I turned my shower into a surround sound system — here’s how

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I turned my shower into a surround audio system — hither'southward how

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The summer months provide aplenty opportunity for the best outdoor speakers and the best waterproof speakers to practise their thing. Namely, providing great audio while indelible unexpected introductions to pools, oceans and unseasonable rainfalls.

But waterproof speakers are also well-suited to somewhere much closer to home, as I learned after recently acquiring two JBL Charge five speakers. With these, I could finally have quality audio somewhere it's never been (in my flat, anyway): a multi-speaker setup for my shower.

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If this sounds dumb, remember that the modern bathroom is where sound quality goes to dice. All that ceramic, glass, metal and plastic, in a relatively bars infinite and with nothing only a few towels for sound absorption? Y'all might get a briefly entertaining reverb effect for your bathroom singing but if you like playing real music while shaving or showering, as I do, the echo effect is a spoiling one.

That's why I've started seeing bathroom acoustics equally a claiming to overcome, and while my pint-sized UE Wonderboom two has made many decent attempts, multiple speakers would inevitably be the way forward. But traditional stereo and multiroom speakers tend to exist neither wireless nor waterproof, a potentially lethal combination for the forgetful or clumsy — of which I'yard both.

Finding the right Bluetooth speakers for the job

The Charge 5 is much amend suited to bathrooms. As it'due south a fully wireless, battery-powered Bluetooth speaker, I can put each unit anywhere without tripping and/or electrocuting myself on an errant cable. It'southward fully waterproof too, upwardly to the IP67 standard — plenty that I could leave it soaking in the bathroom for 30 minutes, permit lone splash it with the showerhead, with no sick effects.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Then there's the Charge v'south very literal political party play tricks. Its PartyBoost Way lets you sync up playback between up to 100 compatible JBL speakers, and to exercise and so at the touch of a button. Or up to 100 buttons. If y'all're using a more modest set of two, equally I was, you tin can alternatively create a stereo pair via JBL'southward mobile app.

This combination of waterproofing and easy group meant "building" my shower sound system took mere seconds. My only, very brief consideration was where exactly to identify each speaker — I wanted an enveloping, surround sound-like effect to overpower and cake out echoing from the tiles. Eventually I settled with one perched on the shower fitting itself and 1 at the back of the bathtub.

I've got one JBL Charge 5 near the shower head, and the other on the opposite side. (Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

And it worked! The Charge v is a smooth-sounding speaker by itself, just with 2 working in tandem I'd finally found a setup that stood upwards to all the acoustic harshness of water and echoing. PartyBoost Manner kept the music utterly in sync, though stereo pairing allowed for the more intricate-sounding tunes. The former simply plays the aforementioned mix out of every linked speaker, at the aforementioned volume, which in practice fabricated the rear speaker more of a backing performer to the front end speaker'south lead merely due to my ears being closer to the latter.

Fifty-fifty so, at that place was a gigantic pace up in clarity from using a solo Wonderboom two, and ultimately I still achieved the immersive effect I was hoping for. Sonic properties of bathroom structure materials, consider yourselves vanquished.

(Image credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Not perfect — only information technology works

I'll admit there are some shortcomings to the system. For instance, I can keep the forepart speaker close enough to the ideal head height, simply my lack of shelving ways the 2d Charge 5 needs to sit down on the rim of my tub — closer to my ankles than my ears. Perhaps a couple of hooked suction cups and some stiff string could be fashioned into a inexpensive wall-mounting kit.

The speakers themselves certainly aren't inexpensive, totalling about $360 for a pair. And unless you accept ane of the all-time waterproof phones, your in-shower playback controls are limited to the Charge v's onboard play/intermission and volume buttons.

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

Nevertheless, I'm sticking with my new aquatic audio setup, and if you've found your own bathroom saps all the fun out of music, I'd recommend a similar arroyo. I'm smitten with the Charge five merely there are cheaper, fully waterproof speakers that can form stereo pairs or form PartyBoost groups, like the JBL Flip five.

• More: They're definitely not waterproof, but cheque out the all-time turntables

James is currently Hardware Editor at Rock Newspaper Shotgun, just before that was Audio Editor at Tom'south Guide, where he covered headphones, speakers, soundbars and anything else that intentionally makes noise. A PC enthusiast, he likewise wrote calculating and gaming news for TG, usually relating to how difficult information technology is to observe graphics card stock.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/i-turned-my-shower-into-a-surround-sound-system-heres-how

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