Home > Consumer Reviews > Polk Audio Atrium 45 All-Weather Speakers (Pair, White)

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!!

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!

The sound is great from these speakers. The bass is what I was worried about since I have a 3/4 acre back yard with virtually no trees or structures to bounce off of. Securing them under the eave of the house was all I needed. Oh, and they crank out too!

The only issue I had was the hangers, they only swivel longitudinally, but the big wing nuts to attach the speaker to them made it very easy to mount 20 feet up.

I bought these after listening to a neighbors pair that he had out around his unenclosed pool deck. They had been there for a year and looked brand new. He had another pair on his porch that were three years old and looked almost as good.
The bass response on these babies, despite their size, has to be heard to be believed. The outside enviroment is murder on bass, but these speakers sound great! For the price and size, you can't beat them.

Bought these speakers to have some music for my pool in the backyard and used them for a couple months this summer. They sound great and don't get distorted at high volumes. I mounted them under the eave of the roof and installation was pretty easy. The mounting bracket lets you tilt the speaker to where you want the sound. I'd recommend these to anybody looking for a nice set of outdoor speakers.