LA has the best outdoor living in the country. Our clients spend a huge percentage of their home life outside — pool, terrace, garden, outdoor kitchen. Outdoor audio is genuinely important here in a way that it isn't in Boston or Minneapolis.
We do a lot of outdoor audio installs, and we've learned what works and what doesn't in a Southern California environment.
Weather Ratings Matter (And They're Not All Equal)
Outdoor speaker ratings come in different grades. "Weather resistant" is a marketing term that doesn't mean much. The relevant standard is IP (Ingress Protection) rating and, for coastal properties, salt air resistance.
Sonance outdoor speakers are our primary recommendation. Their Professional Outdoor and Landscape series are built specifically for exterior environments — UV-stable enclosures, marine-grade drivers in coastal applications, and designs that integrate with landscape rather than sitting on top of it.
For pool environments specifically, we're careful about placement: near but not directly over the water, in locations that don't concentrate humidity into the enclosure. Even properly rated speakers benefit from thoughtful placement.
Coverage Logic
Outdoor audio requires different thinking than indoor. There are no walls to contain the sound, so it disperses quickly. The instinct is to turn up a single speaker to compensate — which creates a hot spot directly under it and nothing everywhere else.
The correct approach is zone coverage: more speakers at lower individual volume, positioned for even distribution across the space. For a large terrace, we're often running 6–8 speakers at a level that gives consistent, natural-sounding coverage everywhere you stand.
For pools with a large listening area, in-ground subwoofer cans are a genuine revelation. Ground-mounted subs load against the earth and can move a lot of bass without being obtrusive. Clients who've had anemic outdoor sound their whole lives are consistently surprised by the difference.
Volume and Amplification
Outdoor audio needs more power than indoor audio for the same perceived volume — you're fighting ambient noise, there's no room gain, and sound disperses into open air. We size amplification accordingly and don't push speakers to their limits, which shortens their life.
Integration
All our outdoor audio integrates with the same control system as the house. The outdoor zone appears in Control4 or Savant alongside every indoor zone. "Play music outside" works the same way whether you're inside or already outdoors. The outdoor remote — waterproof, rated for the environment — is in the outdoor kitchen drawer, ready to use.
If you're building or renovating and the outdoor living space is important to you (and in LA, it should be), the audio design is worth doing right the first time.
