For the money, the Episode 8" landscape speakers are pretty good. I just installed the crown amp on a job today and got everything dialed in. 8 of those and a single Bose 360. Huge yard. Sounded great and filled the whole space pretty evenly. Obviously you get some beaming if you are fairly close, but it's hard to minimize that. Plenty of low end for most people.

Paradigm landscape series sounds very good.

^^^^^^This....awesome trickle down technology from their box speakers.

I think the larger JBL's with horn loaded compression drivers kill any of the residential landscape speaker systems when you need to push lots of sound out over large areas at high SPL.  If all you need is good sound around the garden, probably any quality speakers currently available will get the job done.

The project photos I posted has a large pool area with a very loud waterfall feature, a tennis court, a couple large green areas and several large garden areas.  I don't remember for sure, but I think there are 20-22 JBL speakers plus the JBL subs and then 4 Atlas Sound 360 garden speakers in some landscaped areas where omni-directional coverage was required.

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.



How does the IG10 compare to the IG12?
Is there a big difference? On paper the specs are very close.

I’ve never had the chance to compare them in a fairway. The installation I have with the I G10 has them near a stone wall, so there is a lot of reinforcement from that. The projects where I’ve used the IG12s, they are almost all just out in the middle of garden beds with no hard surfaces around them.

The IG12 is BIG and stands out a lot more than the dome caps of the other landscape subs, so you have to be very careful with placement to make it hide.

Leon Owns and sells the TERRA speakers and another nod for Coastal.
I have not done control 29 outdoors, but I have in large classrooms. Good to know.

How do those JBL's sound without a sub?

We've done a number of landscape systems that are fine for background music and whatnot, but have also done some JBL installs for "simpler" systems where we've just done the Control 28s. Sound great even without a sub. I can't imagine how much better the 29s with the sub sound, and think this is the only real solution for "Vegas Pool Party" SPL and bass energy.

James and Coastal are the 2 "badass" options that come to mind immediately. We use Episode and Sonance primarily, but if someone wanted to kick it up a few notches (including budget), I'd look at Coastal or James.

I haven't heard any of the James systems yet, but have sat in on a demo of Coastal.

Coastal did sound pretty damn good and have some different, modern-designed, looking speakers.

I'll still say that an all JBL C29 system sounds soooo much better.

I'm really glad you posted this. I had a customer who wanted to push Sonos into a big yard (mounted to the wall on a patio). I warned him it may not fill the yard with just two speakers and a Sonos amp. I punted on the Sonos Sonance outdoors after being disappointed and went with a pair of JBL Control 28-1 8" units. Holy s&@t, those things put out! Even off a Sonos Connect Amp they filled the entire yard without a sweat.

I really like the Near LB8's as well. Those sound great, even without a sub. That's probably what I'll use in my own yard when we redo everything.

Near the bottom, the copper is wrapped in bitchathane for more water proofing and the post is set in concrete.

You mean 'Bituthene', right?

Good to know.