Klipsch SA-3 Outdoor Speakers
July 2001
Almost as Big as the Great Outdoors
by Mike McGann
Some folks might find it kind of funny. Here I am, alleged (okay, very alleged) audio critic guy, with no less than four Dolby Digital home theater systems in my house and what do I do when I want to listen to music outside on my back deck? I haul out my Radio Shack monster AM/FM radio and sit it near my chair.
Ridiculous? Well, maybe. My backyard and deck are kind of big, yet my neighbors aren't that far away, making it tough to have sound that fills the yard without annoying the folks next door. Two pairs of outdoor speakers have languished around my house for more than two years without my feeling motivated to set them up. With small little woofers and fairly small enclosures, I knew there wouldn't be much bass and I'd have to seriously crank 'em up just to hear anything out by the pool.
Then the folks at Klipsch offered me a pair of their new SA-3 Synergy outdoor speakers ($700/pair). One look at these bad boys and I knew they weren't your everyday outdoor speakers. Aside from the nifty horn-mounted tweeters, something Klipsch has been doing for years to great effect, these outdoor speakers have eight-inch woofers. With the big woofers, these are quite big speakers, nearly twice the size of say, a Parasound Nomad Nine outdoor unit. At least in theory, that meant bass should be seriously better than any outdoor unit I've tested.
First off, I tested the pair indoors in my lab, in part to get them thoroughly broken in, also because the first weeks of March came up very cold and rainy here in the east. I was pretty quickly impressed with their behavior, much as I was with the Synergy home theater system I reviewed in these pages last year. Detail was good, imagery and soundstage was good (although that's truly less of an issue with an outdoor speaker). In general, I found them to be very good competitors for bookshelf speakers of the same price range. Of course, these I could also shoot with a water pistol, unlike any of the bookshelf units I commonly listen to in my lab.
Taking them outdoors was a fairly simple task. Klipsch provides a nice mounting bar that offers a good amount of flexibility in how you set the speakers up. I opted to mount them horizontally hanging from the eaves of my roof, facing toward my deck. Two quick screws each—zapping them in with my DeWalt cordless drill—had them in place in all of five minutes. I ran 16-gauge speaker wire to them, via a hole I drilled. That wire was connected to my Pioneer home theater receiver, which allows for A and B speakers.
A quick note on this, while it was the easiest way for me to install these speakers, I don't recommend it. It's better to connect them to a receiver with multi-room control and a small two-channel amp, because there are some compromises involved in my setup that most people might find annoying.
Once I had everything set, I switched my receiver from A speakers to B and then switched the receiver to stereo, and finally, switched the front speakers from small to large, a process I would have to repeat each time I wanted to listen to music outdoors.
Once done, it was apparent that it was worth the work. As good as I thought the Klipsches sounded in my lab, I was more impressed with them outside.
Obviously some of the soundstage disappeared as I moved around my deck, but detail held pretty well. Better still, upper bass and mid bass held together quite well, better than I expected. Vocals, whether Mark Knopfler's on Sailing to Philadelphia, or Freddie Mercury's on Queen's A Day At The Races, were clean and clear as long as I stayed within a roughly 60-degree wedge from the front of the speakers. If I drifted too far to the right or left, the sound began to attenuate and became seriously muted, which is what they are designed to do.
By fussing around with pointing, you can set up a pretty solid soundfield, yet not annoy your neighbors. After pointing these properly, I could stand on either of my property lines and it sounded like somebody was listening to a portable radio at a moderate level. On my deck, though, the area was filled with music, at a level louder than I probably will ever casually use.
After extended listening time, I found myself wishing for a bit more bass extension, as these units are only rated down to 55 Hz and tended to sound like it, but admittedly, bass is the biggest challenge for any outdoor speaker designer, even with fairly big enclosures and eight-inch woofers. I suppose that's why there are all those rock-shaped outdoor subwoofers out there.
In terms of cost and performance, it's pretty hard to argue with these speakers. If $700 a pair is too much or the SA-3 is just too big for your space, the company offers the less expensive SA-1 and SA-2, smaller units with smaller woofers and enclosures. These speakers are well designed for outdoor use, clearly by someone who understands how people use sound outdoors. They come in white and black, which should fit into your décor, and are paintable.
If you spend a lot of time outside and want to enjoy your music sources, you should seriously consider the SA-3s. Because of the careful attention to detail in design, there's no question that these are winners.
$700/pair
www.klipsch.com
by Mike McGann
Some folks might find it kind of funny. Here I am, alleged (okay, very alleged) audio critic guy, with no less than four Dolby Digital home theater systems in my house and what do I do when I want to listen to music outside on my back deck? I haul out my Radio Shack monster AM/FM radio and sit it near my chair.
Ridiculous? Well, maybe. My backyard and deck are kind of big, yet my neighbors aren't that far away, making it tough to have sound that fills the yard without annoying the folks next door. Two pairs of outdoor speakers have languished around my house for more than two years without my feeling motivated to set them up. With small little woofers and fairly small enclosures, I knew there wouldn't be much bass and I'd have to seriously crank 'em up just to hear anything out by the pool.
Then the folks at Klipsch offered me a pair of their new SA-3 Synergy outdoor speakers ($700/pair). One look at these bad boys and I knew they weren't your everyday outdoor speakers. Aside from the nifty horn-mounted tweeters, something Klipsch has been doing for years to great effect, these outdoor speakers have eight-inch woofers. With the big woofers, these are quite big speakers, nearly twice the size of say, a Parasound Nomad Nine outdoor unit. At least in theory, that meant bass should be seriously better than any outdoor unit I've tested.
First off, I tested the pair indoors in my lab, in part to get them thoroughly broken in, also because the first weeks of March came up very cold and rainy here in the east. I was pretty quickly impressed with their behavior, much as I was with the Synergy home theater system I reviewed in these pages last year. Detail was good, imagery and soundstage was good (although that's truly less of an issue with an outdoor speaker). In general, I found them to be very good competitors for bookshelf speakers of the same price range. Of course, these I could also shoot with a water pistol, unlike any of the bookshelf units I commonly listen to in my lab.
Taking them outdoors was a fairly simple task. Klipsch provides a nice mounting bar that offers a good amount of flexibility in how you set the speakers up. I opted to mount them horizontally hanging from the eaves of my roof, facing toward my deck. Two quick screws each—zapping them in with my DeWalt cordless drill—had them in place in all of five minutes. I ran 16-gauge speaker wire to them, via a hole I drilled. That wire was connected to my Pioneer home theater receiver, which allows for A and B speakers.
A quick note on this, while it was the easiest way for me to install these speakers, I don't recommend it. It's better to connect them to a receiver with multi-room control and a small two-channel amp, because there are some compromises involved in my setup that most people might find annoying.
Once I had everything set, I switched my receiver from A speakers to B and then switched the receiver to stereo, and finally, switched the front speakers from small to large, a process I would have to repeat each time I wanted to listen to music outdoors.
Once done, it was apparent that it was worth the work. As good as I thought the Klipsches sounded in my lab, I was more impressed with them outside.
Obviously some of the soundstage disappeared as I moved around my deck, but detail held pretty well. Better still, upper bass and mid bass held together quite well, better than I expected. Vocals, whether Mark Knopfler's on Sailing to Philadelphia, or Freddie Mercury's on Queen's A Day At The Races, were clean and clear as long as I stayed within a roughly 60-degree wedge from the front of the speakers. If I drifted too far to the right or left, the sound began to attenuate and became seriously muted, which is what they are designed to do.
By fussing around with pointing, you can set up a pretty solid soundfield, yet not annoy your neighbors. After pointing these properly, I could stand on either of my property lines and it sounded like somebody was listening to a portable radio at a moderate level. On my deck, though, the area was filled with music, at a level louder than I probably will ever casually use.
After extended listening time, I found myself wishing for a bit more bass extension, as these units are only rated down to 55 Hz and tended to sound like it, but admittedly, bass is the biggest challenge for any outdoor speaker designer, even with fairly big enclosures and eight-inch woofers. I suppose that's why there are all those rock-shaped outdoor subwoofers out there.
In terms of cost and performance, it's pretty hard to argue with these speakers. If $700 a pair is too much or the SA-3 is just too big for your space, the company offers the less expensive SA-1 and SA-2, smaller units with smaller woofers and enclosures. These speakers are well designed for outdoor use, clearly by someone who understands how people use sound outdoors. They come in white and black, which should fit into your décor, and are paintable.
If you spend a lot of time outside and want to enjoy your music sources, you should seriously consider the SA-3s. Because of the careful attention to detail in design, there's no question that these are winners.
$700/pair
www.klipsch.com
