Outdoor speakers

[paulanator]

I bought these last year

http://www.provantage.com/dual-electronics-lu43pb~7DUAL006.htm

Mounted them under the eaves and ran SPT1 wire to both. They work and sound pretty good for the price.

They look great after a wet Christmas and this years 4th of July show.

[Surfing4Dough]

I thought I had read that wireless speakers have a slight delay to them. Wouldn't that put the audio a tad behind your sequencing? Maybe that is on the old ones, and the technology has improved.

[Greg Blauert]

I'm using this, works great:

http://www.4homespeakers.com/auunpr900mhg.html

[scubado]

I bought a pair of large speakers at a pawn shop for $20. Great for bass and thunder. I could crank them fairly loud because I have an open school yard across the street.
A friend of mine gave me another pair of speakers to use, not sure if I'll use both pairs though.

[Trebs]

Last year I used the FM Transmitter but as we have a hot Christmas (usually...) I also had a cheap radio hidden in the bushes. That worked ok, but reception and quality wasn't real good so this year I have bought a dedicated amp and some small rock speakers of Ebay fairly cheap ($60.00). Could of gone for better quality but as I don't want complaints from neighbors they will be set quite low anway, but still allow the walk ups to hear the music. I like the rock speakers so they blend in and gives the illusion of sound coming from nowhere. Haven't actually received them yet, but pic below. I hope they do the job....
All the best
Trebs

Attached files

[David Rise]

Steven wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

just a thought if you were not wanting to run speaker cable...

If you buy a speaker with a built-in transformer (search for "speaker transformer" on Google or eBay), and put transformers on your receiver/amplifier, then you can run the speaker audio signal over one of the unused pairs of the Cat5 cable that's used for your LOR network.

I've been doing it this way for 4 years and it works great. The trees where the speakers are mounted are 50 feet from the garage where the show computer is located. I have controllers on these same trees. The Cat5 cable that goes from the garage to the trees carries both the LOR network and the speaker audio.

You could hook up the 8Ω speaker directly to the Cat5 cable, but there will be much signal lost, and if you turn the volume up high enough, it will interfere with the LOR network.

Ok, I'm interested.

How do you connect the speaker wire to the cat 5?

[Brian Mitchell]

I use a pair of Advent indoor/outdoor speakers. One on the front porch and one stuck in a tree. They are my surround sound rear speakers the other 11 months of the year.

[David Rise]

I'll use my old surround speakers as a last resort. I would like to use the cat5 cable, so that I don't have to run any more wires through the walls.

[Jim Saul]

David Rise wrote:

Steven wrote:

jimswinder wrote:

just a thought if you were not wanting to run speaker cable...

If you buy a speaker with a built-in transformer (search for "speaker transformer" on Google or eBay), and put transformers on your receiver/amplifier, then you can run the speaker audio signal over one of the unused pairs of the Cat5 cable that's used for your LOR network.

I've been doing it this way for 4 years and it works great.  The trees where the speakers are mounted are 50 feet from the garage where the show computer is located.  I have controllers on these same trees.  The Cat5 cable that goes from the garage to the trees carries both the LOR network and the speaker audio.

You could hook up the 8Ω speaker directly to the Cat5 cable, but there will be much signal lost, and if you turn the volume up high enough, it will interfere with the LOR network.

Ok, I'm interested.

How do you connect the speaker wire to the cat 5?


 

To use the Cat5, you need to send the low voltage pre-amp output from the RCA jacks or headphone, then have a powered speaker on the other side to amplify it.
On long runs (over 100 ft.) you should us a balun to keep them synchronized; otherwise you can get a delay / echo effect from left to right. Here is an example of one - i did not look for price / quality, just wanted to find an example for you. http://www.amazon.com/HI-FI-STEREO-AUDIO-BALUN-EXTENDER/dp/B003XHQQN2

[jimswinder]

David Rise wrote:

I'll use my old surround speakers as a last resort. I would like to use the cat5 cable, so that I don't have to run any more wires through the walls.

I don't understand why you would want to do that when Steven said:

You could hook up the 8Ω speaker directly to the Cat5 cable, but there will be much signal lost, and if you turn the volume up high enough, it will interfere with the LOR network.

Combine that with what Jim S. says and it seems like a lot of work instead of just running speaker wire:

To use the Cat5, you need to send the low voltage pre-amp output from the RCA jacks or headphone, then have a powered speaker on the other side to amplify it.
On long runs (over 100 ft.) you should us a balun to keep them synchronized; otherwise you can get a delay / echo effect from left to right.

[David Rise]

jimswinder wrote:

David Rise wrote:

I'll use my old surround speakers as a last resort. I would like to use the cat5 cable, so that I don't have to run any more wires through the walls.

I don't understand why you would want to do that when Steven said: You could hook up the 8Ω speaker directly to the Cat5 cable, but there will be much signal lost, and if you turn the volume up high enough, it will interfere with the LOR network. Combine that with what Jim S. says and it seems like a lot of work instead of just running speaker wire: To use the Cat5, you need to send the low voltage pre-amp output from the RCA jacks or headphone, then have a powered speaker on the other side to amplify it. On long runs (over 100 ft.) you should us a balun to keep them synchronized; otherwise you can get a delay / echo effect from left to right.

Ok, more specifically.... How do you connect speaker wire (just straight speaker wire) to cat5? No RCA plugs, just bare wire. Keep in mind that sound quality is not a factor since this will be low volume and a short distance.

Just pick one of the unused wire pairs on the cat5 cable?

[dalberts]

I use a pair of rock speakers like these and a small amplifier with a receiver that I bought at a pawn shop. The receiver is tuned to my FM transmitter. Sounds good.



Attached files

[jimswinder]

I see a lot of people who, when using outdoor speakers are using an Amplifier/Receiver and tuning to the frequency that they have their FM Transmitter tuned to...

I just used an amplifier and used a "Y" plug out of my PC...one side to my amp and the other side to my FM Transmitter...

[Guest Don Gillespie]

jimswinder wrote:

I see a lot of people who, when using outdoor speakers are using an Amplifier/Receiver and tuning to the frequency that they have their FM Transmitter tuned to...

I just used an amplifier and used a "Y" plug out of my PC...one side to my amp and the other side to my FM Transmitter...

Jim I do the same as you, except I unhook my office speakers and plug directly into the back of my computer and then I use my EDM with my head phone jack on the front of the computer, I don't know if this is the correct way to do this but it has worked for me so i don't know any better

[Guest guest]

jimswinder wrote:

I see a lot of people who, when using outdoor speakers are using an Amplifier/Receiver and tuning to the frequency that they have their FM Transmitter tuned to...

I just used an amplifier and used a "Y" plug out of my PC...one side to my amp and the other side to my FM Transmitter...

I tried doing it that way (out of my DC-MP3 Showtime Director), used amplified speakers, even tried non-amplified spakers with a seperate amplifier unit, all would do the same thing when connected via a Y cable and the FM Transmitter, give me buzzing, humming, clicks and pops in the speakers. All connections had ferrite coils with the exception of the Y cable.

So that's why I use an old FM Stereo unit tuned to the frequency I use and outdoor speakers connected to the stereo.

I tried a Y cable directly from the computer as well, but I got a lot of buzzing, humming, clicking and popping sounds in the speakers that was even worse than the above, and I had ferrite coils on all the connections, again, with the exception of the Y Cable, it did no good whatsoever, so even if I used a computer to run my show, I'd still go with the external stereo connected to the outdoor speakers, only because I get a "cleaner" signal with no loss of clairty and no buzzing, humming, clicks or pops type feedback which definitely would not sound good during showtime.

I think this is why most folks use an old stereo set for their outdoor speakers because they may have had this same issue with the feedback hum, buzz, clicks and pops coming from their external (outdoor) speakers.

If others don't have this problem, then they can get away with connecting their speakers and FM Transmitter directly to the computer with a Y cable, but some of us have the above problem, so we use an old stereo tuned to our frequency to get the music out to the external (outdoor)speakers.

[Steven]

This is how I split the LOR network cable to insert the audio. I ran a section of cat5 cable through a project box:

The LOR network only uses the blue/white and the green/white pairs, so I'm using the brown/white pair for my audio. The cable that goes through this box connects from the USB-485B to a jack in the wall of the garage that goes outdoors. My network goes two directions: To the east and west of the garage, so I put the left channel on the east side and the right channel on the west side.

This box hooks up to a pair of 8Ω to 600Ω transformers I bought on eBay:


The 8Ω side of the transformers go to a 3 Watt Audio Amplifier that I built from a kit. This shows the setup:


The whole mess as it was 3 years ago:

Also somewhere in that picture is the 'Y' splitter cable and a home-made level control for the transmitter.

Outside, I use an identical transformer mounted in a box that goes next to each speaker:


When mounted in the tree, it looks like this:


(Click on a picture to see a higher-resolution view.)

[David Rise]

Thanks Steven. AWESOME!

[LORi P]

Since we do not want to play our music loud so we don't bug the neighbors, 32 Watt should be ok, right?

Now for the harder question....
I am the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about speakers. These seem like they could be used 'normal' bookshelf speakers.

But all the mumbo jumbo about electrical codes make me wonder if these speakers cannot be used like they are 'regular' speakers:
Caution: Install the loudspeakers in compliance with local building and electrical codes. In the U.S., this version is designed for installation using Class 1, 2, or 3 wiring methods in accordance with Articles 640 and 725 of NFPA 70, National Electrical Code. Guidelines for Class 2 wiring methods are usually appropriate for nonhazardous live circuits and wiring methods in many other countries. The guidelines for Class 1 and 3 wiring methods are appropriate for hazardous live circuits in those same countries.

Here is a link to the technical data sheet:
http://pro.bose.com/pdf/pro/tech_data/fs_m32se/td_fsmodel32se.pdf
and for the installation guide:
http://pro.bose.com/pdf/pro/manuals/fs_m32se/ig_fsmodel32se.pdf

If these can be used like regular speakers, they seem to be a steal.
http://shop.ebay.com/tristate481/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

The seller only has feed back about items he has bought, though, nothing about when they are the seller. ??

Is this a case of something that is too good to be true?

Please help!!

[khawes]

Have you checked monoprice. Good quality speakers:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10904&cs_id=1090405

or even rock ones:
http://www.monoprice.com/products/subdepartment.asp?c_id=109&cp_id=10904&cs_id=1090401

[Jim Saul]

LORi P wrote:

Since we do not want to play our music loud so we don't bug the neighbors, 32 Watt should be ok, right?

Now for the harder question....
I am the first to admit that I don't know a whole lot about speakers. These seem like they could be used 'normal' bookshelf speakers.

But all the mumbo jumbo about electrical codes make me wonder if these speakers cannot be used like they are 'regular' speakers:
Caution: Install the loudspeakers in compliance with local building and electrical codes. In the U.S., this version is designed for installation using Class 1, 2, or 3 wiring methods in accordance with Articles 640 and 725 of NFPA 70, National Electrical Code. Guidelines for Class 2 wiring methods are usually appropriate for nonhazardous live circuits and wiring methods in many other countries. The guidelines for Class 1 and 3 wiring methods are appropriate for hazardous live circuits in those same countries.

Here is a link to the technical data sheet:
http://pro.bose.com/pdf/pro/tech_data/fs_m32se/td_fsmodel32se.pdf
and for the installation guide:
http://pro.bose.com/pdf/pro/manuals/fs_m32se/ig_fsmodel32se.pdf

If these can be used like regular speakers, they seem to be a steal.
http://shop.ebay.com/tristate481/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

The seller only has feed back about items he has bought, though, nothing about when they are the seller. ??

Is this a case of something that is too good to be true?

Please help!!

Yes the speakers can be wired like normal speakers, don't worry about the warnings, those are the same as the do not stuck your head in the 5 gallon pail of paint warnings ...
As for those speakers on ebay, I agree it looks fishy. At the very least, send a question to the person and get an answer before bidding.
It looks like their ebay account may have been hacked. Same thing happened to a friend of mine, they got an email from someone asking about a sword they were selling on ebay, he logged in and found about 100 auctions going on his account.