4 days ago
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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- The Polk Audio Atrium 5 speakers are disposable for $325 a pair, offering a sleek and weatherproof design.
- These speakers person a crisp, detailed, and amazingly heavy dependable profile.
- You'll request an amplifier for these speakers, making them little convenient than utilizing a Bluetooth speaker.
While plentifulness of folks usage portable Bluetooth speakers for their outdoor listening needs, they're not the astir applicable prime if you're mounting up an outdoor situation astatine your location and privation thing much permanent.
With the upwind getting warmer, present is the clip to put successful an outdoor talker system. If you're consenting to spell with a imperishable solution, the Polk Audio Atrium 5 speakers are worthy considering.
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The speakers are designed for those gathering a system alternatively than those who privation thing speedy and easy. They necessitate an amplifier to work, and link to that amplifier done bully ol' fashioned talker ligament -- similar astir audiophile speakers. No wireless setup, and nary powerfulness cables.
As idiosyncratic who considers themselves an audiophile, though, I don't caput the other enactment astatine all. Here's wherefore my concern was worthy it.
Sleek and understated design
I'm a large instrumentality of colorful, vibrantly-colored tech, but if there's 1 spot I privation thing a small much subtle, it's outside. I privation speakers that blend into the environment. After all, outdoor speakers should beryllium heard, not seen.
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OK, possibly I'm taking things a small excessively far. You tin inactive spot the Polk Audio Atrium 5 speakers, obviously, but with their understated design, there's little absorption connected looks. The speakers travel successful either each achromatic oregon each white, and they should look large successful immoderate environment. On the front, there's a mesh talker grille that covers the 5-inch woofer and three-quarter-inch tweeter. It's interrupted lone by a tiny Polk Audio logo toward the top.
The speakers travel with mounting brackets already installed, and you tin usage them to equine the speakers vertically oregon horizontally to a partition oregon different surface. The mounting brackets are rather bully and link precise easy to the speakers themselves, ensuring a unafraid installation. Polk Audio calls its mounting strategy the "Speed-Lock Mounting System," and it makes it casual to unafraid the speakers to the mounts, adjacent with 1 hand.
The lone different happening connected the backmost of the speakers is the binding posts for the talker wire, which you'll request to proviso yourself. If you've ne'er utilized speakers similar this before, enactment that you'll request an amplifier for them, too.
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Again, I truly similar the look. It's understated, but the speakers inactive look premium and durable. Polk Audio says that they're "All-Weather Certified," which successful this case, means that they've gone done a bid of military-grade certification processes for h2o and corrosion. They should beryllium capable to withstand adjacent comparatively utmost upwind conditions, wrong reason.
Powerful, crisp audio
The Polk Audio Atrium 5 is lone 1 exemplary successful a lineup of Atrium speakers. It conscionable truthful happens that the Atrium 5 has a five-inch driver, but the others successful the lineup don't instrumentality their exemplary sanction rather arsenic literally. There's besides a smaller Atrium 4 (with a 4.5-inch driver), an Atrium 6 (5.25-inch driver), and an Atrium 8 SDI (with a 6.5-inch driver).
Put simply, the larger the driver, the deeper the bass effect -- that's conscionable physics. Despite being the second-smallest talker successful the Atrium lineup, the bass effect connected the Atrium 5 isn't atrocious astatine all.
To beryllium clear, if you really privation a full-range audio experience, you should inactive get the Atrium Sub100, which tin beryllium utilized alongside the Atrium 5 speakers, extending the bass. That said, I wasn't capable to trial the speakers with that subwoofer and inactive recovered the audio to dependable almighty and rich. Kick drums were decently impactful, and portion you whitethorn not get immoderate of those ultra-deep sub-bass frequencies with these speakers alone, you volition get bully bass successful general.
Perhaps the champion happening astir the speakers, though, is however they performed successful the high-end. Again, astir volition privation to usage the Atrium 5 speakers with a subwoofer, but you won't bargain further speakers to heighten the high-end effect similar you would the debased frequencies. Thankfully, you'll get plentifulness of item and clarity successful the high-end, helping marque euphony dependable crisp and exciting.
The speakers besides get rather loud, which is much important with outdoor speakers than with indoor speakers. Audio can't bounce disconnected walls and resonate outdoors similar indoors, but the Atrium 5 speakers are inactive capable to capable a decent-sized backyard with audio.
ZDNET's buying advice
If you're looking for outdoor speakers, you can't bash overmuch amended than the Polk Audio Atrium 5 speakers astatine this terms range. They're crisp and full-sounding, and portion it's a bully thought to bargain a subwoofer for them if you privation other depth, astir radical tin bash conscionable good without one.
If you don't program connected buying a subwoofer and don't caput spending a small other cash, you could spell for 1 of the larger Atrium models. If you're sold connected a Bluetooth talker with plentifulness of bass and measurement for tiny outdoor spaces, see the Bose SoundLink Plus.
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