I'm trying to find very small, wired speakers that can stand up to rain. For some reason this sort of thing doesn't seem to exist. Every single product I've seen is at least 7.4/5.1/4.7 inches (that's a set from Monoprice, the smallest I could find).

In the setting these will be in, sound quality isn't very important, and neither is volume. What's most important is size and appearance. I need a small speaker, preferably in black.

Does anyone know where I can find something like this?

Have you checked the marine electronics world?

Something like:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/poly-planar--ma-3013-3-round-flush-mount-speakers--8680985

-jk

What is the application?

How small do you need the speakers to be?

Unpowered or powered speakers?

Also, look at different classes of connectors. In pro-speaker land, you'll often find a thing called "SpeakON" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speakon_connector). While not explicitly weatherized, these connectors are meant to survive all kinds of abuse and are also going to do a much better job than traditional connectors at keeping the water out.

(And, the connectors are all of $3/each. I recently rebuilt a bunch of cables like this for my daughter's elementary school...)

Thanks guys!

I now see that I should have specified that I can't really use flush-mount speakers. That would be ideal, but I'm helping to install these and I don't have the expertise needed to put in the flush mount speakers.

You're going to laugh, but these speakers will be going in a shower. It's a large shower, so they're unlikely to get a lot of direct water on them, but steam will definitely be an issue. I'm assuming that outdoor-rated speakers can stand up to these conditions, but I'm not sure.

What they want is for speakers the size of your typical Bose cubes. I've already looked at Bose, but they only sell large weatherproof speakers.

Wow, I didn't know that connector type had a name or was a "thing". The only place I've used one of those is on our cellist's Bose PA system, it connects the tower to the subwoofer. I thought it was proprietary to Bose or something.

That's always a completely valid assumption when it comes to Bose

Back to West Marine:

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/poly-planar--subcompact-box-speaker-black--15113152
http://www.westmarine.com/buy/poly-planar--marine-sub-compact-box-speakers-pair--358715
http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--mini-3-waterproof-box-speakers--1985944

-jk

Perhaps it is possible to mount the speakers (does it have to be multiple speakers? Would monophonic be OK?) just outside the shower and aim the sound into the shower area over the door or whatever.

In-ceiling speakers are not particularly tricky. Just need to create the mounting holes and run the wiring from the openings back to the amplifier.

The actual speaker mounting hardware often includes special clips that grab the ceiling from the top side of the opening and clamp the speaker rim up against the ceiling material.

Are they using a Bluetooth enabled device for the music? If so, check out the iShower2, maybe that will be enough for them.

I haven't used it, but the iGrill was so awesome that I preordered the iGrill2.

DING DING DING!! I think we have a winner! Thank you so much for finding those for me, I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

There's only two things I don't like about those products:

1) There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the pricing, either on West Marine or on Amazon. In both places I'm seeing ~$59 for one speaker, and ~$66 for the pair. Hey, I'm not complaining, I just feel like I'm missing something.

2) The lack of documentation is weird. I've found the product on Poly-Planar's site and it's a one-page PDF that doesn't show the connections at all. I'm sure it's nothing crazy, but it's odd.

Other than those hesitations, I think these will definitely fit the bill. Thank you so much for finding those.


Normally I'd have no problem. I've mounted plenty of speakers in drywall. This shower, however, has marble on all sides AND the ceiling. I don't have the tools or expertise to create a circular opening in a marble with (I assume) a plywood backing. It'll be nerve-wracking enough to simply drill holes for bolts on these speakers.


Yeah, I was just going to use toggle bolts or something like that.


Thanks, I hadn't heard of that product, but these speakers are connected to a receiver as second room speakers.

Hmm, I think I might have another problem. Those Poly Planar speakers are 4 ohm. Am I going to have a problem connecting to an average AV receiver? Don't most of them want 8 ohm speakers?

Many amplifiers can handle four ohm speakers, but you said these were to be run as a second pair from the same amp, correct?

Check the specifications for the amp closely as the impedance of the main speaker set may affect the amps ability to cope with four ohm secondaries.

If impedance load does turn out to be an issue, perhaps an auxiliary amp dedicated to the new speakers would be an easy work around. Compact digital amps are not expensive these days. I have been using a tiny microFidelity Amphony amp for some outdoor speakers (those speakers are actually outside).

Thanks for that. I'm hopeful that it'll be ok. These are set up as a second room, which I believe usually works on a second amp in the better receivers. I'll have to see if this one can handle that. I'll try to get the model number.