Wireless Speakers Required For Pool Area

[Mobi]

Some months ago, when I moved into my new house, I scoured the stores in Pattaya, and then Bangkok, including Panthip, for any sign of cordless speakers. Cordless headphones are available everywhere, so why not speakers?

I need a set of cordless speakers to put in my Sala which is on the other side of my pool. as I don't want to trail wires across the pool sandwash patio.

After an extensive search, which drew a complete blank, I gave up,and trailed wire. I used a glue gun to run it round the edges and along the joints. Fine for a while, but weather, people and the dog have loosened up the wires which now are all over the place.

A friend from the Uk has sent me info on some great wireless Hi Fidelity speakers that are made by a company called Vivanco. They would be ideal, but it's not practical to try and ship a set over.

Any ideas anyone?

Thanks.

[Jai Dee]

I've seen a Sony HiFi system in Numchai in Pattaya that uses cordless speakers.

They are intended for use inside though... not sure how they'd go outside.

Worth a look and a chat.

[Mobi]

I've seen a Sony HiFi system in Numchai in Pattaya that uses cordless speakers.

They are intended for use inside though... not sure how they'd go outside.

Worth a look and a chat.

Thanks Jai Dee. Yes, I forgot to mention that Cordless speakers are available here as part of home theatre systems - for obvious reasons. But I really don't want a home theatre system for my pool, and I think that's what you saw in Numchai, because that was one of the places I checked out.

I just need two decent speaker boxes.

[Maigo6]

hmmm,

I have the Sony Home Theatre with wireless speakers, about 23,000 Baht if I recall. Great system by the way.

Other than that system, I've never seen wireless speakers in Thailand.

[Mobi]

hmmm,

I have the Sony Home Theatre with wireless speakers, about 23,000 Baht if I recall. Great system by the way.

Other than that system, I've never seen wireless speakers in Thailand.

That's what I fugured. As well off as I may appear to be, I'm not about to spend 23K to put sound in my Sala.

[autonomous_unit]

Do you have electrical power at the speaker locations? The reason you do not have truly wireless speakers is because speakers use roughly 100x the power of headphones to generate sound that can be heard many feet away, i.e. 25 watts for a medium size speaker versus 250 milliwatts for some headphones.

Your choices are really only to run long speaker wires to deliver audio power to plain old speakers, or some wired or wireless solution to get the audio signal out to some self-powered speakers (or an amplifier near the speakers). Can't you run some PVC conduit around the perimiter of the patio to carry speaker wires the whole way? I am sure this is the best bang-for-buck solution.

Even long speaker wires will give the best sound quality versus, say, those little FM transmitters such as are sold to connect iPods into a car stereo. The FM band is pretty narrow and it would be a weak signal to go any distance, subject to interference etc. Someone concerned about audio quality could increase the speaker wire guage and easily outdo any similarly-priced wireless setup.

A really high-end setup would use differential audio cabling or a digital wireless setup and then run the amplifier near the speakers. I doubt anybody sane would do this poolside, but mention it to be properly geeky.

[Mobi]

Do you have electrical power at the speaker locations? The reason you do not have truly wireless speakers is because speakers use roughly 100x the power of headphones to generate sound that can be heard many feet away, i.e. 25 watts for a medium size speaker versus 250 milliwatts for some headphones.

Your choices are really only to run long speaker wires to deliver audio power to plain old speakers, or some wired or wireless solution to get the audio signal out to some self-powered speakers (or an amplifier near the speakers). Can't you run some PVC conduit around the perimiter of the patio to carry speaker wires the whole way? I am sure this is the best bang-for-buck solution.

Even long speaker wires will give the best sound quality versus, say, those little FM transmitters such as are sold to connect iPods into a car stereo. The FM band is pretty narrow and it would be a weak signal to go any distance, subject to interference etc. Someone concerned about audio quality could increase the speaker wire guage and easily outdo any similarly-priced wireless setup.

A really high-end setup would use differential audio cabling or a digital wireless setup and then run the amplifier near the speakers. I doubt anybody sane would do this poolside, but mention it to be properly geeky.

If I knew how to do it, I'd paste a copy of the cordless sytem marketed by Vivanco. But here's the link:

http://www.vivanco.com/cms/com/frameset.ht...e=Aktionsseite3

They are just what I need - designed for use in the garden, look robust, have a 30 meter range, and quote the speakers play back a frequency range of 20 to 20,000 hertz – High fidelity at its best! unquote.

At 160 Euros (about 7,000 Baht) they at the top end of what I would be prepared to pay.

Yes, there is power in the Sala; I am currently using it to power a little active speaker system which fed by a single, 'minijack' cable from the other side of the pool.

There is just no where to run the speaker wires. The main sound source comes from the house/terrace, and it is surroundced by patio/tiles/sandwash-concrete. Go out further and it is trees and grass, but the cables still have to travel over the tiles/concrete to get to the grass, which would then have to dug up and the cable buried. Hence the need for cordless speakers.

Surely some enterprising 'geek', could design something over here? Can't be that hard - is it?

[monty]

Mobi,

Go to any decent electronics shop and ask for an AV transmitter/reciever combo.

I bought a set on Theprasit road, the transmitter got 3 inputs (video / audio left / audio right, you just wouldn't use the video channel) and the receiver ditto outputs...

Carries maybe 200 feet in open air...

Perfect to combine with your active speakerset, you only need audio line out at the source (transmitter)

Prices are between 1000 and 3000 Baht, depending on quality and range.

[monty]

http://www.grandtec.com/avw.htm

Something like this...

There are models which will also forward your remote, so you would control your stereo/dvd/whatever from your outside patio like you would be sitting in front of it!

[Mobi]

Thanks Monty,

That looks lioke what I need. I'll get onto it.

[astral]

Why not get a set of cordless headphones and gut them.

Take the leads from the tiny speakers and use as the input to

a small amp and normal speakers in your Sala.

[Firefoxx]

Hmm, gutted cordless headphones... probably nice, but is the range of the headphones up to it? Wired is still probably the best/cheapest way to go... if you're having trouble with them getting dug up/kicked out, you can put them in wire rails (the type you find in any electrical place) and have the rails screwed to concrete (or whatever).

As for wireless AV transmitters, their quality leaves a lot to be desired. If you're not concerned about quality, then they might be a good choice. You'd need an amp at the sala.

Edited April 26, 2006 by Firefoxx

[Khutan]

Good point firefoxx and also interference in the radio signal can cause havoc with them.

I have a friend from work who has spent the $$$ in a wireless speaker system and picks up all sorts of interference in his Condo.

The only answer is to cable it or set up a "Faraday shield" around the circuit to keep out the interference.

[monty]

I use a digital AV transmitter/receiver (signal gets sampled, digitized, transmitted, and then converted to analog again at receiver side)...

Transmitter/receiver can be set to several different frequencies if one frequency should have interference (they work on 2.4Ghz, same frequency as wifi)

Obviously, if you would feed the signal into a set of 5000$ hifi speakers, you're gonna hear quality loss...

Feed the signal into a cheap set of active speakers, like you would use at your PC, listen to them on the outside patio next to your swimmingpool, the difference would be small, if not unnoticable...

Think I paid 4800 Baht for them in a security system shop. They use them for wireless cameras...

Range with very 8 big walls in between I tested to be over 100m! They transmit at 2 watt, roughly 10 times the power output of a wifi access point....

Expensive, but works at decent quality...

[Crossy]

Mobi,

Go to any decent electronics shop and ask for an AV transmitter/reciever combo.

I bought a set on Theprasit road, the transmitter got 3 inputs (video / audio left / audio right, you just wouldn't use the video channel) and the receiver ditto outputs...

Carries maybe 200 feet in open air...

Perfect to combine with your active speakerset, you only need audio line out at the source (transmitter)

Prices are between 1000 and 3000 Baht, depending on quality and range.

Dash it Monty, that is exactly what I was about to suggest

Should be the ideal solution, with the option of using the telly for Formula-1

[Mobi]

Mobi,

Go to any decent electronics shop and ask for an AV transmitter/reciever combo.

I bought a set on Theprasit road, the transmitter got 3 inputs (video / audio left / audio right, you just wouldn't use the video channel) and the receiver ditto outputs...

Carries maybe 200 feet in open air...

Perfect to combine with your active speakerset, you only need audio line out at the source (transmitter)

Prices are between 1000 and 3000 Baht, depending on quality and range.

Dash it Monty, that is exactly what I was about to suggest

Should be the ideal solution, with the option of using the telly for Formula-1

Thanks Monty and the others.

I will get hold of an AV trasmitter/receiver and see if it works ok.

The sound quality is not that vital