Outdoor audiophile gear?

i'd second the don't overspend idea. hi end outdoor spkrs for 'outdoor' use are probably a waste of $$ for what the listeners are after. polk, jbl, nht etc will be fine. if you really want to impress your buddies find a big bassy subwoofer and put it in a sweet spot. and yes , anything shaped like a terd or clod i would avoid at all costs on principle. what if a worker or cleaner accidentally kicks your clod or limes your terd? and do you really want to hang a terd from a tiki torch...gross.

I enthusiastically agree with Chadnliz--just about anything I've ever run outdoors sounds surprisingly good. Used to have a pair of Niles OM-5s that were excellent, and lately, I've been carrying a pair of B&W DM303s into the yard on outdoor days while I'm waiting for delivery of a pair of "off brand" outdoor speakers from an online shop. I'd spend conservatively. . .just getting rid of all those walls makes the extraordinary difference. But beyond that, you're competing with ambient noise, and you're probably not glued to the "sweet spot" so it seems there's a rapid accelleration of the diminishing returns principle.

I would recommend buying direct fron the manufacturer. I purchased my speakers over the web from outdoorspeakerdepot.com. I purchased the AP850 model. They may be a little large for some people however, they are OUTSTANDING outdoor wall mounted speakers. The price is EXTREMELY affordable and they trounce anything within $1000 of their price.

Do the rock speakers work with jazz?

Plus, as you should know, the speakers that look like rocks DO in fact ROCK!