Outdoor speakers enliven summer parties
David Mink - Gatehouse Plus

There are a thousand reasons you could use them: patio parties, Memorial Day weekend festivities, Super Bowl cookouts, pool parties for your kids, garden gatherings, or just for those days where you'd rather be outside in the shade. Any way you cut it, some outdoor speakers would certainly come in handy.

Just 10 years ago you'd have been out of luck. For outdoor entertainment, you'd have needed to drag those heavy, bulky cabinet speakers out your patio door and onto the deck. Forget about closing the door, though; you risk chopping those speaker wires in half. And rain? Forget about it.

Not today, though. Especially not with the wide variety of quality outdoor speakers available today. Picture a soundsystem permanently set up in your garden that your guests never see. Music floats from ceramic frogs, angelic statues and fake tree stumps. Place them along the pool, around the patio or under your favorite hammock. Easy to install and entirely weather proof - even in the most extreme conditions - these high quality speakers will keep your garden bouncing for years to come.

Outdoor Speaker Depot (outdoorspeakerdepot. com) also offers Rock speakers. Lifelike and practically invisible, these speakers provide high-fidelty sounds in the most adverse weather conditions - rain, snow, sleet or blazing sun. With a Teflon sealing, they are assured to stay dry in even the wettest conditions.

Pick from a variety of different rock styles, like sandstone, flint, soapstone, lodestone or quartz. Glowing rocks add ambience to a nighttime party, while pathlighting rocks provide two functions: sounding great and lighting the way to your door.

The company's standard speakers start anywhere between $70 and $100, while their subwoofers start around $200. If you'd rather forgo the subterfuge and get direct speakers, the site offers those as well. No matter what they look like, you can't beat a speaker that can take a direct hit from a waterhose and keep pumping out the jams.