3
a
b
The placement of outdoor speakers follow a different set of priorities from those used for indoor speakers.
Speakers used indoors in music or AV systems are placed to achieve the best possible stereo or surround sound
image. You typically listen to them from a certain location while enjoying music or AV programs. But outdoor
listening is usually part of more active forms of recreation. So considerations such as stereo imaging or proper
surround sound are not the main concern. For outdoor speakers most often the main goal is to provide good
sound coverage over the area where you enjoy your outdoor activities.
The basic guidelines are quite simple, although they differ slightly for the RK5, a mono speaker, compared to the
RK6T2 and RK8T2 which can be wired as mono or stereo speakers.
When deciding where to place your speaker, you should ask three interrelated questions:
• Where are you going to be when you want to hear the speakers?
• What are you going to be doing while listening to the speakers? Will you be actually listening to the
speakers or will they be providing background while you’re doing something else?
• How important is traditional stereo imaging? Do you want normal stereo imaging or is good balanced
coverage of all the sound more important?
An outdoor environment places special demands on a speaker system. You do not have the advantage of an
enclosed, defined area. So you must try to place them were they will give you the sound coverage you want, and
be in a good location for sound reproduction.
For example, when selecting outdoor speaker locations, it is usually best to have a solid surface behind the
speaker. Such placement helps reinforce bass output. Bass sound is by nature omni-directional. The bass sound
energy a speaker produces will spread out in all directions. Outdoors, where there are no walls to contain the
bass energy, placing a speaker with its back to a solid surface – the wall of a house, a solid fence, etc. – will help
focus and direct the bass sound the speaker produces.
The illustration below shows how you might place your speakers. There are two main listening areas – around the
table on the patio (a) and the lounge chairs (b) out in the yard.
Two speakers are placed against the walls
of the house, facing in toward the patio.
This provides good coverage to the area
where the table and chairs are.
Another pair of speakers are placed
against the fence facing the lounge chairs
to provide sound coverage for that area.
In these examples the RK5, being a mono-
only speaker, would have normal stereo
separation. The RK6T2 and RK8T2 could
be wired for mono to produce normal
stereo separation. Or they can be wired
so both channels are reproduced by each
speaker, sacrificing stereo imaging for
more even sound distribution of both
channels.