YAMAHA NS-AW150BL 2-Way Indoor Outdoor Speakers Pair Black - Wired

This is my second pair, and these are smoking deal in my opinion. I used them in a very unconventional way, however. I have an old Jeep Wrangler which, from October-April in Arizona, has no top. I needed speakers that were all of the following without sacrificing audio quality: inexpensive, compact, weather resistant, rugged, easy to install, yet hard to steal. I'll start with the speakers themselves and then comment on price. 1. Compact: I welded the brackets for these speakers onto the rear of my roll cage. I needed something that would be small enough that it wouldn't interfere with the rear passenger's head or shoulder room. Mission accomplished. 2. Weather Resistant / rugged: So far -- mud, rain, a fair amount of hard core off roading & rock crawling, days in the sun with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees (yes, in October), and a few nights with temperatures below 40 degrees. The composite enclosure and weather resistant drivers have held up quite well. No cosmetic damage at all, other than being dirty, and no reduction in sound quality. I'm impressed. 3. Easy to install yet hard to steal: Well, I welded the handy brackets to my roll cage, so those aren't coming off (see side bar at end of the review). That part took me 20 minutes to do including grinding the paint off the brackets and the roll cage itself in the appropriate locations. Then you use a couple of provided screw knobs to attach the speakers to the brackets. Theoretically, a thief could just unscrew those knobs and remove the speakers, so I used a little thread locker red, which makes it really difficult to back the knobs out. Difficult enough that a thief will probably give up before they actually get the knobs to turn. I think I'm good. 4. Audio quality: Just because this is #4 on this list doesn't mean it's a low priority. In fact this and price are why I first considered Yamaha. These are good quality, good sounding speakers with a nice full frequency response in open areas. The stereo imaging is good, and they actually have a little MORE bass than I expected out of such a small speaker, especially when you consider that I have them installed in a totally open space (no wall or corner behind them to reinforce the bass frequencies). I'm pleased. Of note, these are 6 ohm speakers. This was another reason I chose them OVER some other reputable all weather speaker brands. Car stereos rate their power output at 4 ohms, and most speakers intended for use in or around the home are 8 ohm speakers. A car stereo driving a pair of 8 ohm speakers would output approximately half the wattage as it would when powering 4 ohm speakers, which would limit volume. At 6 ohms, the stereo in my Jeep drives these Yamahas loud enough that I can clearly hear the music at highway speeds, without distorting them. Plus, I could still use them for home audio if I chose to do so. Very versatile. 5. Price: Yamaha is a very reputable brand name. In my experience, they make good reliable speakers. This holds true for the AW150. Based on all of the above, at a price point that is half or better than many competitors such as Polk, Bose, etc.., you cannot go wrong with these little Yamahas. Highly recommend. *Side bar: This is my second pair of AW150s. I welded the first pair in my Jeep several months ago. On a recent four wheeling trip, the beating caused the welds to fail on one of the speaker brackets (this was my first time trying to weld something), and the speaker bracket broke off the roll bar. While on the highway driving home, the speaker bounced out of the vehicle at about 70 MPH and was lost and gone forever. Hence, pair #2. Happy listening! Read more

Compact & Unobtrusive: I have these speakers mounted to two posts on my back porch pergola - to the left and right - with the seating arrangements in the sweet spot in between. They are the perfect size. They have 5 inch woofers, which is plenty of low end bass for listening to music, everything except of course deep, deep bass. They're not big in size; I don't notice them sticking out like a pair of sore thumbs from where I sit to where they are mounted. The music sorta just emanates from them and creates a pleasing sound field. They blend in beautifully! Very compact and unobtrusive considering the big sound field that they produce. Big Sound: I'm surprised by this. I can't believe what I'm hearing. The pergola stretches out 16 feet from post to post, and while sitting in the sweet spot, the stereo image that these two speakers create is absolutely fantastic. I thought since they're outside where it's kinda noisy from all the day to day sounds one hears that they would sound muffled and music would be difficult to understand, thus having ever and always to turn up the volume louder and louder. This is not the case! Even a low listening levels, the sound is big and full! Unbelievable! The only thing they can't do is produce deep hard hitting bass, but that's to be expected from one 5 inch woofer. Easy to install: The kit comes with a pair of brackets that you first screw to the wall, or in my case posts. Then, in about 5 minutes, I was able to attach the speakers to the brackets using the supplied hardware. They have these big palm-sized plastic-ized screws that make installation simple - You don't need any tools! All you do is line up the speaker with the bracket and screw in the palm-sized screws on both ends. Easily a five minute job. And in the winter, you just unscrew the screws, take down the speakers and store them away until spring. I should add too that you have to plug in the speaker wires as well. And if you use banana plugs, then things are just that much easier too since all you have to do then is plug in the wires into the binding posts on the back of each speaker. Easy to Drive: I have a these speakers hooked up to a small LEPAI mini amplifier that probably only puts out about 15 watts per channel. These amps sound amazing! And thank goodness these speakers are easy to drive, because they too sound amazing! I don't have to turn the volume up hardly at all before the music starts to really rock. Clean and clear! Big big sound! No distortion! Easily the best thing about these speakers! I can't reply about their longevity yet, or their ability to work in rain, heat or other less than ideal climes. I'm not gonna let these speakers freeze and rot away in the winter, so that'll probably be the best thing I can do to keep them nice for a very long time! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Read more

Installed in my garage. The sound is pretty good. One of the speaker grills keeps falling off… Read more

Great sound for the price and they last. I have several pairs of these around my house and pool area. They sound fine for small outdoor speakers. This last purchase is to replace 2 of them that finally died. I'm buying again because they lasted about 14 years outside in the sun. The only downside is that if they are in direct sun, the covers tend to fade a bit. In any case, I'm happy to get new ones as they will look nicer too. Read more

So, great speakers, I have it with a Fosi amp, and the only gripe is that the grilles on the speakers have fallen off due to the heat. I think it loosens the glue or whatever is holding it, and in 100 plus weather, they have fallen. Read more

These sound awesome! Maybe lacking a bit of bass, but that's to be expected in an outdoor environment . The treble and midrange are exceptional! Read more

Love these. Installed them on a new screened porch and wired them to our smart TV with a 1Mii amp. We constantly have movies, football games or music playing outside now. The sound is perfect for my porch, deck and down to our fire pit area. I’d highly recommend these for an inexpensive sound system with good quality output and volume. Read more