No Room Acoustics. What do you think about listening to music outdoors with a HiFi system?

[DanielT]

I came up with one thing, instead of mowing the grass and painting the outdoor furniture, I can try setting up a couple of speakers and listen to how it sounds without reflections from any roof, back and side walls. They stand directly on the lawn.

Some conclusions. Well, it's a special experience to listen like that without reflexes (or very few). Big band jazz, the orchestra is experienced as being in the middle of the speakers. Doesn't feel big, so to speak. There I miss the effect reflexes that are added in a normal listening room where the sound bounces around. This playlist for example sounds, hum not big but small band jazz instead. The same experience of smallness no matter what song I play from this list. Nop not so much fun listening to music from this list on two speakers outdoors:

Big Band Jazz Instrumental

Big Band Jazz Instrumental · Playlist · 52 songs · 887 likes

open.spotify.com

Here, however, the songstress feels like she's standing right in front of me and singing. A pleasant experience:

Another conclusion, which you probably know. These types of calculators below where listening distance should be entered. It might work outdoors because I really hear how the sound fades the further away from the speakers I listen to, but indoors I don't experience that because the entire listening room is then a reverb area. The other than listening distance very close or not, but at longer listening distances I don't notice it. Indoors, that is. No sensational conclusion. Everyone who walks around and listens to music in their listening room notices that this is the case:

HiFi Loudspeaker Design

www.mh-audio.nl

I listen to these speakers. Okay, now via Bluetooth when I'm out, but if I had plugged in the DAC Topping E30, I still think I experienced the same thing as I mention above:

XTZ Tune 4 - anyone has these?

I'm looking for some active/powered speakers that have a sub output, to use nearfield with a subwoofer which I already have. Came across these https://www.xtzsound.eu/product/tune-4?technical which seem to have pretty good specs on paper, 52hz -3 point for a 4 inch woofer seems really good, ...

audiosciencereview.com

Edit:
I wonder if I somehow wired the speakers wrong because big band jazz sounds so compressed between the speakers. How the hell could I have done it, wrong connection that is. Or it's wired right and that's just how it sounds.

 

[DanielT]

If you have suggestions for music that require being able to pinpoint exactly where the instruments are, please let me know. Or something else fun that would be fun to try now that I still have the speakers outside. I would like to test that now that I have removed reflexes.

 

[Doodski]

 

[Soniclife]

Can you get the speakers up of the ground to a more normal height? If so does it make any real difference. I'm sure someone from the outdoor PA world can add something useful.

 

[DanielT]

Can you get the speakers up of the ground to a more normal height? If so does it make any real difference. I'm sure someone from the outdoor PA world can add something useful.

Sure I can do that. I managed to get a wooden post ready before the rain came. Fairly high pole. I might have to stand up and listen then. To be continued.

Edit:
This could be the motivation I need to get my UMIK up and running for some measurements. Then I will see if it is as straight FR as the manufacturer claims on those speakers:

XTZ Tune 4 active speakers - XTZ Sound in Balance

XTZ Tune 4 active speakesr with the highest sound quality and deep bass. Incl. Bluetooth 4.0.

www.xtzsound.eu

 

[bothu]

My outdoor system is a just loud no HiFi ambitions.
I use it when I am working in the garden.
It is connected to the house WiFi system an operated by my phone .
Speakers are "left overs" from my early days with HiFi.

Bo Thunér Sweden

 

[pseudoid]

[Warning: I may go OT:]
I've always have been a giant fan of outdoors and music.
Both - together - are a marriage made in heavens!
Whether it was an outdoor-live concert, or just a bunch of party people in the woods with - even - crappy speakers/amps.
I'd take those experiences over an in-home or even the RadioCityMusicHall experience any day.

The most memorable outdoor-live music I had experienced were:
Deep under the Pocono Mountains' canopy in an impromptu 2-day jam session, and
Another forest-canopy covered outdoor-live music experience was near Pfeiffer Gulch, by taking a wrong turn...
IMHO: You need big speakers and big amps and BIG trees!

I've been in a few natural 'amphitheaters' and it truly changes one's perspective.
It has been over a decade since I've visited the HollywoodBowl but such an experience should not be missed.
It has gone thru a recent retrofit using the L-Acoustics K1 system.

The [Hollywood] Bowl presents a demanding environment for a sound system with its seating configured into a giant curved teardrop. At over 450 feet deep from front to back with a steep rake that slopes up nearly 100 feet from the stage, the longest throw for sound clocks in at over 600 feet. And in Southern California, where the dry atmospheric conditions have a significant impact on the throw capability of a sound system, it’s even more of a challenge. It required a solution with the highest output to maintain adequate SPL to the back of the venue because it wasn’t possible to deploy delay systems within the amphitheater. The system needed to meet, and exceed all rider specifications, while supporting program material for any genre, from classical to EDM. link

Have you determined the 'sweet spot' configurations between you and the speakers? Both width and distance?

 

[DanielT]

My outdoor system is a just loud no HiFi ambitions.
I use it when I am working in the garden.
It is connected to the house WiFi system an operated by my phone .
Speakers are "left overs" from my early days with HiFi.View attachment 295078



View attachment 295080


Bo Thunér Sweden

That was a smart solution!

[Warning: I may go OT:]
I've always have been a giant fan of outdoors and music.
Both - together - are a marriage made in heavens!
Whether it was an outdoor-live concert, or just a bunch of party people in the woods with - even - crappy speakers/amps.
I'd take those experiences over an in-home or even the RadioCityMusicHall experience any day.

The most memorable outdoor-live music I had experienced were:
Deep under the Pocono Mountains' canopy in an impromptu 2-day jam session, and
Another forest-canopy covered outdoor-live music experience was near Pfeiffer Gulch, by taking a wrong turn...
IMHO: You need big speakers and big amps and BIG trees!

View attachment 295085
I've been in a few natural 'amphitheaters' and it truly changes one's perspective.
It has been over a decade since I've visited the HollywoodBowl but such an experience should not be missed.
It has gone thru a recent retrofit using the L-Acoustics K1 system.


Have you determined the 'sweet spot' configurations between you and the speakers? Both width and distance?

I didn't manage to arrive at the most optimal listening position before the rain came, but sunny days will come.Then I'll test further.

Live, oh so many memories. Mainly from when I was younger. We were at the Roskilde Festival a lot of times.

Roskilde Festival - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

An example of which bands played one year when my friends and I were there:

I liked that song.

 

[DanielT]

My outdoor system is a just loud no HiFi ambitions.
I use it when I am working in the garden.
It is connected to the house WiFi system an operated by my phone .
Speakers are "left overs" from my early days with HiFi.View attachment 295078



View attachment 295080


Bo Thunér Sweden

The more I see that solution, the smarter and more practical it seems to be. What kind of speaker drivers and amp stuff Is it in your solution?

We using. Do you roll it out and into that red shed I see in the picture?

 

[onion]

Devialet Phantom makes for an amazing outdoor speaker.

 

[dasdoing]

on a sidejoke; outdoor speakers with high WAF: https://www.amazon.com/Rock-Outdoor-Speakers/s?k=Rock+Outdoor+Speakers

 

[Tom C]

My outdoor system is a just loud no HiFi ambitions.
I use it when I am working in the garden.
It is connected to the house WiFi system an operated by my phone .
Speakers are "left overs" from my early days with HiFi.View attachment 295078



View attachment 295080


Bo Thunér Sweden

Very cool!

 

[bothu]

The more I see that solution, the smarter and more practical it seems to be. What kind of speaker drivers and amp stuff Is it in your solution?

We using. Do you roll it out and into that red shed I see in the picture?

Bass : PYLE W1570D , 15" dual coils , sens. 96 dB , free air 30 Hz.
Mid : JBL 2105 , 5" , sens. 92 dB at 30 feet , 150 Hz to 15 kHz.
Tweeter: JBL 075 , 1 3/4 " coil , sens 110 dB , 2,5 to 15 kHz.

Amp is home maid 2 x 60 W 8 Ohm

The shed (vedbod) is where we have burning wood and "other stuff".

 

[Balle Clorin]

Listening to your Hifi outdoors is A shocking experience, it sounds like shit..

 

[Matt_Holland]

My outdoor system is a just loud no HiFi ambitions.
I use it when I am working in the garden.
It is connected to the house WiFi system an operated by my phone .
Speakers are "left overs" from my early days with HiFi.View attachment 295078



View attachment 295080


Bo Thunér Sweden

This is hilarious!

What a contraption.

 

[Anton D]

Outdoors = big fun.

It can be surprising! Soundstage imaging can be VERY large.

Recommended.

 

[bachatero]

Can you get the speakers up of the ground to a more normal height? If so does it make any real difference. I'm sure someone from the outdoor PA world can add something useful.

The reason all outdoor PA setups have the speakers high up on stands is because when you put speakers on the ground, not only will the listeners block the treble, but a larger amount of the sound you hear will be from ground reflections. Grass isn't the best acoustic blocker/reflector so as you might expect it sounds like junk.

Unfortunately, regular "hifi" speakers often don't have pole mounts on the bottom but all PA speakers do. That's why I'm such a big advocate for them because of their flexibility.

 

[beeface]

This is the the new frontier. The days of listening rooms are numbered - they are nothing more than self-imposed reflection prisons