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What’s The Different Between Indoor and Outdoor Speakers?

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What’s The Different Between Indoor and Outdoor Speakers?

To throw a great party, you need three things: the perfect venue, a bumping sound system, and most importantly, chips and dip — chips and dip count as one thing, obviously. Picking the right outdoor venue can be as simple as looking behind your house. As for choosing the right chips and dip? Well, that’s for another article, another time.

All that leaves to discuss is the bumping sound system.

Indoor vs Outdoor Speakers

You might be wondering if there’s a difference between indoor and outdoor speakers — isn’t a speaker, just a speaker? They’re the same if you consider a bluetooth speaker to be an object that can produce the sweet riffs of Zeppelin’s Untitled IV. They’re two sides of the same coin if you think a speaker is an object that vibrates air molecules to make people molecules dance.

If outdoor and indoor speakers are two different beasts to consider, it begs the question: What makes a speaker, an outdoor speaker? For that, you need to break down each specification:

Most quality speakers are designed with the acoustic setting in mind. That is, indoor speakers are designed to accommodate smaller, enclosed spaces, and outdoor speakers made to project across a broad area. It goes without saying then that the sound level or volume that these speakers can reach differs drastically. Outdoor speakers are going to reach a much higher volume level compared to those of the indoor speakers which are relying on walls to bounce sound off of or be absorbed into. This is particularly the case when it comes to bass. Bass on an outdoor speaker is usually built into the enclosure of the speaker, whereas most indoor speaker setups will have a stand alone sub woofer.

The look, or aesthetic, of indoor and outdoor speakers are completely independent of each other. While you may not consider your speaker’s design to be a major deciding factor, it ultimately will be. Design and functionality are often inseparable. For example:
Indoor speakers are often sleek and slender, often far wider than they are tall or taller than they are wide. They’re typically not water resistant or particularly sturdy (which ties into durability, below). And they’re generally lighter.
Outdoor speakers, on the other hand, are often rectangular and dense. They look like they can take a beating, because, frankly, they can (from the weather, accidental spills, or being tipped over).

As previously mentioned those tall slender TV speakers would not be in the appropriate setting sat on a pool patio. Why? Simply because those tall speakers can easily tip over in which case they are not designed survive a fall on a hard concrete patio. Nor would those tall slender speakers be waterproof. This is usually the biggest contributing factor towards a higher priced outdoor speaker. Outdoor speakers must be able to survive the harsh elements and changing seasons/temperature, whereas indoor speakers are in the constant comfort of AC and heat. This is a key point to consider, and here’s why. There are plenty of people out there whom will attempt to save a few bucks by mounting indoor speakers outdoors but yet under cover. A soffit or under a deck are the most common of locations for indoor speakers to be mounted outdoors. The biggest issue with this idea is that moisture is still in the air, even underneath those overhangs. Indoor speakers are not designed with durable cones and internal parts which are rust resistant, which will be present on the outdoor speakers.

Not only should one be concerned with moisture, but also sun light. Exposure to sunlight is a major concern especially for those in the southern states. The sun will eat right through a cheap pair of speakers. Before you know it, the cones will be completely dry rotten.

One crucial difference between indoor and outdoor speakers is that outdoor speakers may be “single-point speakers”, which allow for both left and right inputs into the speaker. This allows the speaker to produce omni-directional sound, so as to allow a single outdoor speaker to have greater coverage over a wide area. Think of omni-directional sound having a circular coverage over a particular area. One example of this is the Bose Free Space 51 environmental speakers, which radiates sound in a 360 degree fashion with its circular design. In contrast, indoor speakers usually have left and right inputs, so the sound spreads from a single direction in a triangulation form. It is noteworthy that not all outdoor speakers are designed to produce omni-directional sound, but it is increasingly common to see single-point outdoor speakers being used to propagate sound across large outdoor areas. They can also be combined with multiple omni-directional speakers to cover an extremely large area.

Conclusion

As you have observed, indoor and outdoor speakers are made for different reasons. By looking at the above differences between outdoor speakers and indoor speakers, you will note that it is best that you the right speakers at the right space.

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