When installing outdoor speakers, you will probably want to have the speaker cables neatly installed into wall and roof cavities to avoid them being an eyesore.

And, as always with speaker cable, don’t select extremely thin wire.

The nature of in-wall/ceiling wiring going possibly quite a distance to outdoor speakers means that you will probably need a substantial length. Thin wire can have significant internal resistance, and so could end up wasting a significant amount of power that should be driving your loudspeakers. So look for a reasonable trade-off between the cost and a reasonable gauge in your speaker cabling, remembering that it may also have to be folded around tight corners and into narrow spaces.

If your electronics are not far from where the speakers are going to be installed – say ten to fifteen metres – and the budget can stretch, you may want to consider a wireless solution, such as the KEF Wireless System. This provides a transmitter which plugs into the line level analogue audio outputs, and two receiver/amplifiers. Each is good for about fifty watts of power. But carefully measure the distances involved before committing to the thousand dollar plus expense involved with this.

Also see:
• Outdoor speakers
• Multi-room audio for the backyard
• Controlling outdoor audio