Using a home system outdoors

[HomerIncognito]

I'm planning an outdoor party and I'm going to use my Wiim Amp Ultra + Polk ES20. I know it's not gonna be enough power to play super loud (which is fine as it's an urban area) but I'm considering buying a cheap subwoofer (Avcom 10"/12", Behringer SAT 1008 or whatever).

How much of a bad idea is that? Does anyone have experience with something like that?

 

[respice finem]

The obvious caveats (as possible rain) aside, it depends on how big the area is.
If the party is 10+ people, I would tend to go with (rental?) PA amplification and speakers.

 

[staticV3]

An outdoor party in an urban environment with subwoofer? People are gonna love ya!

Jokes aside, I wouldn't use a Sub, but turn on the WiiM's Sub output.

Then set the crossover frequency such that LFX, and with it Speaker distortion and output power are kept in check, without sacrificing loudness.

 

[Waxx]

Those speakers don't have the power needed, but for background music. And the weather (strong wind and rain) may damage them. A boombox is even a better id than nearfield bookshelfs + a sub. I would also rent a pa set for this.

 

[Multiway]

I built these. 3 way MEHs. They play down to around 55Hz.
Playing here on test with just one Tapped horn sub (down to 30Hz).

You need directivity control (horns are ideal) to send the sound where it's needed - the dance floor.
Getting them up high and angled down helps so everyones ears have clear line of sight. Bass travels through / bounces off things better.

I made another sub boom box for the actual wedding jig. All timed with DSP pre. We used Spotify lossless for all the music streaming and a 4 mic RF setup with mixer for the Kareoke and a subscription with Karofun (made queuing up requests easy and had all the songs you could want. Kareoke's really all the kids want to do all night - great fun.

In my hifi room with other (better) HF drivers they sound great for Hifi. Although I built some 60 deg angle ones for the hifi so these are just party speakers.

Outdoors with the original spec HF in and some juice they party..

Had lots of comments at the wedding about how good these sounded.
So much better than something you'd usually hire in. We had control of the volume and the music played too

Have fun.

 

[Surfrat]

Back in the day I was a portable DJ. All the equipment was self built as I was studying electrical engineering. At one party I setup on a lawn outside. I was amazed as to how good my system sounded, super clean. It was not particularly loud but we all had a lot of fun.

Go for it...

 

[Ruediger]

In my opinion: don't buy a cheap subwoofer. Get a JBL Boombox 4 instead. It will take care of that outdoor area without any problems. Bass will be far superior to the cheap sub. And if you forget the box outside, doesn't matter.

The space looks like it offers some good options to place a speaker. But depending on the distance to the next neighbors bass might have to be EQ'ed down.

 

[HomerIncognito]

In my opinion: don't buy a cheap subwoofer. Get a JBL Boombox 4 instead. It will take care of that outdoor area without any problems

Hmm, maybe connecting an extra powered speaker to the sub out and using it as a "center channel" could be an interesting idea.

 

[Crook]

100% rent pa for a one off. I went to a garden party recently and it was as loud as you'd ever want it. They had 2x JBL EON715 and the host had his own twin 1210's, so we were treated to an afternoon of 89-93 house music. I don't think I could produce anywhere same compression with my f206 / x2 Arendel 1961s

 

[Maria Jain]

Did your party happen? How did everything go? It would be great if you shared your experience.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

I concur with rental (PA system or even a party box), but if you have your speakers near a wall they should give enough to provide background.

For me, this would be a job for my vintage horn speakers and about 10 watts of power.

 

[HomerIncognito]

Did your party happen? How did everything go? It would be great if you shared your experience.

It's more than a month away, I'll update this thread afterwards regardless of what solution I'll choose.

I concur with rental (PA system or even a party box), ...

This is what I'm leaning towards. I even found a single used Behringer Eurolive B12X on our local marketplace for a reasonable price (140€). That might be even more practical than paying security deposits and whatnot.

 

[HomerIncognito]

Update: I figured out a reason why you really need a proper PA speaker/system for this. You have to position the tweeter(s) above heads, otherwise people in the front absorb all the highs and it won't be fun for people in the back. Home stereo equipment can't be easily and safely mounted that high. That and of course SPL.

 

[HomerIncognito]

So I spotted a used JBL Eon 712 for a fair price on my local marketplace. JBL actually published Klipper measurements for these, which gave me an extra bit of confidence. Not perfect but way better than the Behringers that Erin measured. There's enough bass for my use but you'd need a sub to properly enjoy something like EDM. And they sound surprisingly good even at low volume. It will be hard not to buy a second one and later to part with it/them.