The magic of outdoor listening

I always tell people if they think their speakers don't sound "right" take them outside where there are no boundaries.  This is the single best way to hear your speakers as they actually sound and for some, it is shocking.  It's not about loud, it's about getting as close as most of us will ever get to a perfect acoustical space.  Worth setting up once to hear the difference.  It will lack SPL, the system will not play nearly as loud as it does inside unless you have horns or devices meant for narrow dispersion.  

The posts about loud sound blasting outdoors are something else entirely, I agree, its rough to play music so everyone in the neighborhood HAS to hear it with you. 

 

Very interesting topic, johnk.  I started thinking about the title before I read the responses.  My first thought was how difficult it would be to put all equipment (turntable, CD player, DAC, preamp, amp, etc.) into a cabinet for protection against wind, moisture, dust, heat, cold and more.  I then opened the responses and read each one.  NO ONE mentioned anything about equipment needing protection from anything.  The gist of the thread is how the listener felt when listening outside and the experience gained from listening outside. Everyone had a simple way to have music outside.  Funny, sad and embarrassing how I thought first about the equipment and secondly about the music.

rayd: so the way i have my set-up is all the gear is inside my back room. i run the speaker wires from the amp to the speakers outside, which are on stands. this allows me to swap out speakers as mood dictates. different speakers for different moods.

@soix  +1 for Sonance Landscape Series. I had a system with (8) LS6T satellite speakers (4L+4R channel) and (1) LS12T in-ground subwoofer running off a Crown CDi 1000 Amp with equalizer. System was controlled by Control4.
We sold the home, but it was an amazing system at both low and high volumes.

there are many factors - the street, the volume, the number of people, but the main content of the music