Bowers & WilkinsAM-1 Architectural Monitor Weather-Resistant Loudspeaker for Patio, Garden, or Poolside, 1" Aluminum-Dome Tweeter, 5" Glassfibre Cone Midrange & Auxiliary Bass Radiator (Pair, White)

Wow! Just WOW! These replaced 20+ year old Bose 151s. The Bose were more or less “state-of-the-art” for outdoor speakers back in their day but I had grown unhappy with the bass response and the sometimes tinny highs. They served us well on our patio for years so I’m really not complaining or trashing them. Now the B&W AM-1s are up and running and a world of difference. My wife who is typically ambivalent about sound notices the difference in a positive way. I installed them myself in the same location as where the Bose had been so wiring still worked as did two of the mounting holes. The B&Ws require four screws so had to drill two more for each speaker which in concrete stucco is no easy chore but a new hammer drill and concrete screws made short work of that. Did notice before I bought these that one “professional installer” complained the speakers sagged. Well all I can say is he did something wrong. I could hang a pretty good sized side of beef on the mounts and can’t see how they would ever sag. The B&Ws join the B&Ws in my ATMOS theater and I’m totally sold on their line. Pure quality.UPDATE: After rereading the negative critical review concerning potential sagging of the speaker I see that the writer was referring to the TORX bolt that actually connects the speaker to the bracket. Thier contention is that with heavy use the TORX bolt will loosen causing the speaker to sag on the mounting arm. I doubled checked mine and they are as tight as I can get them and show no evidence of loosening. No sure of what “heavy use” is but we listen to a wide variety of music at moderate levels so speaker case vibration seems minimal if at all.

Good sound, impressed!

Ordered some speakers to replace the 20+ year old AudioSource speakers that were there when we got the house. Was tired of their weak tinny sound. Pool part coming up and speakers not here.....found these speakers on Amazon plus onsale for $250 off. Sold! Cancelled my delayed order and glad I did.Install was a pain......had a ton of trouble finding studs through the stucco around the door frame. Had to move them out which is probably a blessing. Wire run was garbage, but I had a pool party on Saturday so no time to make it look pretty. I've never drilled into the outside of a stucco home.... originally had 2" drywall screws. Nope. Not long enough. Tried 3" and it barely reached the studs. Had to get 4" for a nice firm fit. Stud finder was not accurate as well so right side was right on. Left side I had to angle them to get a firm grip.Sound.....I heard instruments, stereo effects, and even voices I never heard before in songs. The opening of Pain it back from the Rolling Stones.....WOW. Never heard it like that before. I am not a true audiophile, but I do have a decerning enough hearing to now good speakers when I heard them.Ignore the stucco.... its dirty as well and we just patched the 20 test drills trying to find a stud LOL. Next step is cleaning the area where the old speakers were at.

I did a ton of research reading reviews both from audio publications to customer reviews. All spoke highly of these. It was between these and the Definitive 6500's. The Definitive's had quite a few reviews of speaker failure in a short amount of time so that pushed my decision even more to the B&W's.The house I purchased already had outdoor speakers mounted but they were 20 year old Speakercraft's which sounded ok but kind of flat in my opinion. I wanted something with more lower end bass to fill in. These do have more bass & overall I'm happy with the purchase but they do not have the same punch as if you had an actual subwoofer nearby. I used to take my JBL bluetooth Extreme speaker outside and it has a nice punch to it way more than the Speakercrafts so was wanting to avoid having to take out a portable speaker when I already have wired ones so these seem to come a lot closer.Mounting these I had some concerns as the mounting bracket is fairly small and when screwing into the wall did not want to hit the speaker wire and also did not want to cut too much length off the existing speaker wire in case in the future I replaced these with something else, the AM-1's do not need a lot of wire from the wall. Fortunately, I was able to cut some wire and force the excess under the cover in the mounting bracket.No doubt these are pricey but they are worth it, have nice clean and deep sound. They look nice and sleek with the propriety mounting system. I hope they last 20 years like the Speakercrafts did.

I’ve installed hundreds of speakers. The mount, mounting hardware, screw hole locations, wiring, and terminals are the most absurd of any outdoor speaker. The mounts make it hard to center the speaker sideways. The terminals create a ton of breaks in continuity and eventually additional unnecessary points of failures. The screw holes so close to the stupid wiring plate make putting a screw through a speaker wire highly likely. The engineers behind this need to stop doing drugs.

Can't speak completely to longevity or complete waterproofing, but so far, so good. I looked at Bose, Sonos, Kicker, etc., and landed on the Bowers and Wilkins.Let me give you the TL:DR on reviews... These are not a comparable speaker to the aforementioned brands. They cost more, because they're worth more, and B&W is playing a different game. I ordered a set of used from Amazon, which ended up missing quite a few pieces. I had a chat with support and provided them with the part numbers and prices from Encompass, and they refunded me the difference. I hooked them up to a simple two-channel 85W 8Ohm amp and have fallen in love again with my garage and deck.They look stunning and unique, have an excellent sound profile, wide range, great directional output, and were definitely worth the money.As for the longevity and weatherproofing, I will update after they've been through a few more Iowa seasons.