The 10 Best Outdoor Speakers

For a patio or deck that needs full sound without a bulky box on the wall, the Polk Audio Atrium 6 is a safe choice. Its aluminum grille and bracket and its stainless and brass hardware ride out rain, sun and salty air. The bracket locks with one hand, so one person can hang and aim each speaker. Polk backs the pair for five years. The bass thins out across a big open yard.

Landscapers hide sound in garden beds with fake stones, and the Theater Solutions 2R8G set does that for not much money. Each gray, granite-look shell holds a large woofer and a tweeter tilted up toward the people listening, so music seems to rise from the plants. They're passive, so they run from a home receiver, and the cable for the trench should be rated for burial. Deep bass is thin outdoors without a subwoofer.

If you want music to carry across a yard without turning the amp way up, the Klipsch AW-650 uses a horn-shaped tweeter that throws sound farther on less power. The cabinet is a sun-resistant plastic you can paint to match your trim, with a rustproof aluminum grille and stainless steel hardware. A threaded socket on the back takes other mounts as well. Klipsch sells it through outside distributors rather than its own store, so stock can be spotty.

The Kicker KB6B is a boxy black pair meant for loud, clear sound on a covered porch, in a garage or by the pool house. Each cabinet pairs a mid-size woofer with a horn tweeter, and the swiveling bracket lets you hang them on a wall or under a ceiling. Spring clips take bare wire, and the mounting hardware comes in the box. The warranty runs just one year, and the plain square shape won't flatter every house.

Homes that already run Sonos get the tidiest patio setup from the Sonos Outdoor by Sonance pair. Wire them to a Sonos Amp and the yard joins every other room in the Sonos app, with room for three pairs on one Amp. Sonance built the cabinets to take humidity, salt spray, heat, sun and frost. The catch is the Amp, which is sold separately and isn't cheap, and without it these are ordinary passive speakers.

For a lawn party where guests stand all around the music, the OSD Audio Forza 850 spreads sound in a full circle instead of one direction. A large woofer and a tweeter sit inside a bronze shell that looks like a garden planter, and it shrugs off dust and hard rain. Run direct-burial cable to it and it sits right on the grass or mulch. It's sold one at a time and plays in mono, so stereo means buying two.

Getting music onto a porch from a stereo you already own doesn't have to cost much, and the Yamaha NS-AW150 pair proves it. A sealed cabinet keeps the bass tight rather than boomy, and each speaker can stand upright or lie on its side under an eave. The drivers are built to handle damp air. It's a small speaker with a small tweeter, so it suits a porch or a cozy patio better than a big backyard.

Under a low eave, beside a door or on a narrow balcony, the Polk Audio Atrium 4 fits where a full-size speaker won't. It gets Polk's rugged outdoor build, with an aluminum grille and a bracket that clicks into place at the angle you want. Small cabinets mean light bass, so it works best for background music while you cook or read outside. Supply has been thin lately, and the price tends to jump when stock runs low.

Poolside and seaside homes are what the French hi-fi maker had in mind for the Focal 100 OD8, which seals its cabinet against dust and strong jets of water. A large coated woofer and an aluminum tweeter sit in a sun-treated case, and the bracket swings through a half turn to aim it. The grille and cabinet take paint. It's priced per speaker, not per pair, so stereo sound becomes a serious spend.

Covered patios and pergolas with open beams suit the Dayton Audio WP65BT, a pair of round speakers that hang from a cable like pendant lamps. Brackets for walls and a stake for the garden come in the box too. Despite the letters in the name, there's no Bluetooth: a switch on the back lets it run from a home amp or a commercial sound system. Dayton gives it a five-year warranty, but few buyers have owned one long.