Has anyone tried those outdoor speakers that look like rocks? I've seen them at several places and I'm wondering if the audio quality is acceptable. Are they loud enough? That's my main concern. I'd like to be able to hook them up and just leave them outdoors, as I understand they're made to withstand the elements.

Last May my wife and I built our outdoor theater behind our guest house (which houses our regular theater). We simply used marine grade plywood and some 4 x 4s. The screen is 12' x 6' (2:1 aspect ratio; a good trade-off in my opinon). We used some sealer over the seams and sanded it, and painted everything flat white using outdoor paint. When watching a movie you can't see any seams at all. I keep it covered with a tarp when not in use. And it's not going anywhere: we had bad storms late in the summer, 60mph winds that brought down trees, but the screen wasn't fazed. We used four 4 x 4s in Quickcrete. This screen is HEAVY. We buried speaker wire for 3 front speakers mounted below the screen. We also ran an outdoor outlet and S-video cable (and a coax for subwoofer hookup someday) to where I set the projector. I'm using an old Kenwood receiver and speakers currently (the receiver is indoors as well as the DVD player. I use the Radio Shack pyramids to send the signal indoors with remotes. The sound is okay. As long as it's loud enough is all that matters to me. We're not concerned too much about audio quality outdoors. These are home-theater-in-a-box speakers. Would the rock speakers be comparable? Obviously I can't leave the Kenwoods outside, but I could leave the rocks outdoors and the only thing I'd have to drag outside would be my projector.

We had a big crowd on my birthday in May and watched The Incredibles and Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster. All the kids love The Incredibles on the outdoor screen, but most were asleep shortly into the Godzilla film, except for us diehards. Since then over the summer we've had many movie nights. I try to choose 2.35:1 films since they look the best on that size screen. I'm using an old Infocus X1 for my PJ. Brightness is fine as long as you're not expecting it to look like a plasma TV or something.

If I get a chance I'll try to post some pictures. We also dug out a firepit and put sandstone around it for fall movies. Right now it's just too cold to get out there but I'm looking forward to spring time.

Sounds like for your set up the rock speakers would be ideal. It is nice to read others having fun like we do with our outdoor theater... :)

I have a pair of rock subwoofers in my back yard and they sound fantastic. I have a total of 8 speakers outside and they're all weatherproofed.

Great idea about the rock speakers. I would love to have some permanent camouflaged speakers out there in my backyard, and actually where I place the screen (on my back fence, where there is a garden in front of the fence, would be the perfect location for the rock speakers.)

I am currently using a set of Kenwood HTIB speakers that are about 7 years old or so. They work great, but--like others here--I am really tired of setting them up and tearing them down.

So I am also interested in getting a set--perhaps I will start with 2.1 to test out, and if that work out, move up to a center speaker, and then surrounds (although the surrounds could be simple deck speakers, since my deck is behind the viewing area.)

I have a total of 6 indoor/outdoor speakers in addition to the two rock subwoofers. I only have to bring my projector inside, everything else is kept outside 24x7.

Do you think it is necessary to get a sub? I actually only use my L R C speakers (no sub) with my old Kenwoods, and they seem to do the trick. But I don't know how these rock speakers compare in quality, so would I pull enough bass through them to go without a sub?

And are your 6 indoor/outdoor speakers rock speakers? I get the impression that they aren't.

I have a total of 6 indoor/outdoor speakers in addition to the two rock subwoofers. I only have to bring my projector inside, everything else is kept outside 24x7.

Can you share the make/model of your outdoor subs? I've been looking at lots of options for this year. from buired subs, to lugging out new monitors, and so on... Thanks.

Keep in mind that my goal is to have the entire system set up so that I leave everything outside 24x7x365 so that I can watch a movie outside as easily as I can watch one on my home theater which is inside my house. The only thing that I still need to do is build a waterproof enclosure for my projector.

My center "speaker" is a pair of KLH 990-AW speakers. They are mounted on either side of my screen. My front left and right speakers are a pair of KLH 980-B speakers. The KLH speakers are supposedly waterproofed and they are meant to be left outside where rain will fall directly on them. I'm using a pair of speakers mounted on the edges of my screen (the screen is permanent) instead of a single speaker to overcome the way that sound dissipates outside. Inside I would only need one of the speakers.

My rear surround speakers are a pair of Phoenix Gold Ato5 speakers. They are mounted under the eaves of my house because the manufacturer states that they are not weatherproof, they are weather resistant and they will be damaged if they are mounted where rain and snow will fall directly on them. They're better speakers than the KLH ones are and if it wasn't for the fact that they aren't as weather resistant as the KLH speakers I would have them mounted as my center "speaker". I don't feel like replacing them every year so I have them installed where the manufacturer recommended.

My subwoofers are a pair of OSD HF26 rock subwoofers. I didn't think that I needed them and I was happy with the quality of the sound until I bought them. Now that I have them I can't imagine putting together an outdoor home theater system without them. They add another dimension to the sound. I probably did not need to get two of them, but I wanted to make sure that the entire yard is covered without needing a massive amplifier which could potentially annoy my neighbors.

Cool setup. I just need a backyard now. I'm in between houses right now. I set up wherever I find a Plug and some space. Keeping my sound modest right now with two wireless speakers and my DV10 projector, and my Gemmy.

All those outdoor theaters are great. Good job everyone. If I ever get a secluded house one day, I will be giving it a try. There is too many kids and I would have to worry about theft, I have had outdoor speakers stolen before.

All of my speakers except two of them are mounted high enough that you need a ladder to get to them and those two are heavy enough that they aren't easy to walk away with. In addition when I set up an enclosure for my projector it's going to be locked so that I don't have to worry about it walking away.

The best sounding outdoor surround speaker system I have used in the homes of Dan Marino & Pat Riley (for example) has genrally been N.E.A.R. speakers, they were Abs molded, now they have Rock models that I am sure have to be the very best Rock speakers. Check em out and rock on...

I am not particularly interested in great rock speakers--therefore, I ordered almost the cheapest pair I could find (I never order the cheapest), but the specs pretty much match the speakers I am currently using for my outdoor theater. They should arrive today! I'll post more about them when I get them up and going!

So I will start with these two, then perhaps move on to a sub and surrounds if I think it would be necessary. The thing is, most people are pretty much wowed by the size and without walls, the audio sounds pretty good, whether you use really nice speakers or cheaper ones.

I got my rock speakers, and they sound great. Anyone have any thoughts about burying the speaker lines? Can they be buried straight in the dirt, or should I run them through a tube of some sort, like pvc? Any particular speaker cable to use?

I think anything that can withstand moisture and insects would be good enough

NEAR speakers are very good.

I got my rock speakers, and they sound great. Anyone have any thoughts about burying the speaker lines? Can they be buried straight in the dirt, or should I run them through a tube of some sort, like pvc? Any particular speaker cable to use?

I always recommend running outside lines in some form of conduit (outdoor conduit, you don't want condensation). You don't know how many times I've been working the the yard, stuck the shovel in the ground to keep it upright, and find out I've miraculously hit one of my lines. I'm sure the odds are small, but I've managed to do it a few times.

I always recommend running outside lines in some form of conduit (outdoor conduit, you don't want condensation). You don't know how many times I've been working the the yard, stuck the shovel in the ground to keep it upright, and find out I've miraculously hit one of my lines. I'm sure the odds are small, but I've managed to do it a few times.

What, like PVC or metal conduit?

What, like PVC or metal conduit?

I've always use PVC (they have different grades, I use the dark-grey PVC), because it can bend.

They do make burial speaker cables, but PVC conduit is better.

So, in terms of the speaker wire, it can get fairly expensive when buying true "speaker" wire. Can't you just use something like 12 gauge lamp wire, or something similar that you can buy in bulk from Home Depot?

OK--I used 16 gauge outdoor low-voltage wire found by the outdoor lighting at Home Depot. The stuff worked great, and is much cheaper than speaker wire. Was able to bury it from the back of my yard in our garden, where the two rock speakers sit, and run it in pvc to my house, where I run it into our basement and hook it into my current receiver that is down there. It sounds great! Much better than I expected! We actually used the speakers quite a bit over the weekend as we did some yard work and work on our deck.

Now I am adding a Cat 5 port out under my deck where I can just plug my projector into it for the DVD source (using Cat5 and baluns). Now, all I will have to do is bring out my projector, plug it in, and put up my screen, and I am good to go! (Before, I used to have to bring out and hook up my speakers, screen, projector, receiver, and DVD player, and wire everything together to watch an oudoor movie. This year should be significantly better.

Since my receiver and DVD player are inside, I am going to have to put together a good IR repeater (likely going to use my Leap Frog RF AV extender--the picture and sound it sends can be pretty bad, and subject to interference, but the IR portion works just fine. I should be able to use it outside to control my DVD player and receiver inside. Looking forward to some good movie viewing this year outdoors!

Hi Guys

I wonder if any of you could help. I'm moving house in the next year so I'm not spending an awful lot on sound for the deck are. I have a Sonos system and have a ZP100 driving a pair of polk Atrium 45's, but would like a bit more bass. I have about 3ft cralspace under the deck, so I figured rock sub (osd-HF26) from outdoorspeakerdepot.com would suffice. I figure I'd just buy a used sub amp of ebay, but have no idea how to hook it up. I have seen this amp on ebay and wondered of it would work. http://www.anderson-mark.com/Galleries/movies/images/IMG_3188.JPG. If so, would I just take the LR RCA connections to the Pre-in and the to sub red and black to the sub? What's the servo interface for?

Unfortunately outdoorspeakerdept have no pics of the rear of the subs or the sub amp they sell and didn'tt respond to my questions, so I'm a bit stuck

TIA

Mark

I recently tried the same thing with OSD's AP850's running from my ZP100, when I turned it up it clipped bad and I thought I blew it up.. Thank goodness I didn't. A hard reset fixed it. Passed that, I now have two of the Carver M400t (Cube Amps) for power. One is running the two 850's and the other is going to run mono to the HF26. This is a wonderful setup especially with the Sonos heading the action. What a wonderful device. The carver does a WONDERFUL job powering the 850's, it scares the corn. I can only wait until the sub gets here.