An outdoor speaker has to be as tough as the undercarriage of a four-wheel-drive SUV in the Rust Belt. Snow nor dew nor torrential downpour should make its wires futz out. It has to be powerful, too, to fill the open air with the sound of a carefully curated summer playlist (alt hits from the ’90s mingled with country bangers from the ’00s mixed with a few uptempo viral top 40 numbers). And it must do that playlist justice with audio quality that doesn’t sound muddied no matter how loud it’s playing or how far it’s projecting. But the design of an outdoor speaker is up to you, the person whose money will fund the speaker and whose playlists will populate the airwaves. And you have some options.
This list is comprised of two speaker types: dedicated outdoor speakers and portable Bluetooth speakers. The former takes more setup, meaning you’ll actually have to read the instruction manual and pull out a drill. Of the four options on this list, three require a wired connection to a receiver, which you likely already have set up inside with all your indoor stereo equipment. Plot this wired route out before you start punching speaker mounting brackets into your porch awning. For your trouble, you’ll have a loud, clear, and permanent speaker situation that blends into its surroundings.
The latter option, a portable Bluetooth speaker, you can move wherever you like, as long as it’s in range of a phone. It’s made to move—front yard to back yard, kitchen table to pool deck, campsite to tailgate. But it’s limited by its size (there’s not much room on board for audio tech), and by the fact that it comes in one unit: You won’t have that surround sound effect as you would with the outdoor speaker sets, nor will the audio pipe across your patio quite so cleanly and richly. But depending on your habits—and your handiness (or lack thereof) with a drill—it could better suit you.
What the dedicated outdoor speakers and portable Bluetooth speakers on this list share in common is toughness appropriate for the outdoors; they’re resistant to water, weather, and gunk. Here, you’ll find the best of both options. May you never have to sit through another moment of silence.
THE BEST VALUE OUTDOOR SPEAKER SET
NS-AW190WH 2-Way Indoor/Outdoor Speakers
When you’d like to set ’em and forget ’em, Yamaha makes a pair of weatherproof outdoor speakers that you can mount to your house. Like almost all mounted outdoor speakers, they must be wired to a receiver of some kind (the wires are included, the receiver is not). Unlike almost all mounted outdoor speakers (the ones that aren’t absolute crap, that is), they cost just a little something over a hundred bucks. The sound quality won’t be as rich and full as you’d get for something more expensive, but it’s surprisingly solid for the price.
THE BEST BUDGET OUTDOOR SPEAKER SET
LU43PB Outdoor/Indoor Speakers
If you don’t subscribe to “go big or go home” when it comes to outdoor entertaining but you also don’t want to sacrifice fine audio fidelity, Dual’s LU43 speakers are for you. Coming in at just about $50, their sound-stage is just wide or loud enough to entertain your next barbecue out back. They don’t pack too impressive an audio punch, but the capability has got enough bass boost and clear enough pitch to still be considered a great value.
THE BEST MIDRANGE OUTDOOR SPEAKER SET
Atrium4 Outdoor Speakers
Similar in set-up to the Yamaha duo, Polk’s pair of outdoor speakers are a bit more expensive because they have better innards for better audio range—from bass to mid-range to treble tones. It doesn’t take an engineering degree to set them up, though you’ll need to buy the necessary accessories. Once you do, you can keep them outside all year round, as they’re “all-weather certified.”
THE BEST LUXURY OUTDOOR SPEAKER SET
AM-1 Outdoor Speakers
Bowers & Wilkins’ weatherproof AM-1 speaker casts a wide sound-wave to cover all the outdoor areas well, that you’ve got, plus it carries an extra potent punch-up on the bass for an adequate oontz-oontz impact.
THE BEST AUDIO QUALITY SPEAKER SET
AW-650 Indoor/Outdoor Speakers
When you spot a pair of speakers that look like a school’s morning PA broadcast system, you know theres tons of sound in tow. Made for the ears of audiophiles, this set of durable speakers by Klipsch will turn up a whole camp party with detailed instrumentals, crisp highs, and thunderous lows to make sure no one sleeps before 4 a.m. Bottom line, the bigger, the better.
THE BEST WIRELESS, MOUNTED OUTDOOR SPEAKER
BTP-650 6.5″ Wireless Bluetooth Outdoor Speaker
If you absolutely do not want to wire a damn thing, and if you absolutely need your outdoor speaker to be permanently mounted to the siding, then consider OSD Audio’s Bluetooth outdoor speaker. It’s a single speaker, not a set, and it isn’t very powerful; there’s a reason there aren’t many Bluetooth outdoor speakers on the market. But you don’t have to connect it with wires to a receiver inside, courtesy of the Bluetooth feature. In other words, it splits the difference between the outdoor speaker sets above and the portable Bluetooth speakers below.
THE BEST LUXURY OUTDOOR SPEAKER
Free Space 51 Outdoor In-Ground Speaker
Say your landscaping is impeccable. It’d be a shame to plop a big white speaker in the middle of the rhododendron, or one of those speakers shaped like an artificial rock. Bose, which makes reliably excellent audio equipment, has a wired speaker in a natural-looking green that you can plant, almost literally, in the ground. It’ll cost you $350 for just one, but with its 360-degree sound, one might be all you need.
THE MOST PORTABLE SPEAKER
No Bounds Outdoor Speaker
Though not a monstrous speaker with oomph to fill a forest with noise, House of Marley’s portable, waterproof speaker is up to soundtracking most situations. The loop and carabiner let you attach it to a backpack, an awning, or a tent, and it’ll float like a cork, because part of it is actually made from recycled cork, along with other reused, environmentally sound materials. Hook it, hang it, pack it up, and head out.
THE BEST MIDRANGE PORTABLE SPEAKER
BOOM 3 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
If your two requirements for an outdoor speaker are solely that it needs to play music and that the music needs to sound damn good, your surest bet is UE’s Boom 3. It’s waterproof. It’s Bluetooth enabled. It’ll float. It has all-around impressive sound that gets loud when you need the range. And it looks damn sleek, whether you use it inside or out. We could go on.
THE BEST PORTABLE SPEAKER DESIGN
Move Smart Speaker
With audio that sounds as if it were conducted by Hans Zimmer and design worthy of a modern art museum, the Sonos Move is a favorite portable Bluetooth speaker of ours. Take it in the bathroom for your morning shower. Cart it into the office to blast the soundtrack that gets you in your most productive headspace. Set it up in the kitchen to make dinner, then grab it and head out to the back porch for a nightcap. It has a handle, it’s weather resistant, it charges on a base, and it’ll withstand extreme temperatures.
THE BEST PORTABLE SPEAKER FOR PARTIES
Boombox 2 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker
For those seriously committed to having a good time under the sun or stars, JBL’s Boombox 2 has massive sound. Bass for hours and days. Its design hearkens back to the old-school, boombox-on-shoulder era. And when the good times have drained your phone battery, it has charging ports to give you a boost. Should it get dropped in the pool or doused in beer towards the end of the night—you know how often it happens—that’s A-okay, since it’s waterproof.
