Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, Black)
See it at Amazon.com for $98.83Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Surprisingly good speakers for an outdoor space
I bought a pair of these a couple of years ago from Crutchfield for just under $200. We had a back porch with outdoor fireplace built onto the house and wanted to have music without having to use a portable stereo boombox. I had some unused stereo equipment available so I ran some long lengths of speaker cable from the den to the roof beam of the porch. I started out trying to utilize a pair of small bookshelf speakers I had on hand but they sounded dreadful out there. I went shopping for some "made-for-the-outside" speakers and the Polks looked like they would fit the bill.
I wasn't expecting much from these speakers, in all honesty. Trying to get good sound in such an open place was not something I thought to be possible. I was wrong.
These are great little speakers and they put out a lot of sound for their size. The backyard in a city residential area is not the place to listen to the dynamic range in symphonies or operas, but popular music comes across extremely well. Despite the small woofer, there's a good deal of bass reproduction here. For more bass, Polk makes some larger outdoor speakers but the 45's are less obtrusive than larger speakers would be for my application.
I have the speakers mounted under the shelter of the porch roof so I can't comment on how weather-proof they are for the long run. They have survived two years of some record high temperatures, some below-freezing temperatures and a lot of extreme humidity without a problem. If you mount them in the sun and the rain and the snow, I'm sure they will have a shorter life.
I highly recommend these speakers if you have an outdoor-living space where you would like to listen to music.
(4 out of 5)Good, detailed outdoor speakers
I bought these speakers originally as a replacement for a pair of weathered Boston Acoustics attached to our overhead lattice in the back yard. These speakers are very detailed and I can hear components of music within tracks that I would not expect to be able to hear outdoors. Having said that, bass extesion is not great, but, given the frequency range, I didn't expect it to be. I ended up reconditioning the Boston speakers and also hooked these up. The combination of their bass extension (must be 40-50Hz) with the detailed Polks is extremely compelling, making outdoor listening surprisnigly good. Even though one might pay more for the lower extension Polks, it is probably worth it if you like music. These are good for the price, but limited. That's not a critisism, as I knew this when I bought them; I was just hoping physics had changed since the last owner of the house bought the Bostons!!
(5 out of 5)Excellent Speakers
I have been using these speakers for about 2 months, and I'm finding them to be one of my better recent purchases. I'll go through the main categories and give you my impression:
SOUND: Obviously the most important factor. I set these up in my living room and let them play for about 2 straight days in order to break them in a bit. Once I put them outside, they really shined. They fill our deck and pool area with a pleasing and musical sound. They are not going to get you a ton of bass, but at the same time the music sounds "full" and does not have a "tinny" or overbearing treble sound. My wife and I agree that these are nice sounding speakers.
APPEARANCE: I got the white ones, and they match perfectly under my gutter overhang. They're well made and look like a quality item to anyone that notices them up there.
INSTALLATION: Clearly this can vary, but I found them easy to install. Basically just screw in the holders, then attach the speakers to the holders. Running the cables to the speakers is the tricky part, but i managed to hide it under the gutter as well. If you're using them outside, you'll need underground low voltage wire (like they use for landscaping lights). I bought my wire at Home Depot - cheap, $17 for 100'.
VALUE: For the price (I paid $125 including s/h) they're an excellent value.
MISC - One huge benefit of these speakers is they require very little power to drive them. I'm using an old Denon receiver with 60 watts (30 to each speaker) and it's more than enough. I can barely turn it up before it reaches a level that would be annoying to the neighbors.
To anyone considering these speakers, I highly recommend them!
(4 out of 5)Good sound for the money
Speakers are installed under an eaves in my backyard. Good bass in a large area and clear sound out to 50 feet.
(4 out of 5)Heavy Duty
I just purchased my second pair of Atrium 45's to add some sound to a patio addition. My first pair is 2.5 years old and still sound great being that they are hanging from a wall that is largely un-protected from the weather (Seattle rain). I can go out in a down-pour, crank the music up and the sound is still excellent.
I may not judge products properly, but a tell-tale sign of a decent outdoor speaker for me is the weight and these are heavy! Make sure you hit a stud when hanging these!