There is nothing like the pride and joy a person feels when spending time in a beautifully landscaped yard or garden.
Unless you’re like me, of course, for whom a beautiful landscape, a lush and lovely lawn, a rich and healthy garden, and the attendant positive feelings that go with them, are all brought to a whole new level with the addition of one simple element – great sound.
So I’ve put together a buyer’s guide to the best landscape speakers on the market today, with a quick look at 9 fantastic speakers designed for outdoor use and harmonious placement in any yard, garden or any other outdoor area.
If you’ve left the sprinklers running, and don’t have time to weed through the whole article, here are my top picks for best outdoor speakers overall:
- Best Satellite Speaker for Landscapes Overall Polk Audio Atrium SAT 300 Brown Atrium Landscape Speakers
- Best Rock Speaker for Landscapes Overall Klipsch AWR-650-SM Indoor/Outdoor Speaker – Granite (Pair)
- Best Omnidirectional Speaker for Landscapes Overall JBL Professional Control 88M Two-Way Coaxial Mushroom Landscape Speaker, 8-Inch
- Best Bluetooth Wireless Landscape Speaker TIC B503 8″ Outdoor Omnidirectional In-Ground Bluetooth 5 Speaker
What To Look For in the Best Landscape Speakers
We can really get bogged down in details, but as I see it there are three main considerations in selecting a great landscape speaker:
- Look: A speaker that looks great in your particular space – or, if you prefer, one that disappears.
- Weatherproofing: A speaker that, once you fall in love with it, will stick around for many, many years, and sound as good after countless seasons and all sorts of weather as it did on day one.
- Sound: And let’s make sure that that day one sound is as good as possible – not just open, clear and detailed, with nice warmth, good bassand great overall balance, but a design that projects that fantastic sound as effectively as possible into the open space.
I’m going to make this buyer’s guide as simple – and hopefully as useful – as possible, by ensuring that the last two factors are fully covered.
In other words, all of my recommendations in this buyer’s guide to best garden speakers will be fully and sufficiently weatherproofed and able to withstand not just extreme conditions, but extreme conditions over time, and I will also make sure that we are only dealing with the best sounding speakers available, especially outdoors and in all of those challenging conditions.
I believe that the combination of superb sound and real durability makes all of the speakers on this list quite special, and I recommend them all without reservation.
The only other things to decide are the type of speaker you want and your budget, and again for the sake of simplicity and usefulness I will organize these speakers by price level – Budget, Mid-Priced and Premium – and offer my top pick for each type – directable satellite speaker, rock speaker, and mushroom / omnidirectional speaker.
So let’s dig right in, with this list of the best landscape speakers on the market today!
The 9 Best Landscape Speakers for 2024
Best Satellite Speaker for Landscapes – Budget
OSD 2.5″ 30W Landscape Satellite Speaker (Pair)
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Satellite, Spike-Mounted (can also be hung or post-mounted)
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: Full Range 2.5 Inch Speaker Driver
- Sold As: Single Speaker (Buy 2 for Stereo Sound)
An amazingly big sound comes from these small satellite speakers, from a company that is fast becoming a real leader in top-quality outdoor audio.
The OSD LS2 are spike-mounted satellite speakers that can be easily directed and will stay perfectly stable and secure once they are sunk in. They are fully waterproof and weatherproof and the cases will never corrode.
Their sleek appearance seems to complement a wide variety of landscapes and styles, looking great but not drawing attention to themselves. How they do draw attention, though, is in their sound.
The OSD LS2 have extremely high quality speaker drivers, but they are actually quite small – a big part of the reason they are so affordable. Even still, they have decent bass response, with enough low end to really support the whole presentation. The mids and highs are clear and open, with no strain and with a beautifully warm overall sound.
And this sound is projected perfectly into even larger spaces, with no appreciable loss of quality.
This is a wired speaker, which needs to be connected to an amplifier, and you need to make sure you are using outdoor rated speaker wire, like the excellent and affordable InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire.
The OSD LS2 is clearly the product of a company that knows and loves sound and music, and equally knows and loves gardening and landscaping, and we will see more of their products below. But for a basic, super-inexpensive landscape speaker for all kinds of gardens, and all kinds of music, the LS2 is hard to beat.
Best Rock Speaker for Landscapes – Budget
OSD RX550 5.25″ White Granite Outdoor Rock Speaker 100W
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Rock Speaker
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: 5.25 Inch Woofer & Stamped Aluminum Tweeter
- Sold As: Stereo Pair
We come right back to OSD for another amazing value in landscape speakers, with their 5.25 inch rock speaker, available in three different colors – Slate, Gray and Brown.
A beautiful speaker with a nicely natural look, the OSD really blends into landscapes, and since they are not just waterproof and weatherproof but extremely well finished and durable, they won’t fade or become damaged over time.
The sound is really impressive, with exceptional clarity and projection, lots of detail and musical energy and surprisingly full, rich and powerful bass. I wasn’t able to spend a long time listening to these RX550 speakers, but from everything I could see I am confident that they will keep sounding this great for many years.
A wired speaker that is meant to be used with a stereo system or amplifier, the 550 should be connected with outdoor rated speaker wire, like my favorite cheap choice – InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire.
Best Omnidirectional Speaker for Landscapes – Budget
TIC GS3 8″ Outdoor Weather-Resistant Omnidirectional In-Ground Speaker (Single)
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Omnidirectional Mushroom Speaker
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: 8 Inch Woofer & 2 Inch Coaxially Mounted Tweeter
- Sold As: Single Omni Speaker
With their heavy-duty frames and exceptional sound dispersion, omnidirectional speakers tend to be more expensive than rock speakers or satellites, and this TIC GS3 8 inch omnidirectional is in fact, at just over a hundred dollars, the least expensive one I can recommend.
But I don’t just recommend it, I find the GS3 to be pretty amazing for the price, with fantastic sound dispersion and really engaging full range sound – the kind of sound that is amazing at higher volumes, but still maintains remarkable life and energy even at barely audible background levels.
A big 8 inch woofer, which is the main reason for the TIC’s amazing bass, is housed along with a acoustically matched 2 inch tweeter in an tough and durable ABS housing, which has great acoustical properties, is resistant to water, sun, heat and other conditions and can be either surface mounted or sunk into the ground.
The TIC GS3 is a wired speaker system, which will need to be connected with outdoor speaker wire – again, I really like the InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire – to a stereo system. If your stereo is decent, though, even though this is still such an affordable speaker, a single GS3 will provide truly next level sound.
Durable, beautifully made and finished, and with the best sound in its class, the TIC GS3 is an easy choice not just for best budget omnidirectional speaker, but for best budget landscape speaker overall.
Best Satellite Speaker for Landscapes – Mid-Priced
Jamo JL-4 Landscape 4″ Satellite Speaker
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Spike-Mounted Satellite
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: Full Range 4 Inch Speaker Driver
- Sold As: Single Speaker (Buy 2 for Stereo Sound)
Jamo has been making some of the most expensive and fabulous audiophile speakers in the world for over fifty years now, but recently this wonderful Danish company has become even better known for their very low priced speakers, which consistently offer really natural and musical sound and a little glimpse of that stratospheric high end.
Jamo’s landscape speakers are as good of a value as anything they make, and these satellite speakers are a perfect example, and my favorite model from their lineup.
Even with a smallish 4 inch woofer, the Jamo JL-4 have surprisingly strong and full bass, which offers perfect foundation and impact but never overwhelms the rest of the music. The mids and highs are absolutely lovely in sound, with a particularly natural and effortless quality perhaps no other landscape speaker has, and the whole sound projects beautifully into even large open spaces.
The JL-4 is a very efficient speaker, and works well with any stereo system – even smaller systems and less powerful amplifiers. Just make sure you are using outdoor coded speaker wire, like InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire.
The housings are beautifully minimalistic, and the Jamo JL-4 may be the nicest and most premium looking outdoor satellite speaker I’ve seen. They are tough, too, and fully weatherproof, and should last and perform well for a long time.
Even from a company known for sonic excellence, and more and more for top quality and performance at a very low price, the Jamo JL-4 satellite garden speakers really stand out – an amazing value and a really lovely sounding speaker.
Best Rock Speaker for Landscapes – Mid-Priced
OSD RS850 Audio 8″ High Fidelity Outdoor Rock Speaker
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Rock Speaker
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: 8 Inch Polypropylene Woofer, 1 Inch Silicone Soft Dome Tweeter
- Sold As: Single Speaker (Buy 2 for Stereo Sound)
Wow, I’ve just kind of realized that OSD, which is probably my favorite manufacturer of garden speakers overall, has gotten a full three recommendations out of only nine spots total!
But even if I’ve tapped their amazing product lineup a couple of times already, I had no choice but to go there again – there is no doubt at all that the OSD RS850 8 inch rocks are the best rock speakers you can get at this mid-priced level, and by a pretty wide margin.
With sound that is both really natural and relaxed and amazingly powerful, these are the type of speakers you would expect to hear in a pretty high end home stereo system – though I think the rocks would look pretty weird next to your equipment rack. Anyway, they are optimized for large outdoor spaces, and sound fantastic even across pretty long distances.
With powerful and nicely boosted bass that goes down much further than we might expect, open and realistic mids and beautifully extended high frequencies without a trace of glare, these are really lovely sounding speakers, and one of their best attributes is how they really capture and convey the energy and excitement of any kind of music.
OSD says that the RS850’s cabinets are an ‘aerospace grade composite,’ and while I don’t know exactly what that means, they are clearly exceptionally well finished, strong and durable, and able to stand up to any kind of weather and even really harsh conditions.
The OSD RS850 speakers are designed for wired connection, and with this quality of sound I might consider getting a bit of an upgraded speaker cable, like the GearIT 12 Gauge Speaker Wire, although they will still sound great, and work perfectly, with normal wire – as long as it’s outdoor rated! – like InstallGear 14 Gauge Speaker Wire.
A really lovely sounding speaker system, the OSD RS850 work well with any musical genre, and have a sound that seems to please and engage pretty much everybody. They are nice looking, well made and very durable, and can be most warmly recommended.
Best Omnidirectional Speaker for Landscapes – Mid-Priced
TIC B503 8″ Outdoor Omnidirectional In-Ground Bluetooth 5 Speaker
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Omnidirectional Mushroom Speaker
- Connectivity: Bluetooth Wireless
- Speaker Size: 8 Inch Woofer & 2 Inch Coaxially Mounted Tweeter
- Sold As: Single Omni Speaker
I’ll let you in on a little secret here – to me, this TIC 8 inch Bluetooth omnidirectional Bluetooth speaker sounds exactly the same as their 8 inch wired omni – the one I recommend above – and I suspect they’re the exact same speaker.
I’m only selecting it because it is a wonderful and enormously convenient thing to have a Bluetooth wireless speaker in your yard or garden, and that alone justifies this still inexpensive speaker system to be promoted to the mid-priced range.
Besides, I haven’t found a single affordable omnidirectional outdoor speaker that sounds significantly better than either of these TIC omnis, and certainly no other Bluetooth landscape speaker that comes close, and there’s really nothing else worth considering until we get to the significantly more expensive (wired) JBL Professional system below.
Just like the wired version of this speaker, which seems to have the same speaker drivers and cabinet, this TIC B503 Bluetooth wireless omnidirectional speaker system has incredibly effective dispersion of sound in all directions, and that sound is clear, energetic, musical and really lovely, with fantastic bass and great sound all the way up and down the spectrum.
And like the wired version, the wireless B503 is as tough as it gets, with real weatherproofing that will hold up to even extreme conditions and long term durability that is amazing for this price, and will ensure this speaker will look and sound as good even after years of use as it did new.
If you don’t need Bluetooth wireless, the TIC GS3 is a less expensive speaker with the same performance (assuming you have a decent amplifier), but I personally would opt for this TIC B503, with its own perfectly matched inbuilt amplifier and the luxury of Bluetooth streaming, including the ability to daisy-chain up to 100 speakers together – if anything, it’s an even better value that its less expensive sibling!
Best Satellite Speaker for Landscapes – Premium
Polk Audio Atrium SAT 300 Brown Atrium Landscape Speakers
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Spike-Mounted Satellite
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: Full Range 4 Inch Speaker Driver
- Sold As: Single Speaker (Buy 2 for Stereo Sound)
I think the first thing that struck me about this Polk Atrium SAT 300 speaker was just how easy it is to hear.
By this I mean that the sound is projected so beautifully into the open space, and clearly audible everywhere, and at all volumes, but I also mean something a bit more special, which is a particular quality of Polk speakers in general.
The SAT 300 satellite landscape speaker has a sound that is remarkably smooth, and almost a little dark, a sound that is very easy on the ears. And somehow – a trick that Polk mastered decades ago and many other speaker designers have tried to emulate – that smooth, easy sound is also exceptionally detailed and transparent.
This makes for a beautiful listen with all kinds of music, and is especially nice in garden or yard settings – a fine complement to the greenery and natural sounds. The SAT 300 is also blessed with rich, powerful bass and real dynamic energy, and the overall sonic presentation is accurate, well balanced and immensely satisfying.
Another trait the SAT 300 shares with pretty much all Polk Audio speakers is superior fit, finish and material quality, and not only are they fully able to stand the test of time and the elements, the 300 are just pretty looking speakers, in their finely crafted minimalist way.
The Jamo above are fantastic sounding speakers, and a great value, and these Polk Audio Atrium SAT 300 are in fact more than a hundred dollars more expensive. In terms of durability and long-term use they may not offer much advantage, but for sound they are clearly at the next level, with an ease and tonal beauty that must be heard to be believed – clearly the best satellite speakers for landscaping, lawns and gardens I’ve ever heard, and very highly recommended.
Best Rock Speaker for Landscapes – Premium
Klipsch AWR-650-SM Indoor/Outdoor Speaker – Granite (Pair)
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Rock Speaker
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: 6.5 Inch Dual-Coil Poly Cone Woofer, 2 X .75 Inch Poly Dome Tweeters
- Sold As: Single Speaker (Buy 2 for Stereo Sound)
Loudspeakers from the legendary Klipsch have always been associated with stunning clarity, low distortion, enormous power and thundering bass, and these AWR-650 rock speakers are no exception.
Even with small amplifiers these are powerful beasts, with intense musical energy and maximum volumes that will definitely scare away the birds. And though the woofers are actually quite small, there is more bass here than you can imagine and, unlike many other rock speakers – or outdoor speakers in general – that impressive bass is carried all throughout the open space as effectively as the high frequencies.
Speaking of the highs, and the mids for that matter, the amazing Klipsch sound is in full force here too, with bracing brightness and more detail than I’ve heard from probably any other landscape speaker, but with such low distortion and such accuracy that they never sound too bright, and are completely free of edge or strain. And, with the amazing bass, the overall effect is delightfully open and alive and perfectly balanced.
Passive (unamplified) speakers, which you will need to wire to an amplifier or stereo system, the Klipsch AWR-650 rock speakers are of such high quality that they benefit greatly from higher quality outdoor speaker wire, and I would highly recommend the hundred foot spool of GearIT 12 Gauge Speaker Wire.
I would say that the Klipsch AWR-650 landscape speakers have the biggest and most exciting sound of any product on this list of best speakers for gardens and outdoor settings – in fact, if you prefer a more genteel approach, you might well want to consider the less expensive OSD RS850 speakers I’ve listed above. But if you can handle it, the Klipsch are beautifully made, durable and perfectly finished, and look great in any garden, and are an undeniably exciting speaker.
Best Omnidirectional Speaker for Landscapes – Premium
JBL Professional Control 88M Two-Way Coaxial Mushroom Landscape Speaker, 8-Inch
At a Glance
- Speaker Type: Omnidirectional Mushroom Speaker
- Connectivity: Wired
- Speaker Size: 8 Inch Polypropylene Woofer & 1 Inch Polyetherimide (PEI) Dome Tweeter
- Sold As: Single Omni Speaker
To me this is it – the JBL Professional Control mushroom is the best landscape speaker I’ve ever heard.
Just above I warned people, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that the Klipsch rock speaker above may be a bit too big and powerful in sound for some tastes, but that’s the most beautiful thing about the JBL – it is somehow both big, fun and hyper-energized and at the same time laid back and effortless and, for all the excitement, kind of relaxing to listen to.
Of course this could describe pretty much any JBL speaker, but not only does this seem particularly true with these 88M omnidirectional landscape speakers, it is an especially nice quality for outdoor speakers in general, and serves them well when the music is cranked up, when it is at a discreet background level or anywhere in-between.
Vocals, high frequencies, even the prodigious deep bass these omnis put out are all so open and so clear, with more detail than any other landscape speaker I know, and the tonality, dynamic energy, sense of scale and size are all just right – highly accurate and perfectly presented.
If you are really going to use your landscape speakers for mood music, without really listening to them like you might your indoor system, these JBL 88M omnidirectional speakers might be a bit of a waste (though they’re not really that expensive), but if you love music, and like me you are always listening pretty closely, with at least half of your attention, to anything playing within earshot, these are the speakers to get.
And if you plan to crank them, well, there’s no question – these rocks rock!
Yes, I’ve been waiting since the very beginning of this buyer’s guide for the best garden speakers to use the term “these rocks rock,” and so now, fully satisfied, let me just close by saying it’s not just the beauty and excitement of the JBL 88m’s sound that make them the best omnidirectional landscape speakers on the market today, bu also the overall quality, the durability, the great design and the premium fit and finish. But yeah, it’s mostly the sound!
Before I forget, these JBLs, maybe more than any others on this list, really deserve upgraded speaker cable, and I strongly recommend GearIT 12 Gauge Speaker Wire, or even the somewhat pricey but exceptional GearIT 10 Gauge Wire.
And I should also say that if you are planning a professional multi-speaker installation, the JBL Professional Control 88M landscape speakers have multiple transformer taps – four at 70 volts and three at 100 volts, with less than half a decibel insertion loss at any tap setting.
And if you are planning a professional multi-speaker installation, hopefully you know what that means!