Outdoor speaker hook-up

jim v.

I'm considering a pair of Atrium 55 for my deck, my questions are if I hook these speakers to my receiver B outputs with 12 guage speaker cable do I have to cover the cable leads or buy a special speaker cable that can also withstand the elements, what I'm concerned with is if I use regular speaker cable to the 55's the copper ends are going to be exposed therefore maybe shorting out my receiver.

sgtgto

Hi:


You didn't say where you lived or if you have a roof over your deck. They will need to be mounted under the eave of the house or under the deck roof, out of the weather.

I would buy a good grade 14ga speaker wire to run them with. That shouldl withstand the weather and give you good signal reproduction. Circuit City has some that will work just fine.

If you have an eave or deck roof, you can put the speakers under, just run the wire out of the way up to the speakers. If you live in a cold climate and have to take them down during the colder months, you can cap off the ends so ice buildup or snow will not short them out.

If you want, you could mount a 1/4" female jack plate and box, make a pigtail with a 1/4" male plug on one end and connected to the speaker on the other. You could then plug the speakers in and out without worry of the weather.

There are a number of ways to do this and anyone will work. Just use the one that fits your needs best with your deck configuration.



Gary

CHRIS

If you are useing cable like Monster's regular cable, copper strands. Use shrink wrap at the ends of the cable and make it air tight. Other wise you will end up with coroded cable, inside the covering. I tried to tell my brother inlaw to do this he didn't listen and within a few months the cable was useless.
IMO I would do this with any cable, moisture has its way of gettng into anything.
Chris