Have a customer who wants rock speakers, and I am looking at Stereostone and Rockustics. I ordered a pair of lower-end Stereostones last year and was not impressed at all with the sound quality. I don't know if it's the company, rock speakers, or the particular model that I ordered.

These customers are willing to spend around $1000 for the speakers. Area to be covered is approximately 40x30.

I am currently considering recommending either:
2 Rockustic OctoRocks
2 Stereostone DaVinci Rocks

Those both look like they would have some decent bass.


Any comments or suggestions?

I would recommend using a Niles setup. A lot of choices in color and texture and more importanly they rock (lol couldn's resist) Here is a link to their product line

[Link: nilesaudio.com]

Oh yeah retail is from 200-500 bucks

I've installed quite a few of the Rockustic's.
They sound pretty decent for an outdoor background speaker. They crank up pretty loud, to.
I wouldn't be satisfied with them in my 'listening' room though :,-)

I've never heard the Stereostone's so I can't provide any info on them.

I will say the Rockustic's are extremely weather proof.
A few years ago I installed 8 of them at our local country club at the bottom of a 20' 'cliff' that surrounds the pool. The landscaping was'nt done, we had a 3" rain, and the resulting mudslide burried them in 10' of mud!
A week later I dug them out, hosed them off, and they're still working today!

Rockustics are the real deal.

All Vifa drivers, real crossovers voiced by Joe D'Appolito, lifetime warranty.

Here is a story about the plastic company that helped develop the World's best outdoor speaker cabinets:
[Link: interplastic.com]

Octorocks sound good, and they can really wake up the neighborhood when you give them some juice.

They've changed the warranty policy on the Rockustics... Now you have to send them back to them to be fixed. They used to send us the drivers, and we had to fix them... I don't know which is worse... The customer having to wait, or me having to scrape out the bugs and mud... We pretty much stopped selling them a few years ago, and now we sell black outdoor speakers on spikes. Better sound, less reliability issues.

Check out Terra Speakers, designed in Maine for extreme weather conditions. At least they know what cold weather can be like and have designed all weather speakers (also a line for saunas).

www.terraspeakers.com

These speakers can be located anywhere in the garden/backyard and are not restricted to just being located under the eaves. No bugs or mud to scrape out either.

Cheers

I'm a fan of the Rockustics myself. Good sound and bulletproof.

Rockustics. They sound surprisingly good for an outdoor speaker with decent bass. We've installed quite a few and have not had one fail yet.

The Niles rock speakers are also surprisingly good. RS5 have surprising amount of bass for the buck ( 5-600 retail ) and the RS8 has an unusual but flexable wiring scheme so it can be wired in mono with an in and out or as a stereo speaker with all channels summed internally.

I have had a surprising amount of Rockustics fail over time and I distrust their warantee which is liftetime --if all conditions are met. Who knows about this. I also dislike shipping something so heavy back to the facotry and paying for shipping back. Drivers are cheap and should be field upgradable. How difficult is it to place a bead of silicone on the speaker? As for sound, I always liked the Rock sound--for an outdoor speaker. I only sold Rocky Jrs and above.

For an alternative, Technomad made a reliable product that sounded fine albeit that the speaker we used had to have a sub to match the bass output of a Rockcustics. These had no industrical design but the plastic comes in so many colors that it can be placed in almost any location where there are some shrubs and blend in. I always found that any rock speaker was placed in a location where there were no other rocks. So you knew there was a speaker there.

Alan

I give the nod to Rockustics as well. Nice selection between rocks, planters to fit any client's needs.

Rockustics have been a staple for our installations for years.

We know they will sound excellent and perform as well in the long haul.

If it were up to me I'd spin off a model line or a new brand called...

EarthTones

no reason... except the prices seem to inch up steadily... year after year... Almost getting to the point of... Oh well...

I've made some great speakers... Perhaps..... Hmmm...

Sounds like Rockustics are a favorite.

I've used quite a few StereoStones. Classics to Gibraltars, planters, etc. Here's what I found. They have three tiers of quality, which I think they may call good, better best. The power handling goes up with the quality level. I think they are all lifetime warranty. I have found the "good" ones sort of ordinary but better or best I have liked much better. That's what I'd spec now unless client is a tin ear or on a budget.

My .02

i have to add a vote for Rockcustics, too. The planters sound great, and look like real terra cotta

We've done Rockustics and Niles.

I like the Niles because they're the first ones that don't look like dinasaur poop. They seem to blend in a little better with the colors of the landscape as well. Great quality sound.

Personally I prefer the Rockcoustics. I sell these more than any others and use them around my pool. The only cases of failure I have experinced has been due to improper placement (installer placed speaker so high pressure sprinkler sprayed directly on driver) and insect damage.

That said in this application and budget I would use two pair of the Niles for better coverage than a single pair of Rockcoustics.