This is a review and detailed measurements of the OS AP650 "Patio" weather-resistant speaker. It is on kind loan from a local member and costs US $160 from Amazon including free shipping.
Fit and finish doesn't look bad and I especially like the beefy bracket:
There is a cover that hides the speaker connections in the back.
An article in Wirecutter which was syndicated by NY Times voted the AP650 as their "best outdoor speaker." It goes on to say: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-outdoor-speakers/
"Its clarity beats anything we’ve heard from other models priced under $200 per pair, and it has a full, powerful sound that can easily fill a typical suburban backyard. It has enough bass for R&B, hip-hop, and rock music, and its relatively high sensitivity lets it deliver loud volumes when paired with a small amplifier. "
It was a bit difficult to measure this speaker because it doesn't want to sit upright by itself. I propped it up as best as I could be it may have measured a couple of degrees leaning back. Also, I left the grill on and had to locate the tweeter with a flashlight. So that center may be off a bit as well.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of around 1%.
Temperature was 59 degrees F at sea level.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
OSD AP650 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Well, this is not a pretty sight. Just about everything is messed up from on-axis to directivity and overall tonality. Granted, you may not listen to this on-axis but still, hard to find anything to hang your hat on.
Crossover seems to be the problem here as indicated in the near-field measurements:
Woofer response remains very high way past crossover region. This leads to high distortion there as well:
Early window and predicted in-room response don't quite apply to a speaker that is wall mounted but still useful data:
Impedance is reasonably high which is good:
Directivity as noted is horrid:
We have both beaming of the tweeter above 8 kHz and mismatch with woofer starting at 2 kHz.
OSD AP650 Listening Tests
The sound can only be described with two words: hollow and bright! All you hear is this brightness with zero body to the sound. I lowered the highs with EQ and boosted the 1 to 3 kHz and that made some improvement. But really, there is no proper sound coming out of this speaker to be worth messing with. So I stopped.
Conclusions
The outdoor speaker business is all about marketing and margins. Technical correctness is not even in the vocabulary of most manufacturers. This could have been an exception seeing how the praise had come from a technical reviewer (Brent Butterworth). I can't fathom how he thought this speaker was worth listening to. OK, I can. Maybe all the others he tested were much worse which would not surprise me.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the OSD AP650. Buy this speaker if you want some noise outside not high-fidelity experience. Even then, you may be told to "turn it down" after it gets to your guests with its high pitched sound. Or else point it up or something.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Fit and finish doesn't look bad and I especially like the beefy bracket:
There is a cover that hides the speaker connections in the back.
An article in Wirecutter which was syndicated by NY Times voted the AP650 as their "best outdoor speaker." It goes on to say: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-outdoor-speakers/
"Its clarity beats anything we’ve heard from other models priced under $200 per pair, and it has a full, powerful sound that can easily fill a typical suburban backyard. It has enough bass for R&B, hip-hop, and rock music, and its relatively high sensitivity lets it deliver loud volumes when paired with a small amplifier. "
It was a bit difficult to measure this speaker because it doesn't want to sit upright by itself. I propped it up as best as I could be it may have measured a couple of degrees leaning back. Also, I left the grill on and had to locate the tweeter with a flashlight. So that center may be off a bit as well.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
I performed over 1000 measurement which resulted in error rate of around 1%.
Temperature was 59 degrees F at sea level.
Measurements are compliant with latest speaker research into what can predict the speaker preference and is standardized in CEA/CTA-2034 ANSI specifications. Likewise listening tests are performed per research that shows mono listening is much more revealing of differences between speakers than stereo or multichannel.
OSD AP650 Measurements
Acoustic measurements can be grouped in a way that can be perceptually analyzed to determine how good a speaker is and how it can be used in a room. This so called spinorama shows us just about everything we need to know about the speaker with respect to tonality and some flaws:
Well, this is not a pretty sight. Just about everything is messed up from on-axis to directivity and overall tonality. Granted, you may not listen to this on-axis but still, hard to find anything to hang your hat on.
Crossover seems to be the problem here as indicated in the near-field measurements:
Woofer response remains very high way past crossover region. This leads to high distortion there as well:
Early window and predicted in-room response don't quite apply to a speaker that is wall mounted but still useful data:
Impedance is reasonably high which is good:
Directivity as noted is horrid:
We have both beaming of the tweeter above 8 kHz and mismatch with woofer starting at 2 kHz.
OSD AP650 Listening Tests
The sound can only be described with two words: hollow and bright! All you hear is this brightness with zero body to the sound. I lowered the highs with EQ and boosted the 1 to 3 kHz and that made some improvement. But really, there is no proper sound coming out of this speaker to be worth messing with. So I stopped.
Conclusions
The outdoor speaker business is all about marketing and margins. Technical correctness is not even in the vocabulary of most manufacturers. This could have been an exception seeing how the praise had come from a technical reviewer (Brent Butterworth). I can't fathom how he thought this speaker was worth listening to. OK, I can. Maybe all the others he tested were much worse which would not surprise me.
Needless to say, I can't recommend the OSD AP650. Buy this speaker if you want some noise outside not high-fidelity experience. Even then, you may be told to "turn it down" after it gets to your guests with its high pitched sound. Or else point it up or something.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Appreciate any donations using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/