Outdoor Roon Ready active speakers?

Looking for a pair of outdoor speakers (not battery powered).

Roon Ready and active.

Not silly priced - a few hundred to a grand £ at most.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

Are you looking to permanently mount them or are you looking more for PA style speakers you can use in the garden for a party?

I can’t think of any RATT (Roon Ready) active outdoor speakers, but I have a pair of B&W AM1 powered by a HiFiBerry Amp100 running HiFiBerryOS on my patio which I’d wholeheartedly recommend. The active radiator on the back of the AM1 works really well.

Sonos sell a similarly styled outdoor speaker & amp package but it’s over your budget and although it will work with Roon it isn’t ‘Roon Ready’ and won’t group with other Roon zones. I’d go with the AM1’s instead.

If your looking at the more PA end for a garden party that you’ll move indoors afterwards I’d look at regular active PA speakers and use a RPi with an XLR DAC hat.

You could also just use a regular RPi/DAC hat with RCA outputs along with a RCA to XLR cable - you’ll likely be able to adjust the input gain to match consumer line level / RCA outputs.

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Well, there’s this:

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Pretty pricey if you wanted a stereo pair and still more of a portable speaker (in form factor) than something you might install permanently, but yes otherwise it looks like they tick off the OP’s requirements.

The thread you linked to did make me think that if you just wanted some big portable / active PA speakers for a garden party (that you stored in the shed afterwards) you might be better off getting a pair of traditional PA speakers with Bluetooth and then using your phone (or a cheap tablet), paired with the speakers via Bluetooth, as a Roon endpoint while you were using them.

I was thinking more of a permanent mount or something that I could leave plugged in to power and on all the time. Don’t want to have to lug them in and out.

The B&W AM1 looks interesting d might just be the solution - how do you control the volume - via Roon and the Hifiberry or is there a separate app by B&W?

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They look good. However, and it’s my fault for not mentioning it in my first post, they can’t be left out all the time. Just weather resistant, not water proof.

If you are able to locate a supplier and can install the appropriate ethernet cable…

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Yes, via Roon - Roon does hardware volume control via HiFiBerryOS

They sound great, plenty loud, go deep/low and are proper weather resistant (I’ve had mine for 5 years now) although I do take them in during the winter - but the way they mount its super easy, just a few turns of an Allen key to take them off the wall.

I have my RPi/Amp housed in an IP65 waterproof enclosure attached to my back wall.

The AM1’s are passive so you do need to use an amp with them, but the HiFiBerry RPi/Amp100 combo (running HiFiBerryOS) in an IP65 enclosure mounted on my back wall has served me well.

The other option might be an old / used Gen1 Sonos Connect amp - they can be picked up cheap as they’re not much use for Sonos users anymore, but they work fine with Roon. You can’t group them with RAAT zones, but if that isn’t an issue for you it’s a cheap amp option that works with Roon.

Not sure this exactly meets your request (as they are not Roon Ready but play perfectly with Roon) but two Sonos Moves set up as a stereo pair make some awesome garden speakers. They get about 11-12 Hours of playback off the charging stand as well and charge nicely when on the stands.

Double up as a very nice Bluetooth speaker as well and I currently have mine on holiday with me.

We use a Devialet egg thing in the garden. Forget the name. Does the job nicely.

I’d also recommend the Bluesound Professional BPS500 or BPS1000 as they are IP65-rated (prevents dust and can withstand water sprays). However, it does not appear these support WiFi on the speakers themselves, so you will need a PoE switch to integrate them into your network and then use the BlueOS app to configure them.

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I’m guessing they’re intended to be powered via PoE hence no need for WiFi.

But more importantly it doesn’t look like they are Roon Ready — shame as otherwise the’d be a perfect, easy to install option — at least for anyone who could run an ethernet cable to them.

Well that sucks, I wonder if it’s due to the security overlay they use for their professional products. May be worth checking with Bluesound again and ask about options (e.g., does AirPlay work with them?).

From what i can gather from their Data Sheets - they support BluOS only. Through BluOS you can access all the streaming services. However you are stuck with the BluOS ecosystem. Since their target market is the professional market, they don’t see the need to support anything else.

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Does anyone know if the escape P6 speaker can be left plugged in unattended. The manual says they don’t which seems stupid. I don’t really want to keep charging these up. I’d rather keep them plugged in until I am ready to use them remotely without power which is rare.

I keep mine plugged in most of the time and haven’t noticed anything bad. Battery life is still good, as far as I can tell. I imagine that might be the (long-term) problem, depending on the battery type in the P6.

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