Polk Audio Atrium 4 Weatherproof Outdoor Speakers with Powerful Bass Pair Black All-Weather Durability Broad Sound Coverage Speed-Lock

I bought a **pair of Polk Audio Atrium 8 SDI speakers** for my **back patio expansion**, and they have been **nothing short of incredible**! The **beautiful design** blends seamlessly with my outdoor space, and they are built to withstand the elements. I paired these with a **SunFire amp**, and the **sound quality is simply awesome**—rich, clear, and powerful, even in an open outdoor environment. Mounting was **easy**, and the build quality feels **top-notch**, exactly what I expect from Polk Audio. I’ve been a **Polk Audio fan for almost 40 years**, and their **reputation for quality and durability** is well-earned. I still have an **older set in my garage that’s over 20 years old**, and they still sound fantastic—**which is exactly why I chose Polk again**! If you're looking for **high-quality outdoor speakers** that will last, these are a no-brainer. **Highly recommend!** 🎶🔥 Read more

I purchased these as replacements for outdoor speakers that were installed on a new-to-us house, but that were no longer working. I bought the white version, and they compliment our home's exterior trim color nicely. Installation was a breeze -- each speaker is bolted to the house with two wood bolts, then attach the wire, and that's all there is to it. In my case, I am using a dedicated "left" and "right" speaker setup, so I cannot address how well these work when they are wired with both left and right speaker wires. I can say that you need to slide the switch/contact cover over on the back of the speaker if you are wiring them as "left" or "right" like you would for normal speakers, or else the sound is quite a bit softer. This makes more sense when you look at the unit itself--but there are two ways to wire each speaker, so follow the directions for your application and you'll be fine. As you'd expect, there is not a ton of bass to these speakers, however when connected to a home-owner quality sound system (Sony), they sound quite good as an external speaker, and better than ones that we had at our previous house. I'm hopeful that I can get at least 5 solid years out of these speakers in order to justify the price. We'll see how that works out, but I think Polk quality is quite good for my purposes, and I have confidence that it has been money well spent. Read more

Speakers appear well made. I have only been using them for a short time, so long term durability is something I cannot comment on. However, for a compact speaker they sound great and put out a surprising amount of bass. I was able to drive them quite loud without break up or distortion. I also like that they are 8 ohms which makes them pretty standard and compatible with virtually any amplifier. Read more

These Polk Atrium 6's really are a great sounding set of speakers. I embarked on setting up a "Zone 2" set of outdoor speakers on my back patio, which will eventually run off a spare Marantz AVR (SR5009) that I have in the garage, daisy-chained to a Marantz 8802 in my living room. I really wanted to take some time to compare some speakers before making a decision, and decided to try the Polk Atrium 6, Klipsch AW-650, and two speakers from OSD - the AP640 and AP650. I disconnected my beloved B&W CDM-6NT tower speakers and hooked each of the candidate speakers up to a great sounding Jolida tube amp with Denon CD player, running each of them through jazz, various rock, and country selections including Stan Getz, live Allman Brothers, Dave Brubeck, etc. I pretty much ruled out the OSD AP640 right away - they were very hollow and underwhelming for my taste. The AP650's were better (IMO), perhaps tighter (enclosed box) but still seemed to lack some bandwidth, and the low-end just wasn't doing it for me, although I realize these are small outdoor speakers and don't expect to shake any windows with them. Had I bought them by themselves, I probably would have liked them better but they just didn't stack up to the Klipsch or Polk's. I really liked the Klipsch AW-650's, but trying them side by side with the Polk's, my ears couldn't help but prefer the Atrium 6's. The Atrium 6's just did it for me - warm, crystal clear, neutral sound across the spectrum and surprisingly I like their lower frequency response over the Klipsch AW-650's, which have a larger driver in them. I ended up leaving the Polk Atrium 6's hooked up in my living room last night, switched them over to my Marantz AV-8802/Outlaw Audio 5000X (AVR & amp) system, and watched some programming on Netflix. Using the Atrium 6's as my Right/Left channels, they did well paired with my center channel and subwoofer, and this morning I'm still enjoying them immensely - they're back on the tube amp, and playing Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, in the other room while I type this. Horns and piano are remarkably clear from here (50' away), and string bass is very natural and enjoyable - I can hear it very clearly even with the amp running at low volume in the other room. As a side note, I passed on the Klipsch AW-650's but did like them - I think if I were placing speakers in a larger outdoor area, perhaps to send sound across a pool and larger patio area, I may have kept them instead. In the end I just really preferred the natural, intimate sound of the Polk Atrium 6's. If I had anything negative to say about the Polk's, it's nothing to do with sound but rather with what I see as a design oversight on the speaker connections themselves. If you prefer to use banana plugs, over the binding posts, be forewarned that there isn't a whole lot of room to plug them in - the speaker connections are recessed in the back of the speaker and even though they're angled slightly, there isn't much room between them and the speaker enclosure - I couldn't use my banana plugs to hook them up without feeling like I was going to bend or break something, so opted to use the binding posts instead. Not a deal breaker but seriously this should have been addressed in engineering. Nevertheless I HIGHLY recommend giving these a try - happy listening! Read more