a couple of years he would just buy the "hot shot" budget speakers of the time. The Tannoys still work fine today and sound great.
Very nice weatherproof speakers, even new can be found around $350...
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