ratdoggy
Well-known member
I want to hang some exterior speakers on the back of my house. Has anyone done this? (of course this being GJ someone has). Looking for a way to mount them (I have vinyl siding)
Outside speaker installs?
- Thread starter ratdoggy
- Start date
Richard D
Well-known member
I got marine speakers mounted in the gazebo over my hot tub. They have built in brackets and handle the Gulf Coast humidity.
Sureshot
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I saw some recently that were also lights so they replaced the porch light. They got the tunes via bluetooth.
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
If you mount a speaker up in a soffit, just about any speaker will work. When we had our large deck out back, I had a set of old weatherproof speakers that were made for a Jeep. My nephew gave them to me, I ran some CAT5 underground to the deck, had the stereo in the garage, and they played 24/7/365 for probably 15 years, until we took the deck out and filled in the pond. Now the wife has an old AM/FM tucked up under the porch of her craft building and it's been playing 24/7/365 since 2006.
Have you looked at some of the speaker rocks that Lowes and them places sell? I don't think you want to mount the speakers directly to your siding unless you would make a hook or some sort. I'd go for the soffit approach, or mount them up in a tree if you have any. At least if they are tucked up underneath, a standard speaker will last for years outside as long as they don't get direct moisture on them.
Have you looked at some of the speaker rocks that Lowes and them places sell? I don't think you want to mount the speakers directly to your siding unless you would make a hook or some sort. I'd go for the soffit approach, or mount them up in a tree if you have any. At least if they are tucked up underneath, a standard speaker will last for years outside as long as they don't get direct moisture on them.
A couple of thoughts from my long-ago audio engineering training in college-
(I'm one of those who went to school for one thing and...)
Make sure the speakers are designed to be outdoors.
I mean the speakers, not just the housings.
Speakers that are meant to be outdoor have coated cones made of (yechh) plastic fiber or coated paper (better), not high density raw paper.
If the cone looks glossy instead of matte, that's a better sign that they're at least semi-outdoor.
There are a lot of people out there selling "outdoor" speakers, in just a plastic case that's designed to be lightly weatherproof, but all the components inside are regular indoor grade stuff. They usually will rot out the speakers in a year or two, because the internals corrode and the humidity isn't good for the speaker cones.
Mount them out of the weather - up under the eave.
If you mount under an eave, you have the possibility of using the bottom side of roof rafters or wall studs.
I'd put a piece of treated 1x (painted to match vinyl) up under the eave or high on the wall.
That way, your speaker mounts can be whatever they need to be, whether that happens to fit on a stud or not.
I know you didn't ask - but since it might be useful for you, and since
others may trip over this thread looking for information:
I don't know if you're doing a homeowner audio system at 8-12 ohms, or a used commercial 24 volt system. If you are using low voltage 24 speakers
then you can use UV rated Ethernet cable as speaker cable.
If you're doing regular 8-12 ohm speakers, make sure your audio amp
can generate the needed current to drive speakers over very long
distances. Most boomboxes can't do that - the tiny low-quality LMxxx series audio amps they use will burn out or at least badly distort fairly quickly under the loading brought about by 8 ohm speakers over really long speaker wire.
A true amplifier from a decent component system will have better amplfier chips than a Walmart special boombox.
If you're running really long distances (greater than 75 feet of wire)
you really should run low voltage.
You can get conversion kits to allow an existing amplifier and speakers to run at 70v or 24v between the equipment.
For more information, check this out:
http://www.crownaudio.com/media/pdf/amps/138905-1_10-05_constant_voltage.pdf
(I'm one of those who went to school for one thing and...)
Make sure the speakers are designed to be outdoors.
I mean the speakers, not just the housings.
Speakers that are meant to be outdoor have coated cones made of (yechh) plastic fiber or coated paper (better), not high density raw paper.
If the cone looks glossy instead of matte, that's a better sign that they're at least semi-outdoor.
There are a lot of people out there selling "outdoor" speakers, in just a plastic case that's designed to be lightly weatherproof, but all the components inside are regular indoor grade stuff. They usually will rot out the speakers in a year or two, because the internals corrode and the humidity isn't good for the speaker cones.
Mount them out of the weather - up under the eave.
If you mount under an eave, you have the possibility of using the bottom side of roof rafters or wall studs.
I'd put a piece of treated 1x (painted to match vinyl) up under the eave or high on the wall.
That way, your speaker mounts can be whatever they need to be, whether that happens to fit on a stud or not.
I know you didn't ask - but since it might be useful for you, and since
others may trip over this thread looking for information:
I don't know if you're doing a homeowner audio system at 8-12 ohms, or a used commercial 24 volt system. If you are using low voltage 24 speakers
then you can use UV rated Ethernet cable as speaker cable.
If you're doing regular 8-12 ohm speakers, make sure your audio amp
can generate the needed current to drive speakers over very long
distances. Most boomboxes can't do that - the tiny low-quality LMxxx series audio amps they use will burn out or at least badly distort fairly quickly under the loading brought about by 8 ohm speakers over really long speaker wire.
A true amplifier from a decent component system will have better amplfier chips than a Walmart special boombox.
If you're running really long distances (greater than 75 feet of wire)
you really should run low voltage.
You can get conversion kits to allow an existing amplifier and speakers to run at 70v or 24v between the equipment.
For more information, check this out:
http://www.crownaudio.com/media/pdf/amps/138905-1_10-05_constant_voltage.pdf
Last edited:
Kevin54
MEMBER EMERITUS
I guess I should have known all of that for the 15 years I had the car speakers under my deck running on CAT5 wire that was ran maybe 70'