20 Best Outdoor Surround Sound System (2022 Updated)

These speakers are great for our outdoor patio area. I like that they are standalone (no amp required) and Bluetooth connectable. So when you’re entertaining they’re perfect. If you’re an audiophile and demand nothing but the best sound, obviously you’ll be paying a LOT more.

But all in all, sound is really good, especially considering the outdoor application. Also, easy installation and connectivity.

These speakers were purchased to hang near the ceiling of a large screened in porch. The idea was to stream sound from my seriously speaker deficient LED projector to the Pyle speakers, and enjoy “drive in movies” on muggy summer evenings.

I had to purchase a bluetooth 4 transmitter for the projector, and once it was assembled the system worked perfectly. I only have the Pyle speakers turned up about 1/4 of the way. Any higher and my neighbors would no longer speak to me.

The hanging brackets are rugged and the Pyle logo rotates in any direction to read correctly when mounted in any position. Well done! My only complaint is I wish the speakers came with a remote control for fine tuning the sound or turning off.

The on/off/volume control is ten feet off the ground. I can turn off by unplugging an extension cord running to the floor.

purchased this product to provide sound to holloween and Christmas light shows. replaced worn out speaker system. sound is fantastic, loud and clear. these have been in at least 2 heavy rains with no problems.

the bluetooth function works very well with the lap top we use for the light shows about 35 feet away inside the house. our front yard is about 100×200 feet and the speakers cover it well. in fact we have had to crank the volume back because you could hear them behind the church across the street.

would purchase again in a heart beat.

The speakers have a solid feel to them and material seem to be of good quality. Sound quality is great when positioned well. Youll get more bass when positioned against a solid surface like a wall. High and midrange sound is good.

Personally I like the option of hardwired speakers over Bluetooth. I never need to Worry about the battery running out during a party and having torecharge them as I would with wireless/Bluetooth. I hooked the speakers up to an old AM/FM receiver, which was connected to a echo dot to which I streamed music directly from my phone.

I received two of these. One was dead. The seller quickly sent me another and told me to trash the broken one. I took it apart before discarding it and found it to be only a one way speaker with a whizzer cone.

No soft dome ferro fluid dome tweeter as indicated in the description. The magnet had fallen off the rear of the speaker which is why it didnt work. I would have never known it wasn’t a two way if it worked when i got it.

These speakers sound crisp and clear. The sound is directional so the sound is contained to the area they are set up in, which is great when you want to turn it up and you dont want to piss off your neighbors.

By themselves you can tell they are speakers that were made to look like rocks, but if you add so plants around them, they blend right in. I love them and Im happy that I added them to my patio project! I paired them with Sonos Connect and Im streaming all my favorite songs and playlists from all my favorite streaming services.

I was a little hesitant about all of the outdoor speakers I looked at. I chose these because of the price. I put them up, linked them through bluetooth and they worked well. I haven’t run a line to them from a cd player yet, but I don’t expect any issues.

I’ll try to update this review once I do. At this point I’m happy with my purchase and haven’t experienced any of the negative issues some others have.

PROs: The Pyle PDWR40W produce a clear crisp sound. They are plenty loud enough for a noisy space. The mounting hardware is easy to figure out and use. The price was right for a set of “garage” speakers.

CONs: What they make up for in price, they lack in warm sound quality next to my Yamaha Outdoor Speakers. Side by side Id say they handle the highs and lows fine but lack in the midrange. The wires in the box may not be sized properly for high wattage output.

OVERALL: This is a quality set of speakers for the value. If you don’t require concert hall sound , then these will do fine.

Outdoor mounting brackets are nice. Speakers have decent crisp mid and highs, but the lows are 100% junk. No punch whatsoever. They do NOT rock the patio, as I read in other reviews. 400 watts max? Yeah right.

more like 20 watts. Thought the $50 price tag was too good to be true. And it was. My Bluetooth speaker set up I was previously using before these sounds WAY better. Im starting to think these are knock offs and not even real Pyles.

At least they look nice.

If you are looking for a Bluetooth enabled set of speakers, these are the ones. They can be hardwired directly to sound system. The set comes with metal mounting brackets, screws and anchors. 16′ of speaker wire to connect the active to the passive.

Very easy to setup, plug in the main speaker turn on your Bluetooth device and scan, then connect. Great sound and they can handle a lot of power. They are heavier than I expected, good construction and can handle being outside.

Bluetooth range depends on what you are transmitting through. I have them on my screened in porch and used my phone to connect; 15′ away and a brick wall is the max for my situation. My tablet has a short transmission range, so it is about 5-6 feet.

I highly recommend these speakers.

Good basic sound for outdoor listening. I’m going to purchase another set for the side yard fire pit area. I would recommend purchasing the “new” and not refurbished. Although the model 62 is only 2″ bigger, they look massive, but they do have a bit better bass.

I suggest purchasing a remote power switch because the on/off power switch is on the back and a bit hard to reach if you mount the speakers higher that 6 ft.

Apparently Pyle makes speakers well, but the electronics they put in this unit. worse than a joke. it is fraud. i opened and just rewired to bypass the electronics and just use them both as passive speakers.

And now they are usable. The entire bluetooth / “300watt amp” is no larger than a credit card, has no need for a heat sink, and the dc rail cap is single 1000uf 16v haha!!! Pyle wow! please fire the dude who decided this was a good idea, and is quality product.

Shame on you guys.

Suprised by how good they sound tbh. I usually run higher end audio, but for my deck i didn’t want to spend a fortune. The distance of bluetooth i have no issue, i can go 40ft if theres a straight line to the speaker with nothing blocking.

Biggest issues i have are these. Very cheap terminals. The converter needs to be on a longer run. Having only a few feet from the speaker is terrible. If your placing the speakers high above a sliding door, the converter is right there and can’t be hidden.

So you have this black box that looks like crap and you cant do anything with. Also, the converter box needs to be %100 sealed. It gained moisture the first day it rained and wouldn’t connect via bluetooth and kept shutting off.

Used a sealant around the box to keep moisture out. Overall they do sound good, pretty sturdy. But the issues need to be fixed or you will have problems if that converter box is exposed to the weather.

If your selling weather proof speakers, you need to make sure everything is weather proof.

It was easy to install, fit my needs, and easy to use the Bluetooth on my phone. Pyle makes good audio equipment. and it is waterproof! They have been excellent to play while in the backyard and in our pool.

I ordered the larger 6. 5″ in a larger case, if you want smaller order the 5″.

The quality is pretty good for the price, these fellas are pretty fun. The cables are very short and will have to be spliced to some additional speaker cable, so make sure to get buried speaker cable.

This speaker at this price is good. I thought there would be better sound quality. But for the cost its good. If you want a secondary speaker for your system this is a good choice.

I should have ordered a larger speaker. This is my fault. The speakers put out a good sound but a larger speaker would have been better

This product was the last addition to complete my Bose 700 surround system. Watching movies that have 5. 1 audio especially marvel and Michael Bay’s movie became more immersive. Sometimes I forget that I have surround sounds and think there is a bird in my house chirping, a car is passing by or glass breaking.

I tried to use it as whole house music speaker (like Sonos One) but I do not recommend it because it sounded too tinny. They complement the soundbar but are horrible as standalone speakers. As much as I enjoy them for watching movies I think they are OVERPRICED for what it’s for.

For $550 + $50 for metal wall brackets I could have purchase a PlayStation 5 bundled with a second controller and one video game. I will be keeping mine because it completes my surround system but I think for some people it’s not financially justifiable.

Smaller than expected. Sounds absolutely great for size. Looks and feels fantastic. Well engineered, built, and pleasing to the eye. However, Sounds best with music or TV with 5. 1 content. I paired mine with Bose soundbar 900, and because the soundbar is so great and tries to fill the entire space with sound, so I lower center channel of the sound bar until sound between soundbar and surrounds speakers was optimized for my liking.

Would definitely recommend them. However, they are pricy. I did not give an excellent for value as they are costly and not sure if they are worth as much as they sell for.

After a lot of studying, I purchased the Sonance Garden Series system for the audio portion of my outdoor renovation project. I have been thrilled beyond belief with my choice. We use this system around our pool/deck area.

It is fantastic. With the distributed 8 speaker system you get a wonderful blanket of sound/music. When you have a social event, this means that people can have conversations through out the space while having a nice blanket of music surrounding them that doesn’t disturb them as you don’t have one area of loud music where central speakers are located.

With this system, you also can have a nice level of music without disturbing the neighbors. By positioning the 8 speakers around the periphery of your yard/garden and aiming them back toward your outdoor entertainment area (away from neighbors), you get wonderful coverage and sound that is not amplified at your neighbors.

It is incredible! As for installation, it is work but it’s also what was expected. You have to run the speaker wire for the two channels (R+L) around the area you are installing the speakers and you have to dig a rather large hole to install the sub (which works wonders).

The instructions provided are very good. I really can’t say enough about the audio performance of the system. The audio performance is very impressive. Since putting this around the pool area, I was so taken with it, I have added in a MAG 4.

1 system in the courtyard. As I am driving the pool area Sonance Garden system off of Sonos Port for streaming music, this creates a multi-zone system controlled by Sonos and driven by Sonance speakers.

Just installed the SGS 8. 1 series system in my pool area. Being someone who is very critical of sound systems, I am unbelievably happy with this system. It fills my yard with sound to include incredible bass response from the buried subwoofer.

It integrated seamlessly with my Sonos system which is a pleasure to manage. If you’re looking for a solid outdoor sound system, look no further. The Magnolia team who did the install was great to work with as well, communication was great, and project was completed as promised.

This system sounds fantastic around my pool. I have my sonos system providing the music through the Sonance amp. The sub woofer provides solid bass and the eight distributed speakers fill the large area with evenly distributed sound.

Believe me when I say this system sounds great from low to high volume. I am a promoter and all my friends are asking what is this system. Totally worth a listen if you are looking for a really nice looking and sounding system.

I purchased this Samsung HW-S50B soundbar, hoping to use it on an older Samsung plasma flat screen TV that we have in the basement. I like to go down there and watch movies when the kids are using our main TV, so I was hoping to be able to improve the sound quality a bit with this product.

Unfortunately for me, i couldn’t get it to pair with my older TV (I know, my fault). Unboxing was easy, and it’s a small soundbar that will fit just about anywhere. In the box you will find the soundbar, power cable, HDMI cable, remote, batteries, and hardware for wall installation (if you want to do that).

Getting everything connected was simply enough, but the spot where you connect power cord and HDMI cable was at an awkward angle, on the bottom of the soundboard (see picture). I would have liked this to be on the back of the soundboard instead.

The sounboard has 4 spots for plugging things in; 1 for power, 1 micro USB, one HDMI (arc), and 1 optical audio cable. My older TV does not have Bluetooth capability, so i tried to connect it with the HDMI cable but could not get this to work either (probably because my TV doesn’t have an ‘arc’ HDMI input).

So, i will have to purchase an optical audio cord if i want to use this on my older TV *sad face* For the purpose of this review, i connected the soundbar to my Samsung smartphone, which was super easy.

I played some music off of YouTube and watch some Netflix so i could test out the sound quality. It had great amplification, with clear audio. I would say the audio quality if quite good, but with it being a 3.

0 channel unit, the bass isn’t as cinematic as it would be if there was a separate subwoofer. So, if you are looking to improve on your TVs audio quality without spending too much money, or just want to listen to music in your room from your phone, this would be a good option.

However, if you want deeper bass, i would recommend looking for something with a dedicated subwoofer, like a 3. 1 or a 5. 1 unit.

I’ve been holding off on a soundbar for reasons that I have a small room and didn’t see the need. However when the opportunity came where I can have an all-in-one soundbar without the subwoofer, I became interested.

It is certainly an upgrade to my Samsung TV Speakers. I used to need to turn the volume higher in order to hear better and even then, the dialogue wasn’t clear. With the HW-S60B, I have the capabilities to enhance the clearness of the dialogue.

I notice the difference as I don’t need to turn the volume as high anymore to hear the conversations. The soundbar has the feature to focus that into your direct hearing range. It is also different now because the sounds can emit from corresponding areas to give you that surround sound experience.

I opted for the HW-S60B because I’m utilizing in a small bedroom so didn’t need the subwoofer. It does the job well in filling the room with sound at low volumes already. Physical set up was very easy and made convenient with wire management in mind.

It sat perfectly under my TV. Hardware setup or setting the soundbar to work when you turned on the TV was more of a process where I had to explore myself as instructions were limited. You need to download the smart things app in order to connect.

You can connect via Bluetooth, wireless or cable. I chose the wireless connection route. At first, I turned on TV and soundbar is connected but there was no dialogue coming out, only the bgm. I had to play around with the modes before figuring out I need to be in the right mode to correctly hear the dialogue.

Also, maybe because it’s connected through wireless and it’s only as good as your connection, there are noticeable jumps in between dialogues and it is noticeable. That was day 1 but after a week, I haven’t notice that issue anymore.

I also used it to play music using Spotify. Noticeably, your bass isn’t going to be what you expect if you had a subwoofer. And since it’s voice focused, maybe certain type of music fairs better. There are other small nitpicks like hard to identify the volume if you’re using the accompanying remote.

I rather use the TV remote. There’s a tap and play function on the soundbar which you can tap your phone on it to play what’s on your phone but that function doesn’t seem to want to work on the lightest tap.

Again, I would reinstate that there should have been more instructions. Although it does have its flaws, it’s a much better sound experience for me now.

To start, this sound bar is way better than expected. The sound quality is high-end and excellent. The highs are high sparkly and clear, the mids are great and stay consistent, and the bass and lows are very strong and punchy.

I thought that since this did not come with a separate subwoofer, that it would be good sounding but not excellent especially with the base. But boy was I wrong! The presets are what you want, it’s not like they give you five presets with all them being junk except one which was the case with my last soundbar.

The settings are even more adjustable with the remote. I figured at the price point of $349. 99 at Best buy these days that this wasn’t going to be anything good but I was very wrong! The engineers really cared about putting out a decent sound on this one! The Dolby is there and is true.

Sounds best mounted or on a table. A big shout out to the engineers at Samsung! As for the design and materials I love it! Right when I first set my eyes on it I thought it was so attractive slim sleek cute clean and modern up to date.

I like the capsule shape. As purely for preference I don’t like fabric on the speakers with the fabric covering because it’s hard to clean and it can easily rip and once it gets ripped it looks junky and ruined but this sound bar does not have the fabric so I love that about it I don’t have to worry about ripping the fabric and it’s also much easier to clean.

The front of the speaker is one consistent design on the front and is very modern looking. It definitely will not make your home decor look dated. As for the remote I absolutely love it a big five stars there! Once I seen it, I fell in love because of how skinny it is.

I have not seen a remote like this in many many years and it’s so refreshing to have something new. I think Soundbar remotes are all small but this one it seems really small to me and is great. I like how I am able to control the sound bar with it it seems intelligent.

So to conclude, I give this Soundbar set a big huge five stars out of five! I highly recommend this soundbar to anybody! I don’t feel like you have to spend $1,000 on a decent sound bar to get a good sound and that is refreshing I think there’s a lot of competition out there and they are definitely leading the way.

This really sucks I cannot really recommend this product if you want to use it for true surround sound. Doesn’t matter if you use the optical cable or the normal white and red this will it last long connected to your tv.

The Bluetooth always works great but the cables move in the slightest while using a corded connection to your tv it sounds awful. This is my second go at trying this I was really hoping I just got a bad set the first time.

I am going to try buying some better cables then what came in the box to see if this solves issue. They truly look great and sound very good for this price point. If you are okay with just using Bluetooth it’s an easy pickup.

But if you are looking for tv surround sound you should prob keep looking.

Maybe I read the description wrong. Maybe you’re like me and are looking for a wireless (Bluetooth) surround sound system for your tv. This is NOT it. The only thing Bluetooth about it is that you can pair your phone with the speakers.

It is a completely wired surround sound with very short wires. I can’t tell you how it sounds because it doesn’t reach around our living room. I’d return it, but it’s a hassle and we already took our other one apart.

We just spent another $45 in cables to set it up. Huge disappointment.

The surround system is really good and can be used for parties and to have a theater effect at home. Many of my friends are asking where I purchased this product from so they can buy it, so totally worth the price!.

We bought the system for our pool, it was installed approximately two years ago. Initially the system sounded and looked excellent. However two years later, the paint and the grills on the speakers have not held up well.

I do not recommend the system, look elsewhere. For the price, this system and the speakers should be more durable. Thanks.

Excellent product. This is the second one that I have installed at 2 different houses. Wouldn’t own any other outside speaker system.

The installer Chris was very professional and friendly. He was very knowledgeable about the entire process and explained everything in a easy manner

Excellent outdoor/indoor speakers. I using them indoor so my review provides no info about outdoor use. I am using them (4) for DOLBY ATMOS speakers. They are doing a fine job. I had to experiment with speaker location and aiming.

I could not mount in ceiling speakers. The Atrium 6s like all Atriums can be mounted with a single lag bolt into a ceiling Joyce (after finding with a stud finder). Moving to try a new location is easy due to only patching a previous single hole with spackle and ceiling paint.

Study Dolby diagrams for best ATMOS speakers location. The need to cluster closer around listening area than I previously tried. Now their pointed at listening area position and more similar to Dolby ATMOS diagrams.

They seem to timber match well with other brand speakers in system.

A great investment. Sounds incredibly AWESOME outside overlooking the pool. I hooked up two pair in parallel fashion to a dedicated Sonos amp. When cranked up to 99 there is zero distortion and our neighbors across the 3 acre pond are equally impressed!.

Great purchase! The highs sound really clear. Overall, I really like these speakers in my store. Wish it had a little more bass to compliment the sound coming from these speakers.

First of all, I didn’t expect this to pack so much bass! I bought it for my computer and WOW I’m impressed! I don’t have to use any other surround sound in my apartment because this one is loud enough.

Worth the money. It’s also a little bigger than I expected. Let’s just say that I totally underestimated this set. Silly me.

I Love this system. I am a very picky person when it comes to almost everything. This system is perfect for my needs. It has great bass, treble and it’s loud. I loved it so much that I am ordering another one for another room.

We decided to purchase this system for our teenage son , based on the process and the positive reviews We are extremely happy with it, as is he! Excellent sound, loud bass, and easy to set up. The lights are a fun added extra that he really likes as well.

I would recommend this system to anyone.

So let me just set one thing straight. Your experience with these speakers will depend on how much you pay for them. With that said, here’s my issue with them. The satellites. In my opinion, they dont sound that great.

Yeah they get some decent volume but they just dont sound as clear as I was expecting. I dont know if that has to do with their small size or the fact that they are refurbished since they came with mesh covers instead of the open speaker look.

Maybe they have diffrent speakers? Theres not way of telling since I cant see them to compare to the stock pics online and I dont want to bother opening them up since either way they dont sound good to me.

What I DO know is that I tried out a different set of satellites from a Thonet & Vander DASS 2. 1 system that had the same impedance and wattage rating and hooked them up to the Z533 sub speaker inputs.

WOW!!! What a massive difference!! The clarity that came through was just night and day. Where this set shines is in the bass. The stock Z533 subwoofer delivers a punch that the sub on that Thonet & Vander set’s subwoofer just didn’t deliver.

But on the flip side the satellites on that set just paired perfectly with this Logitech! Go figure! Now I got the best of both worlds and LOVE the sound of my setup now. Plenty of punchand volume when I want! So all in all this is where I want to come back to the matter of pricing.

I paid $35 w/free shipping for these refurbished. They go for around $60 or higher new. Would I pay that much for a new set? Probably not, mainly because I can find a set of z633 with THX surround for $89 which would be a better buy.

But for $50 or lower I would say go for it. If theyre refurbished I would say $40 or lower would be ok because there’s no telling if the satellite speakers on it would have the same issue I did. But someone else might think they sound just fine so like I said, your mileage will vary.

If you have a set of spare satellites rated at 8 ohm 15 watt I would recommend trying them out on here. If they arent wired for a RCA type jack you can to what I did and just strip the wires of some spare RCA cables you might have around and wire the bare ground wire to the ground of the speaker wire and the other wire will be your lead which will obviously go to your other speaker wire.

Just two wires, no soldering needed, just electrical tape to make sure it doesnt untie and youre set! The main thing you want to keep in mind is to see if the other satellites have bigger speaker than the logitech ones.

The logitech speakers are just too small in my opinion and could bewhy they sound a bit muddied up as you increase the volume as they may be distorting sooner than a bigger speaker would at the same volume.

Whichi is a shame because the Logitech ones look really nice. But the sub is VERY GOOD so for me its worth at least the $35 I spent. Anyways sorry for the long rant but now you can see why I gave this 3 stars, because since I only used half of the set technically, I couldnt give it 5 stars although the sub definitely deserves it! In fact, unless you just want to get it brand new, I would suggest looking for a listing selling just the sub since it’s the main power section as well.

So if you already have some spare satellite speakers from another system and just need the powered sub then this would be a great combo! Just make sure your satellites are rated at 8 OHM 15W or you may stress the power section too much if its way mismatched!.

I really like the sound of these speakers. I got them refurbished rather than new so they came with slight wear and swapped face covers but I was aware of these possible issues before I purchased. Luckily the wear is only noticeable up close so it does not bother me.

Sound wise theyre great! Quite a bit of bass which I like though I will admit they sometimes sound a bit too bassy even on lower settings. In my small room they can get really loud. I dont know how they would fare in a larger space, however.

My only real issue is the volume controls! The little control puck is very particular and its way too easy to go from too quiet to too loud and a lot harder to get the sound right where you want it. Because the knob is so smooth it sometimes can go from normal volume to low volume due to the pull of weight of the wire its connected to.

Overall though its a minor inconvenience and Im satisfied with these speakers.

Overall, this is a good product for a good price. The input connections are two 3. 5mm jacks and one AV port (the red and white) and the outputs are one AV port for the two satellite speakers (blue and black) and a 3.

5mm headphone jack. The downside is that when you get the package it will be in a cardboard box from FedEx wrapped in plastic bubble wrap and paper. The bass is great with good sound quality and a good wired control pod that controls the volume and the bass with a headphone jack and a 3.

5mm aux port. And all of the wires and cords are pretty thick and durable with good flexibility except the cheap and thin 3. 5mm aux cord that was included. Some of the minor flaws are, whenever you go to plug in another audio source you have to manually unplug or turn off the previous source or else you would have two audio sources feeding into it at one time.

The next flaw is, whenever you go to turn up or down the volume and if you go to push hard on the volume dial on the outside you will feel some grinding plastic but if you go to turn the volume dial up and down gently it will just flow smoothly in your hand.

Overall, if you want to knock off $30 US money go with this seller. And as a FYI you are going to have to go to the Logitech website for the user manual PDF. I hope this review has helped you out.

It’s a pretty good step up from the Atrium 6 to the Atrium 8, but as owners for almost 30 years of the venerable Polk SDA SRS 2. 3 speakers (155 lbs of sonic heaven), I knew I’d regret not buying the best.

I found a pair refurbished direct from Polk and wound up paying only a tad more than for the 6s. Hooked them up under the eave of my covered patio, running off an NAD receiver. Sound is superb, with very good bass for their size.

Mount is super solid, too. My only comment is that these are pretty big for outdoor speakers – probably half again as big as what you normally see hanging out in people’s patios. In fact, we were going to use these in an adjacent sunroom and opted instead for Polk’s OWM 5 series, which is long but flatter, and fits tighter to the wall/ceiling.

All in all, I’d highly recommend these. You won’t regret spending the extra $$.

These guys a great! For the price I don’t think I could have done any better. The sound is great. Decent bass for such a small speaker and again at this price point you’re not going to do better. My brother installed a pair of this at his place and after hearing them and researching other speakers I couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t break the bank better than these.

I put 4 up on my patio and am very pleased with them!.

I’m using these speakers as the rear speakers in my open air 1952 Willys. I have a Pioneer receiver and Rockford front speakers. The Polks replaced JBLs and are much superior. Clarity and presence are fine.

I have other Polk speakers in my home audio systems and have been pleased with Polk’s build quality and accuracy. I got these Atrium 4s on sale for $79 with free shipping. I think that I got a genuine bargain.

These are exactly what I was looking for and they sound great! Solid construction and very clear sound reveals hidden details in the music Sounds great even at low volume. Like other reviewers stated they don’t get very loud or very basey but it’s perfect for our patio area.

These Bluetooth speakers are oustanding. Easy installation and convenient, nearly instant pairing with my iPhone. Put these in the corners of our screened-in patio and am astounded by the sound quality as well as the range of connectivity.

I have some traditional outdoor speakers installed about 8 years ago which I had to combine with a receiver-amp out by our the pool. I’m pretty sure these new BTP525 speakers have almost the same output and clarity.

They are quality. Truly tremendous product and value. A.

Like many people we were accustomed to using a Bluetooth, portable speaker out by the pool or moving it around the yard depending on where we were located. Well, those days are gone now after installing this Sonance MAG6.

1 outdoor streaming sound system. When the box arrived one can tell you’re definitely stepping up to a complete sound system. The box is on the large size and once opened it’s easy to understand why since the subwoofer itself is a pretty good size at about 11” across.

The six speakers and the subwoofer are a nice brown color that feel very good quality wise and hopefully for the price tag will prove to be very durable to the outside elements. We chose to take on installation of the system ourselves, but those who don’t have the time or ability to do so may want to pay the Geek Squad or others to take care of this.

Before starting the process I went online and ordered 14/4 CL3 speaker wire. The instruction manual is nicely done in text and illustrations and includes a chart on what speaker wire is recommended based on the distance from the amp to the furthest speaker.

The speaker wire we purchased was over a $100 so just keep in mind that you’ll be incurring this expense too. After that, it was on to digging a trench from the point of the last speaker location to the entry point into the house and digging a 11” hole for the subwoofer.

Yes, this is not the fun part and takes a while! Then on to rolling out the speaker wire in the trench, partially burying the subwoofer, connecting each speaker with the supplied silicone filled wire connectors and connecting the amp.

We drilled a hole through the back wall of our house and took the speaker wire through that into our laundry room. The amp is sitting on a shelf in our laundry room where power is available and the WiFi signal is adequate.

Once done, it was rewarding to download the Sonos app, create an account and link to our Spotify service to test the sound out. The sound quality does not disappoint and can be taken to a level that the neighbors will take notice.

It does help that each of the six speakers is easily placed to control the direction of the sound. Ours can be enjoyed by the pool and on our back patio without being too invasive to our neighbors. The Sonos app is user friendly and everyone in our household was able to sign on to the same Sonos account.

Within the app we can select which family members Spotify account to play from by simply using the drop down arrow under the Spotify logo. It looks like we can access our Iphone’s music library by uploading it to a streaming music service, using Apple AirPlay or playing your tracks to Sonos from a mac, pc or NAS drive.

The climate where we live allows outdoor enjoyment of our yard a good part of the year so the cost of this system is worthwhile to get quality sound in a large portion of our yard by simply accessing the Sonos mobile phone app.

For those with Sonos speaker systems in other parts of their home the continuity to outdoor spaces seems logical for simplicity of use. Given the great sound, user friendly Sonos app and nice landscape aesthetic of system components we’d recommend the Sonance MAG6.

1 outdoor steaming sound system.

The Sonos Sonance MAG6. 1 is an outdoor speaker set designed to be placed unobtrusively through your hard. It comes with 6 speakers, an amplifier, and a subwoofer. Not included is a 100 feet or so of 14/1 speaker wire which you will need to complete the job of wiring everything.

If you’re doing it yourself, and will be trenching wire to hide it, expect 3-4 hours of installation time, maybe more depending on how hard your ground is and any final adjustments you make to your plan to lay out the speakers and sub.

While there are 6 speakers, this is actually just a stereo system. Three speakers (and the sub) are wired for L and the other three speakers (and sub) are wired for R. There are instructions that provide guidance for placement to get best L/R and speaker area coverage with the sub to be placed (and wired) ideally in the midpoint of all the speakers.

The speakers are on stakes for easy insertion into typical backyard/garden soil/grass. The sub is designed to be buried, but in my installation, I had a natural curve in a tree in my yard that made it a good place to semi “hide” the sub.

The whole point is for the entire system to be essentially hidden, unobtrusive in your yard with sound seemingly coming out of nowhere. While my yard wasn’t 100% conducive to meeting this goal, they are still pretty unobtrusive once installed (I think having installed them myself, they were more likely to catch my eye) and with the normal growth that comes with spring, even I would start having a hard time spotting anything but the sub.

The speakers and sub are a brown color, perhaps to blend in with the ground or soil and by not being shiny, won’t draw attention due to sunlight reflecting off of it. That also fits well with positioning near a tree, it actually doesn’t look too out of place.

The material seems durable, on par with premium exterior furniture, so I’m not worried out the finish wearing quickly due to UV exposure and rain. There was some concern with water and rust on the electrical connections, but each speaker comes with some water resistent wire nuts.

The amp/controller itself is just a matte black affair, the usual color of home electronic devices. If anything, that may be the one that catches the most attention as one doens’t typically have something like that in the back yard.

However, it can be hidden depending on what you end up using to supply audio. It has HDMI, actual speaker inputs, and wireless streaming. The wireless streaming made the most sense for me as my backyard wasn’t already wired with audio.

The HDMI option isn’t that great – there’s no passthru so really, it means you’d be running this off an audio recevier that has HDMI out. Luckily, my projector (which I use for random movie nights during the summer) has stereo audio out, so I can make do with that.

As there are only three touch sensitive buttons on the amp, you’d need to Sonos app to actually configure the amp and act as the connection to whatever streaming service you want to use (there’s also an ethernet input if you want to route yet another set of wires though you’d still need to configure things with the app).

Luckily, it seems to support all the major players, pun intended. The sound quality was good. Surprising even for a system of this size that was dispersed through the backyard. There is clealy some position dependent behavior, but that’s to be expected from a stereo system like this.

But being within the large “sweet spot” of L/R coverage, the sound was pretty good considering it was just stereo and over a wide area. I was very pleased. The sub provided a detectible bass, especially if you were leaning against the tree.

The instructions suggest putting it against something solid or structural to help enhance the bass effect if you want more. I now wonder what it would be like actually partially buried in the ground! While you could play/pause advance music from the amp, as it was out of the way, the simpler thing is to use the mobile app or another device.

I already use a mini device from a certain rainforest named company which previously was paired to a set of bluetooth speakers that I’d put outside for parties. This gives me both app control and a physical device that is located in a more accessible setting.

Volume wise, this will get loud enough to cause enforcement level disturbance calls. I didn’t even push it to the max during the period that I was playing with the Sonance for this review. Perhaps a summer party will give me the excuse to do so.

In summary, I think is a a great speaker system. You are limited to stereo and a lot of sources will need to be gated by the Sonos app, but you get great sound with decent coverage in a large yard. Everything is easy to setup, though the initial speaker placement and wiring running in particular is labor and time intensive.

It does a good job of hiding away in the background, though your ability to do that will depend on your yard configuration. Given the directionality of the speakers, that can be tough in some areas. What would make this system perfect from that standpoint are omni-directional speakers that you could essentially bury in the ground – pretty much having a similar setup to the sub, though perhaps without a dome.

Another plus is that it appears that you can expand the number of speakers on each side. This could be nice to cover a larger yard or perhaps completely surround a centrally located patio or backyard area.