Niles RS8Si Granite Pro Weatherproof Rock Loudspeakers

I'm going to review two speakers in one here. The Niles RS8Si and the Niles OS5.3.I had never heard of Niles before, but after reading multiple reviews of the OS5.3 on Crutchfield, I decided to give a pair of them a try in my backyard. First of all, be realistic. These speakers are not going to produce a lot of bass. I did mount them under the eaves to help with that. It provides enough bass for background music, but if you are looking to power a party, then you need something more. So if you are looking for a good pair of speakers with good sound and are looking for quality and don't care if your eardrums are rattled, then the OS5.3 isn't a bad choice. I would probably give them 4 stars. But, I wanted a little more bass for the backyard. I looked around at subwoofers to see if that was an option. There aren't really a lot of choices and if you buy polk, they kinda trap you into buying their smaller speakers as well. That's when I came across this rock. I paired 2 of these with the speakers I'd already purchased and they will piss off the neighbors. The sound is great, the bass is great (buy an amplifier that will adequately power them). The receiver I'm using has 2 front L/R channels and a surround L/R channel that I'm using to power them all. I also see a lot of complaints about outdoor speaker sound and bass (again, you probably only need one of these to solve that problem, but two will definitely do it), but I wonder how many people doing this know anything about setting up their receivers. Spend some time adjusting the settings on your receiver, don't rely on the speakers alone to give you good sound.The one thing that might be a little lacking is the security on this speaker. It comes with a stake and some plastic wire that is meant to hold it in place. Anyone with more than 30 seconds or a good pocket knife will be able to circumvent this. If you are worried about them walking off, you may need to go to your local hardware store and improvise something better. There is an eye bolt on the bottom of this thing so you have some options. All in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase. Sorry crutchfield, but I bought these for $180 apiece on Amazon whereas you were charging $500 a pop. $270 a pair for the OS5.3, I bought an open box set on ebay for $115 with free shipping. Look around before you purchase and you won't be disappointed.

With an outdoor rock speaker you are not exactly going for audiophile sound quality - so let's set some realistic expectations. You want our outdoor speakers to be weatherproof and hold up. These are well built and look like they will do well - but I am a couple weeks in to them so I can only speculate. You also want speakers that you can play through a range of volumes from subtle background jazz in the garden to lively party music when you have a decent sized group of alcohol consuming friends over. And you want that music without crackling and distortion and without sounding like a tin can. These deliver very well in that area. I have gone through 3 pairs of simulated rock speaker and have 3 pairs of Bose outdoor speakers mounted around the deck and outside areas as well. These have the best sound quality of any of them, including decent bass for what they are. You would be hard pressed to buy a pair of weatherproof rock speakers that sound better than these. The one warning that another reviewer noted - they ARE NOT BROWN. The picture is very misleading. They are a dark gray color. This worked out better for me from a blending standpoint in my garden area but if you are counting on them having any brown at all you will be disappointed.

This speaker comes with a LIFETIME warranty from Niles Audio BUT Cliqngo is NOT an authorized deal so that warranty does not apply. Ciqngo only offers a 30 day warranty.

The real colour is MUCH MORE darker than it appears in the picture.

These are amazing! Great sound, but they are big. Extremely well constructed. If you are replacing speakers, this is a large speaker. I had 11 speakers in my backyard and replaced them with 7 of these and it's almost too much, but they sound amazing, even my neighbor thinks so.

I gave this two stars because these look like really awesome speakers. But here's the problem: the color that is described and represented is no where near the actual color of the speaker. "Shale Brown" contains no brown. It is a very, very gray colored speaker. Judging from the packaging that my speakers came in, these had been shipped and returned numerous times because there were at least 2-3 different shipping labels already on the boxes. If you are looking for gray, granite colored speakers, these may be the ticket. The price was awesome and it's hard to find this model for the same price in another color. But, no matter what the price, if they stick out like a sore thumb next to your other landscape rocks or softscape, it is not worth it. I love the brand, and I'm hoping I can find the right color for my application.