The magic of outdoor listening

Well, I also have a system I roll outside onto my back deck. Listen to that system more than my main one during summer months. Yes, the freedom from room constraints is amazing. 

I live in the country, nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. Listening is during afternoon hours.

I prefer indoor listening. Noise floor is lower and details more defined. Think signal/noise ratio. Don’t get me wrong, outdoor is great for special occasions 

I am glad to see this thread , I always try to convey to folks how amazing outdoor listening is. I have a system on my outdoor deck where I sit with my back to the house and facing back of my property with lots of trees and a big field, beautiful nature with birds singing all around.. and bookshelf speakers firing back at me 11’ apart in an equilateral triangle perched ear level on railing on granite slabs for stability and isolation.. with 10” subwoofer and 100 watt amp in an outdoor cabinet behind me next to the power outlet ,, and so the only reflection for the bookshelf speakers is the homes exterior wall behind me, so no ceiling or sidewalls and no wall behind speakers. It’s a very budget oriented economical system and the sound is absolutely incredible.. Soooo magically spacious and natural sounding.. I spend entire summer out there and rarely listen to indoor systems until weather changes forcing me back indoors ..if you haven’t ever done so and your able ,, set something up outdoors maybe similar to as I’ve described and I’m confident you’ll be shocked.. I’m literally astonished at the sound.. this year I’m pulling my Elacs outside for upgrade .. enjoy the music!

Okay, guys.  Don't try this at home.  Unless, of course, you love bass, pyrotechnics, and the shocking look of bewilderment on the faces of your guests.

This is a project I did a while back.  The concept was to use the bass vents from buried subwoofers to interact with the flames of an outdoor wood-burning fire pit.

Details:  Buried 3 high performance subwoofers in custom PVC enclosures.  Vent the boxes via 3" automotive steel exhaust tubing to the fire pit.  Cut hole in bottom of fire pit.  Make custom heavy gauge perforated plate to contain ashes. Using our enclosure design software, it was determined that the air speed thru the ports was 76MPH.

Result:  An extremely active display of music & fire that was a crowd pleasure and actually produced decent outdoor bass.  I called it the Man Pit.  At 76MPH windspeed, it does go through firewood pretty quickly.  So, have ample supply on hand.

Enjoy!!! 

I worked for Magnolia for a short while, and IME Sonance speaker’s with their outdoor subwoofer is an awesome value. They run incredible sales a few times a year that cut the price in half, and Magnolia employees will usually be forthcoming in when those sale periods will be. IME running an outdoor sub or two makes all the difference because monitors sound thin and tinny outdoors without them.