Better/wider dispursion rates and fuller sound. Place them strategically and you can almost match the sound compared to the sat systems at low volumes. Turn it up and theirs no comparison.

Are the JBL speakers you are mentioning being mounted on the house or in the landscaping? if landscape - how?

1. It's easy, you pull 13 out of the ground and put 4 back in. This installation happened to be on a wall about 5' tall, with a steep slope behind the speakers, that runs along the length of a swimming pool, probably 65-70' long. The guys who did the original installation just kept throwing Sonance sats at the area to try and get the volume level the client wanted, which is how they ended up with 13 sats in the first place. The comb filtering was atrocious. They were using the Crown CDI 4000 to drive them all, so it should have had more than enough power.

2. I used the NEAR 3XL amplifier for the LB8's and a NEAR 7XL for the subs. They have their own pre-written EQ curves, but I tweaked them a bit to make it sound better once it was in place.

3. Subs were run 8 ohm. I have never found woofers to sound as good on any of the 70v systems as they do when driven 8 ohm.

4. I have only encountered two of the Episode systems in the real world. They sounded fine for what they are...I think they are a small step back from Sonance, which is a small step back from the NEAR sub/sat systems. The NEAR are a different, less appealing form factor(more similar to the shape to traditional speakers than the "landscape spotlight" look), so you have to take that into account and hide them well. I think the commercial sound background that NEAR has in their engineering makes them carry further and play louder. I have a location with 4 of the LB4T and 2 of the IG10 running off of a 3XL amplifier, and I think it sounds better and plays louder than a similar space where I have a Sonance LS4T/LS12T/DSP 2-750 system.

Of course, for most all clients, any of these systems are incredible. They are often coming from using a Bluetooth speaker on the deck, or a pair of low-end bracket-mounted speakers under their eaves, so any bass at all is a huge step up.

Many installers will plant a treated 4 x 4 timber in cement in appropriate spots and than deploy either 251's or 281's. The Control 29's have a more robust high frequency compression driver, which makes more sense when having a microphone through the system. The system Paul was alluding to was installed 3 or 4 years ago, as I recall.

Hey Fred... time flies.  That job has been in place for more than 6 years now and the client still loves it!  I was there last week and there's some rust on the grills of a few of the speakers located down in the landscape.  I'll check in with you to see if you're able to help source replacements.

I've got some photos of the job Fred helped me with and will try to post.  On that project some of the speakers are mounted up under the eaves and were painted to match, and some of the speakers were mounted on steel posts set into concrete.

One of the subs was recessed into the side of the Cabanna, and another sub was located on a formed concrete slab down near the pool.

After the first season, all the speakers placed down in the landscaping were concealed by the plants and the speakers under the eaves blend in well because of the paint.

It's an impressive sounding outdoor installation that's very clean sounding even at high SPL and provides bass that you can feel over a large area.

Thank you for the details, that definitely helps.
I'll think ill be giving near a try.

I used 4 of their surface mounts on a commercial project last year and thought they sounded good, I forget which model.

Here's some photos showing the speaker mounting.  JBL speakers mounted up under eaves (including recessed sub) were painted to match the trim.  Subwoofer down in landscape was placed on a poured concrete slab.  The speakers out in the landscape were mounted on 2" steel post that was drilled and tapped for mounting and then set in concrete.

Here's an example of a 4x4 post installation.  This is for an outdoor WAP, but same setup works for speakers too.  It's a 4x4 cedar post prepped by the carpenter.  He angles the top so water sheds off and then cuts a slot around the post farther down where copper is bent into the slot and wrapped around the post with some type of sealant for protection against rot at ground level. Near the bottom, the copper is wrapped in bitchathane for more water proofing and the post is set in concrete.

A length of pressure treated 4x4 sunk in some concrete is probably just as effective, but I seem to work for people that go to extremes with the details...

Paul, get me model numbers on the speakers and quantities/colors
I'll get on that for you.

Considering that some have started to corrode already, you may want to replace them all... your call.

How do the JBL's compare to an equal sized Mariner? I have a feeling I already know the answer.

Not familiar with Mariner. The system Paul installed needed to handle a lot of dynamics, and the compression driver on the 29 smiles when it sees that sort of signal. Good for microphones, too....

Other outdoor system I like is the in ground NEAR product. Properly driven, it's an extraordinary system. Some guy wrote a review on that system several years ago for CE Pro. I can tell you that the fedex driver was unhappy having to pick them up again when NEAR wanted the samples back.

I've done one system like Paul's above with 8 of the control 29s and 2 sub210s and it is awesome!

Really this is an open ended question.

The JBl solution is pretty hard to beat if the landscape design permits hiding them. I have a pretty amazing sounding job with these. Client requested “cop call status” his neighbor lives a good 4-5k away and they’ve called on him numerous times.

Overall James is really hard to beat. Their 26” underground sub is quite literally, ridiculous. Clean and articulate but punches you in the gut when you need it. Their smaller subs are very good too. Truly a system that disappears.

Go to Universal Studios theme park in Florida and you'll see and impressive outdoor speakers system. JBL control speakers and subwoofers scattered everywhere, some of them disguised nicely in their environments.