… any recommendations for outdoor speakers when using Roon?
I would recommend not to use any outdoor speakers with Roon.
- You can experience the sound of nature while you’re outdoors
- Your neighbours will be extremely grateful
I currently take a Bluesound Pulse Flex in the garden, but intend to replace this with wired speakers as Wi-Fi can be unreliable at times.
I intend to use the IQAudiO Pi-DigiAMP+ with Yamaha all-weather speakers … got as far as running the SWA and Ethernet cable.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yamaha-NSAW592-All-Weather-Speakers/dp/B00ZINV7HE/
A little jenky, as the kids would say, but here’s what I did when my gf asked for garden music:
I bought the smaller Ikea speaker (because I liked how it looked and it didn’t sound horrible) It runs off the battery pack they sell for it.
I velcroed a google chromes audio puck to the back which is power by a very thin rechargeable battery pack found on amazon. The Chromecast device plugs into the line in of the Ikea box forgoing its bad sounding bluetooth.
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Are there any Roon ready outdoor speakers and which is the best one
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Bluesound pulse 2 or 2i is the only fully RAAT one that has a battery option that I can think of. Buts it’s not weather proof if that’s what yiur aftwr. Plenty of Chromecast and airplay ones that will work as well but they are not RAAT so cant sync to other Roon ready devices but will work with Roon.
I built two RPi amp/DACs to drive my four outside speakers. Cheap, effective, and “ordinary” outside speakers can be used. Also, these are Roon endpoints and can therefore be grouped with all my inside speakers.
Thanks. Yes Weatherproof would be ideal.
Full weather proof speakers are not normally powered or active and require an amp to feed them. You could use a pi and amp board connected to a pair of decent outside weather proof speakers and run Ropieee on it. Pi would need to be indoors somewhere unless you can find decent waterproof housing for it. This is my plan when I get round to it. Either that or find a waterproof airplay or ChromeCast system. If you want full Roon Ready RAAT your out of luck. Other option would be a waterproof Bluetooth and use phone or tablet to send Roon apps output to it.
Hi, I saw your reply from about 6 months ago. You are suggesting a Bluesound device for playing Roon outdoors:
I am looking for an outdoors (or portable speaker) at home that can play the music stored on my indoors MacMini (which usually plays therough an external DAc to my main stereo system.
I am a bit surprised you recommend Bluesound, as we use Bluesound at our business (a spa with multiple rooms playing different music) and I thought Bluesound requires a BlueSound Vault to play anything at all.
Are you saying that a Bluesound speaker/player can also play completely independently from the Bluesound system? Can it simply be an Output for my Roon server?
I am not going to buy and implement an entire Bluesound multi-room system at home. That would be overkill, especially since I already have the Roon server.
Thanks!
I have 6 pair of speakers installed outdoors around the patios and pool. The speaker wires all run back through conduit to a single location in the basement where they are driven by a 12 channel AudioControl amp. The amp is connected to a BlueSound Node 2 as the music source. I can use the BluOS app if I want but I already have a Roon subscription so I use that to control the Node 2. For summer parties where people go in and out, I group the outdoor speakers with a number of rooms inside and stream the same music playlist to all speakers at the same time.
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So do you need a Bluesound Vault? I thought that was a necessary component for any Bluesound system and controlled all the content for all Bluesound players? Maybe this changed? It’s been 5 years since we first set up our Bluesound system.
No you don’t need a vault. Roon can play to Bluesound devices they have been Roon Ready for a number of years for the older devices. One caveat is some users have run into issues using WiFi and Roon on the newer i range but not all of them, seems to be dependent on wireless setup. Roon core will see it as a Roon Ready device add it your away, no Vault needed.
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I use a Bluesound Pulse Flex outside. Simply put it out with all the soft furnishings. It’s a Roon endpoint and picks up the house WiFi.
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As someone who has struggled for 2 years to get bluesound speakers working with Roon, I recommend you ensure you have a return option if buy one. Others in the forum report no issues at all though so your mileage may vary. I just find them (still) unusable over WiFi (2 different homes, 3 different flagship routers). They did work well with powerline ethernet though.
My recommendation for outdoor speaker would be the combination of a RPi + wifi dongle + battery powered bluetooth speaker. I have found the RPi3b (with volumio) + a usb wifi dongle works really well. This solution does mean you have some cables to deal with but I found it to work well and costs little.
Best
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So you didn’t see the need to follow through on your original plan to use Yamaha outdoor speakers?
Still on the to do list. I may get to it sooner than expected with the lockdown. I already had the Flex so it’s a quick solution.
Ideally, waterproof speakers fed by a Raspberry Pi with IQaudIO DigiAMP+. I’ve already run network cable, power etc. but need to install an IP66 junction box and source the DAC hat.
I was considering, my 11th zone yesterday one for the garden using Yamaha speakers and a pi/amp. But decided against. I can easily take my SB Radio outside and have a bt speaker I can use with my DAP and use that for the amount of times we get to be outside and have time to listen.
I’m just using my Android phone feeding a BT speaker when we’re outside. A permanent installation remains a to-do project for some undefined point in the future…