The Soundcast product is excellent—loud, boomy and clear.

While wireless has come a long way, I still think renting a trencher and running wires is preferable.  I rented one for under $100 for the day, and ran wires all over our acerage. Mind you I’m dealing with 1 acre, not 5.

The only complaint I had with running wires was that I had to go around certain landscape features, which entailled using even more wire. I think I ended up using close to 2000 feet of wire and cat 5 to wire the whole property, including some extra feeds in case I want more speakers or control down the road. I also rented a concrete saw for the pool area to run wires to where I wanted them.

End result:  12 speakers and 4 subwoofers in four zones (patio, pool, garage, and lawn/garden), and spare wires for 8 more speakers and 4 more controls if I need them down the road.  Also, the speakers are waterproof, and the control panels are in weathertight boxes, so I don’t have to move anything.

I used a breathe audio system for the distribution.  While not as elegant as some of the other solutions out there, it was easy enough to install myself, and was relatively inexpensive.

Paul, what a project! yes, hardwired always beats wireless if you can pull it off. Do you have images of the work in progress? Might make for a useful story. Drop me a line if you’re interested. jjacobson at ehpub dot com.

There is a very good reason why you dont see wireless products from most manufacturers!  Audio companies have been working on wireless audio for years, and the results are mediocre at best.  Yes, there are a few (count ‘em on one hand!) companies offering outdoor wireless solutions, but the sound quality will never compare to a hard wired speaker.  You should look at it as a home improvement project, an initial investment in time and money will give you and your family hundreds if not thousands of hours of enjoyment over the life of your home, and wiring for outdoor sound will increase the value of your property, wireless speakers will not.  I know it’s 5 acres, and it will cost more money, but in the long run, getting hard lines run is a much better solution.

How about NOT HAVING outside speakers AT ALL? Nobody needs to add their ‘music’ to the amount of noise pollution people already have to deal with! Go indoors, close your windows and doors and listen to the sound there instead, and do us all a favor!

@Julie:  Sorry, I didn’t think to document the whole process, so I don’t have pictures.  If I convince my wife to let me install an outdoor theater this summer though, I’ll document it and let you know, as I’ll probably add theater speakers to the outdoor setup via the buried cables.

@BeQuiet:  Putting in a properly sized sound system outdoors should not be about noise polution at all!  If anything, I’m trying to keep the noise limited to the area that I’m at, and not trying to blast music from the house all over the property.  Before I installed the outdoor system, I would open a window and blast music out of a bedroom!  That was way more noise than what I’m doing now, and what I think of when I read your comment. 

We chose to have 4 speakers on the patio rather than two so that wherever you are sitting, you are less than 10 feet away from a speaker.  This allows us to keep the overall volume lower, as sound is better spread over the whole space.
Similarly, if my children have friends over and are using the pool sound system, the volume cannot go loud enough to bother me when I’m sitting on the patio because I designed it that way!

Finally, we do not have speakers within 30 feet of our neighbours property, and have an 8 foot stone privacy fence so any noise polution from our home is at an absolute minimum.

Hi Julie,
I was browing Russound’s website, and noticed their Collage series of products that would work well where you don’t want to run wires, but do have power run to the location.  The Collage control wires into an electrical outlet, and uses your homes existing wiring as the transmission medium!  Apparently you can install up to 10 control panels onto one media manager, and communicate between boxes with the built in intercom.  While not cheap, it bypasses the need to run long runs of speaker wire or cat 5.

Each control panel has an MSRP of $849, and the media manager is $549. An iPod dock and analog source bridge are still forthcoming.

Paul, I am a HUGE fan of Russound’s Collage

Start with this story and click through:
http://www.cepro.com/article/russounds_ingenius_powerline_audio_system_to_debut_at_ehx/

Nuvo also has a powerline audio system in the works
http://www.cepro.com/article/nuvo_renovia_delivers_whole_house_audio_over_powerlines/

Expect more to come.

People who play music in their backyards are bad neighbors. Not everyone wants to hear your music. Please, keep your music indoors.

@Good neighbor:  I think you arguement is flawed:

1)  I am not a bad neighbor if I have music in my back yard and people off my property can’t hear it because the sound is only affecting my property.

2) I am bad neighbour if I have music in my backyard, and play it loud enough to bother people not on my property.  Not respecting your neighbors makes you a bad neighbor, regardless of what you are doing.

I agree that my music should not be disturbing to my neighbours, not that I shouldn’t be allowed to have it. 

Sadly, common sense isn’t that common, and loud music outdoors is only the tip of the iceburg when it comes to being disrepectful of your neighbors.

The outdoors is for nature.  You know.. birds singing, bees buzzing, gentle wind through the trees.  The outdoors is NOT for speakers carrying music so that everyone has to listen including your neighbors.  It does make you a bad neighbor and I should know because I have someone just like you next door to me.  Their outdoor music has gotten them in fights with all of their immediate neighbors but, like you, they feel it is their yard and they can noise pollute if they want.  And their speakers are 30 feet from the nearest neighbor.. sound carries and obviously farther than you think.  The most wonderful thing about outdoor speakers is the fact that I can buy a bigger pair and over power their noise whenever I want.  Learn to enjoy the outdoors the way it was meant to be.