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Get a Cool and Useful Outdoor Subwoofer for Your Patio

It’s almost time for patio season and that means it’s time to start planning outside activities with your friends and family. One of the things some people have is an outdoor subwoofer, which is used for music as part of entertainment.

 Outdoor Subwoofer

They have a BBQ or a bonfire. Today we are going to talk about outdoor subwoofers, our top picks, and how to choose them.

Top Picks

Best for: The best weather resistant subwoofer  – TIC Subwoofer

This subwoofer is weather-resistant, small and mighty with 250 W making it a popular choice.

Best for: Loud and powerful speak for both indoor and outdoor use at home – Polk Audio Subwoofer

This subwoofer may be on the heavier side, but the bass/sound makes up for it.

Best for: Being small and versatile – Definitive Technology Outdoor Speaker

This speaker, at 6.5” has loud sounds that you want to hear, and it has versatile mounting that you can put in your patio or pool area.

Best for: If looking for a prettier speaker to show off – Klipsch Speaker

This speaker that looks like a real granite rock also packs a punch with its loud bass.

Best for: Deep bold bass – OSD FORZA Subwoofer

This gorgeous subwoofer has bass so loud you’d forget how tiny it is.

Best for: Listening to music – Definitive Technology Outdoor Speaker

This speaker is great for listening to pop, classical or jazz.

Best for: Companies or theme parks who needs music without the equipment being shown – OSD Subwoofer

While this subwoofer may be bulky, you can bury this one and still get near concert level sounds that you expect out of it.

How to Choose An Outdoor Subwoofer 

Selecting an outdoor subwoofer is more than about sound preference, it’s a variety of factors such as:

  • The size and how your yard is laid out
  • The location of the main speakers
  • How you plan to connect the rest of the system
  • Your budget

Bass

How big the bass driver matters; it really depends how much bass you really want. It can range from 8 inch, 10 inch all the way to 12 inch drivers. The louder you want the bass, the bigger driver you’ll want on your subwoofer.

Power Handling

Basically, power handling determines how far the bass and the sound will go from your speakers. It is 100% dependent on an amplifier, so if you have a 100 W amplifier and your subwoofer can do 300 W, it will only go up to 100. So, remember that when you are choosing your subwoofer.

While the actual subwoofer does not need to be near the main speakers, you still have to put them in a good position, or you won’t really get the bass from it. So, if you are trying to play music on low frequency, you will have a hard time trying to find where the sound is coming from.

Types of outdoor subwoofers

  • Underground – These types are usually buried in the ground and you’ll usually just see a mushroom dome sticking out slightly.
  • Landscape – You put these kinds of subwoofers alongside the landscaping around your home, in your flower beds or hidden behind plants. These types are meant to blend in with the environment if you don’t want them to be obvious in sight.
  • Freestanding – These types of subwoofers you put either on a solid surface or near your plants.

Top 7 Outdoor Subwoofers

1 . TIC GS50 8″ Outdoor Weather-Resistant Omnidirectional In-Ground Subwoofer

OSD Subwoofer

This outdoor subwoofer by TIC is an underground (in ground) one so that means you can put it anywhere you want in the backyard. This model in particular is 8” and is green, but there’s many other sizes that you can choose from and some of them have options in pairs and even Bluetooth.

This subwoofer has a 250 W peak handling and 25-200hz response so that means the sound is going to be very loud. It can handle double the satellite speaker capability and it is weather resistant which means you don’t have to worry if it rains on. One of the best features about this subwoofer is that it has a 360 outdoor surround sound so the quality of the sound can be literally heard anywhere in your backyard.

Pros:

  • Weather-resistant
  • Small
  • 360 surround sound outside

Cons:

  • It’s reportedly good for low level music, you can’t have high expectations and crank the subwoofer up.

2. Polk Audio Subwoofer

OSD Subwoofer

This subwoofer is perfect for either indoors or outdoors but it is not weather resistant so you should probably have it under a cover if you are going to get this one. But the quality of sound makes up for the no-weather resistance issue, as it has a 50 watts amplifier and a 100 watts capacity should you get another 100-watt amplifier.

The PSW10 is available in vinyl in black or cherry and its titanium-finished front bubble matches that of other speakers in the Monitor Series. The extended guarantee provides the woofer with five years of security and the electronics with three years – very decent, given that the electronics guarantee for certain other items is mostly reduced to just 12 months, making it a poor warranty because if something goes wrong on month 14, you are pretty much screwed.

One of the best features about this subwoofer is it has a laser based Klippel measurement technology which means it has a smooth sound over lower frequency, so you don’t have to deal with the crackling that is usually associated with low frequencies. Also, you can expect that this subwoofer is very stable as it’s designed to stay stable, so you don’t have to worry about it knocking over.

Pros:

  • Stable
  • Powerful
  • Can be used indoor/outdoor
  • Smooth sound over low frequency

Cons:

  • Not weather resistant
  • Some users says it’s not really meant for music as it’s lower quality

3. Definitive Technology Outdoor Speaker

OSD Subwoofer

This subwoofer by Definitive Technology is 100% weather-resistant so you don’t have to worry about if it rains or whichever. It also has really good sounds such as having a double surround sound so that’s always a good feature to have. This model has a 6.5” woofer as well as 10” bass radiator so you know that the sound will be crisp and clear.

This subwoofer also features two different colors in case you have personal tastes between white and black. Also, it has mounting brackets that gives it 360 degree flexibility with placements.

Pros:

  • Weather resistant
  • 360 degree flexibility
  • Loud subwoofer

Cons:

  • Poor warranty

4. Klipsch Speaker

OSD Subwoofer

Boasting at 50 watts power per unit, a couple of these are high enough to fill just about every outdoor home. In addition to the fact that these speakers have an exceptional sensitivity ranking, as all Klipsch speakers appear to have. The AW-650s (the traditional ones) and the AWR-650-SMs are 95 and 94db respectively, whereas most outdoor speakers are in the 85-90 range. To give you an example of the value of that, a strong speaker would possibly be about twice as noisy with a higher sensitivity rating than a rival who has the same continuous power control. To give you an example of the noise, think between a very loud restaurant to a subway. If you think that’s loud, that’s how loud this speaker is.

These speakers actually look pretty aesthetically as they look like real granites so it’s ok if you want them in the wide-open space or you can still hide these speakers if you need to. The one we are talking about is granite, but they also have another option that you can buy which is sandstone.

These speakers are 100% on the bigger side but it is pretty much the same for the course as louder and more powerful speakers. With that said, it is not hard to find a place for these speakers. For on-ground speakers outside, the biggest consideration is that you probably have to pass wire underneath them. Besides that, you would require a direct burial wire that is more complex and could be more costly. But if you truly want surround sound, then it’ll be worth hooking up a pair of speakers so that you can enjoy them years to come.

Pros:

  • Powerful
  • Looks pretty
  • Weather resistant
  • Dual woofers in one

Cons:

  • No warranty

5. OSD FORZA Subwoofer

OSD Subwoofer

This subwoofer by OSD FORZA is another powerful one that we have on our list. With sounds up to 300W, you can be sure that you’ll hear clear, crisp, and loud sound wherever you put the speaker. It has strong bass by itself, but you still need an amplifier to really get that powerful bass that you want to hear.

What’s cool about this particular sub-woofer is that it has an anti-theft feature as it includes a built in eye bolt to anchor it to keep it in its place so burglars will certainly have a hard time trying to take it.

It is bronze in color, so it can easily blend in anywhere that you put it and like most outdoor subwoofers it’s weather resistant, so you don’t have to worry about the weather elements.

Pros:

  • Weather resistant
  • 10” subwoofer
  • Anti-theft feature

Cons:

  • It may or may not last for as long that you’d like

6. Definitive Technology Outdoor Speaker

OSD Subwoofer

Here is another speaker by Definitive Technology that is small (5.5”) but mighty. It boasts a 5.25” mid/woofer, a 1” tweeter and 5”x8” bass radiator. It is also weather-resistant like most (all) outdoor subwoofers should be. This is another speaker that has the mounting flexibility that has a 360-degree versatility so it can be in any angle that you want which is pretty cool.

You can get this in either black (what we’re talking about) or white (another option that you can buy) so you have two options of what color you have.

Pros:

  • Loud for its size
  • Weather-resistant
  • 360 versatility for mounting

Cons:

  • It may stop working after a few uses according to some users

7. OSD Subwoofer

OSD Subwoofer

Finally, we have an inground subwoofer by OSD Outdoor that is 8” tall and has a maximum output of 500 watts. It looks very bulky, but it doesn’t matter as most of it is buried underground. While it can output 500 watts, it still needs a subwoofer amplifier to make the sound clear and amazing with the bass that you are looking for. This model has a 10” bass radiator so you know that it’s going to be very loud (if you’re into that)

This model is weather-resistant and because of the way it’s built to be into grounds, it can be used for a lot of events as it stays out of sight.

Pros:

  • Inground
  • Weather resistant
  • 10” bass radiator

Cons:

  • It’s not as weather resistant as the brand claimed

FAQ

What is the best subwoofer brand?

In our opinion, the Polk Audio brand is the best because while it’s small it’s very loud for its size if you’re having a party.

What is a subwoofer used for?

It’s used to increase the bass so that you can almost feel the sound (since we’re talking about the outdoor ones).

What subwoofer should I buy?

You can buy any subwoofer that you would like for your backyard. Whether it’s an underground one or freestanding, choose one that fits your personal and backyard needs. But if you really want to know which one you should buy, you should buy the TIC Outdoor inground subwoofer as it’s small but it’s very powerful and you won’t even notice the actual subwoofer as it’ll be in the ground.

Are subwoofers bad for your car?

If you are consistently playing at loud levels, they can be damaging for your car. But other than that, there is no evidence that they physically destroy your car.

Bottom Line

Looking for a subwoofer shouldn’t be too difficult if you know what you are looking for. Whether you want an indoor/outdoor one, or a pure outdoor one, there are so many options out there that you can explore. If you enjoyed reading this guide, please leave your comments below!