Please help me build my outdoor sound system

I am sure those are fine speakers, but I believe you could get similar or even better quality sound for much less. While I have Klipsch now(found then half off) I have used Dayton Audio in the past with great results.

I would also look at a receiver that has WiFi capabilities. Maybe I'm spoiled with Sonos, but I just find its easier to control the speakers with an app and not have to rely on a Bluetooth connection between devices.

A Sonos Amp would work for a pair of speakers, but would get expensive if you add on additional speakers. A Yamaha MusicCast receiver is another option and more of a traditional receiver. Both can be voice controlled through Alexa or Google. Sonos is compatible with more apps than MusicCast.

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I would also look at a receiver that has WiFi capabilities

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There may still be chromecast audio deals on ebay. It makes my receiver part of my home app. It's probably my favorite piece of tech ever. I just tell my phone or mini to play on den speaker, and there it is. That receiver is attached to 4 zones.

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setting up wire speakers to a 2 zone receiver is great but the control of it via your phone always sucks. no seemless way to play youtube music/spotify to the receiver and be able to easily control which zone, etc.

only reason im rethinking sonos.

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There’s
1) “OMG BuY SoNoS...”
2) admitting Sonos has a great, clean interface that does its job well.


For a single zone, there are plenty of good options for a standalone install and ok wireless control. Most plain Bluetooth dongles or something like a used Airport Express for around $40 on eBay pushed through something as simple as a Lepai 2020TI would be adequate for what just about anyone wants.



If you want multiple zones (particularly if you don’t have a hard wire between the two of them) the field of “adequate” options narrows substantially, and, as much as I hate to admit it, both Sonos and Apple’s Airplay 2 work very simply and well, which are very important factors if you don’t want to constantly explain to others how to use it.

This is for anyone on the board... What is special about Sonos? I’ve tried a few times to research it and I can’t tell what is unique. I can control my Yamaha receiver with 2 zones with my iPhone effortlessly. Not knocking Sonos... genuinely curious.

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I’ve tried a few times to research it and I can’t tell what is unique. I can control my Yamaha receiver with 2 zones with my iPhone effortlessly.

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The interface is very clean- you can log into pretty much all the popular streaming services and search across them all.
You can add voice control from Siri, Alexa (not certain about cortana). You can sync standalone speakers and amps together- so something like moving a speaker the size of Alexa into a bathroom while a super bowl party is happening).
When you have several zones that you want digital remote on/off (upstairs, downstairs, front porch, back porch, back yard, garage, for example), 2-zone receivers just can’t offer that.



Again, it’s not the greatest product in the world. It’s fairly expensive for what it is if you don’t need functionality exclusive to it or just one or two zones. But they sort of took the “Apple approach” of a very functional product that’s nice enough for most installs within the realm of reason.


Example of recent install-
Father in law bought a house. He has a detached covered patio near his pool with built in speakers surrounding the pool.
He has surround sound in his living room with a “second” zone of in-ceiling speakers in four other rooms
He has in-ceiling speakers in his bedroom with a second zone in his master bath.

His cable company now only offers streaming and their service comes with an AppleTV. He didn’t want to learn multiple devices/interfaces/remotest, so now he has an AppleTV in his tv watching areas. So, while watching tv, he uses just an AppleTV remote. There’s a button that opens the airplay menu which “sees” the three Sonos zones, so he can “push” tv sound to the pool, living areas, and bedroom from an on-screen menu, or he can, from his phone, search across Amazon, Apple, and Spotify music services, and select which zones he wants to hear it in.

In a scenario like this, Sonos is pretty useful to “tie” these zones together that aren’t actually connected (there’s no hardwired network between locations here, and the speakers run to three different “home” locations).


Again, it’s not the only thing that does it. But it does this very, very well.

Sonos, MusicCast, Bose Connect, etc. all pretty much do the same thing. I believe there is just some differences on app integrations. Depends on current setup and personal preference.

I got into Sonos because I started placing single speakers in different rooms years ago. However when my parents wanted to make their current wired, 2 zone speaker setup easier to control, I bought them a Yamaha MusicCast receiver. That's all they will ever need.

Both apps are similar but I prefer Sonos, but that's probably just familiarity bias.

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This is for anyone on the board... What is special about Sonos? I’ve tried a few times to research it and I can’t tell what is unique. I can control my Yamaha receiver with 2 zones with my iPhone effortlessly. Not knocking Sonos... genuinely curious.

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Sonos isn't perfect, but it is good for integrating our main room full surround system and single (pricy) wireless speakers in different rooms/areas of the house/yard.

And most important for my sanity, setup and the app is easy for my wife to use.

Yes MusicCast can integrate with wireless speakers. It all depends on what you have existing.

I would imagine a complete wireless build out from scratch would resemble the below.
Living Room: MusicCast Bar 400 w/ (2) MusicCast 20 for surround
Kitchen: MusicCast 20
Outdoor: MusicCast 50 or the MusicCast Amp (WXA-50) with two wired outdoor speakers.

If you already have the indoor and outdoor pre-wired than your setup would be simpler.
Living Room: RX-V6A receiver (Zone 1)
Kitchen: MusicCast20
Outside: Zone 2 from receiver

The MusicCast 50 is not rated as an outdoor speaker so there is some risk there. The only "outdoor" wireless speaker that I know of is the Sonos Move.

UPDATE:

I looked at the Sonos systems at Best Buy. They are great and will likely be my long-term Soundsystem solution. Just couldn’t justify paying that price yet. They had a pair of Klipsch KIO-650 speakers on sale. I bought a Sony 5ch receiver to power them.

Out the door for $400 compared to nearly $1000 just for the Sonos outdoor zone.

Just set them up and it sounds great. I’m not a huge audio snob and these are doing the trick. I figure I can always upgrade the receiver to the Sonos system in the future


Thank you everyone for the recommendations. I’m very happy with the speakers