Garage tunes

King Nothing · Mar 16, 2017

What do you guys have for tunes in your shop/garage? Looking for a simpler alternative to the 25 year old semi-functional home theater receiver I'm using now.

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dogzbody1 · Mar 16, 2017

I spent $20 on an early '80 2 channel receiver on CL, had the local Audio Shop clean the switches, tune the analog tuner fix a bulb (about $60) and wired it to a pair of bookshelf speaker I had lying about. Hard to be and I love the look. Had I not had the speakers one of the new Bluetooth speaker and my iPhone would have been the way to go as the speaker can go with you to the beach, park, track etc. But I'm a sucker for late 70s early 80s audio. Oh, and a trustworthy Audio Shop is a big help, we have a great one in Racine, WI - by that name (No Financial Interest).
Let us know what you do!
Steve
Steve

Lhorn · Mar 16, 2017

I have a Sony iPod/iPad dock that sounds pretty good. Similar but cheaper than the Bose type deal. Sounds good enough to me. I listen to podcast sometimes. I also have an old stereo receiver hooked up to bookshelf speakers and a CD player.

racinfarmer · Mar 16, 2017

A pair of old computer speakers and bring my laptop out to plug in. Can listen/watch pretty much anything I want on there from "live" Foo Fighters to Jalopnik.

jloehlein · Mar 16, 2017

I have the internet and a TV with an Amazon Fire Stick or Google Chromecast. I use Pandora for music and can watch YouTube videos or shows on Amazon Prime.

Ray-CA · Mar 16, 2017

Old garage sale am/fm receiver with a jack hooked up to the cd input for my iPod. I get three or four good fm stations and when that gets boring, plug in the iPod.

Ray

Moose364 · Mar 16, 2017

I have a Yamaha A/V receiver 2 early 80s Technic 3 way with 10" woofers Hanging in the front corners and 2 Klipsch 3 way tower hanging in the rear corners, 50" pioneer plasma TV Playstation3 and wireless internet and 80s rock and roll playing

JBudd2 · Mar 16, 2017

I-pad with internet wifi from the house. Hooked to old Onkyo receiver and playing through a pair of Bose 901's I bought on e-bay. I can hear over almost any machine in the shop. Sounds great and I can blow the roof off when I am in the mood.

M35A2 · Mar 16, 2017

I have a $150 refurbished computer off Amazon with a wall mounted keyboard and monitor. I listen via YouTube, pandora, iTunes or whatever. I also have PDF manuals for all my toys on it and it gets lots of use in the shop.

ecotec · Mar 16, 2017

I have a Milwaukee m12/m18 Bluetooth speaker. I wish it was louder. It sounds nice, though.

bwringer · Mar 17, 2017

I have a set of old but great-sounding computer speakers plugged into a Bluetooth receiver.

I walk out into the garage, turn on Bluetooth on my phone, let it connect to the receiver, open a streaming app like Pandora (or sometimes Spotify or whatever), and drop the phone onto a wireless Qi charging pad nearby.

If I need to take a photo or answer the phone, there are no wires in the way.

NYBODYMAN · Mar 17, 2017

I just use my phone with a blue tooth speaker from Bed Bath and Beyond.

dirt_dobber · Mar 17, 2017

a great Yamaha receiver / tuner with 12 stations presets.
Start off the day listening to Sports talk then switch over to Classic Rock for an hour or so then tune to Classic Country and end the day with Spiritual Songs.

thickhead · Mar 17, 2017

JBudd2 said:
I-pad with internet wifi from the house. Hooked to old Onkyo receiver and playing through a pair of Bose 901's I bought on e-bay. I can hear over almost any machine in the shop. Sounds great and I can blow the roof off when I am in the mood.

Winner, winner! Probably sounds awesome.

I use a bluetooth speaker for now, but plan is for a second hand Bose wave radio hooked to an iPad full of music.

Keel · Mar 17, 2017

desktop hooked up to the main computer network in the house and a 2 bay nas drive with all music on it.. and the desktops high end sound card is digital out to the receiver, And out to 8 speakers.. or my wireless headphones..

RobSmith · Mar 17, 2017

Struth ! all these fandangled up market sound systems. I have four car speakers in the corners of the shed. oops sorry Garage. they are fed by a car / CD player that is tuned to an AM ABC radio station. when I'm being lazy it's interesting information. When I'm busy it's just background noise.

maxpower_hd · Mar 17, 2017

I have this old Sherwood receiver. I got it for $30 bucks off CL about 10 years ago. It sounds better and is easier to use in my opinion than the digital ones. The light to illuminate the dial did recently go out but not a big deal. I also plug in my tablet with a cord to the AUX line for TuneIn Radio, Pandora, etc. Crappy pic but it's what I happen to have.

maxpower_hd · Mar 17, 2017

RobSmith said:
Struth ! all these fandangled up market sound systems. I have four car speakers in the corners of the shed. oops sorry Garage. they are fed by a car / CD player that is tuned to an AM ABC radio station. when I'm being lazy it's interesting information. When I'm busy it's just background noise.

I used to have a car receiver attached to a 12V transformer but I've updated to something neater. LOL

Dave Nelson · Mar 17, 2017

Marantz 2230 I purchased 43 years ago, Panasonic 8 track player purchased 15 years ago nos still in the box. I have a 8 track player in my Camaro, probably 200 tapes in the garage, yes I'm old school.

Showkey · Mar 17, 2017

Sonos...........when I moved sold all the old stereo and vintage stereo stuff. Switched to Sonos through out the home, screen porch, shop and garage. Can stream any radio station, podcast, pandora, Amazon radio, iHeartRadio, iTunes, sat radio and my purchased CDs are now on iTunes to any room, at any time each with a different program if needed. I easy enough the wife is able to make it work. Controlled from the iPad, phone or computer.

Eslader · Mar 17, 2017

I used to have an ancient boom box from the early 80's. Now I just use a portable bluetooth speaker permanently plugged in to a charger. I don't even have to touch it. I just walk into my garage and tell my phone to start playing music.

glentre · Mar 17, 2017

I also use my iPad with a Bluetooth speaker and Pandora in my current attached 2 car garage. My new 3 car detached is about 75 ft away and we can get wifi reception there now before the garage doors are installed but are unsure about the reception when the building is completed.

I'll be back looking at this thread for ideas for another alternative if our wifi doesn't reach the finished garage.

Glen

big_bake · Mar 17, 2017

What is the internet situation in your garage?

James-W · Mar 17, 2017

A buddy of mine has an XM Radio in his garage which he really likes. All I have is a small boom box that I seldom turn on unless I am doing something that isn't noisy. What I am getting at is, if I am sawing wood, using the planer, or the router, or whatever other equipment that makes noise, then I don't turn it on because I can't hear it anyway. I can plug in a MP-3 player into the boom box with a short cable and then I can listen to the music on the MP-3 player which is really nice. But I tend to listen to NPR more than anything else.

PhantomEB · Mar 17, 2017

New Sony basic receiver with inputs for every form of music (I am strictly satellite radio or iPod when friends come over) wired to two of the biggest speakers I found on kijiji. Cabinets were built 'around' these suckers.....36" tall 16" wide.

Still gotta wire up the other channel to some outdoor speakers for deck time.

Yes my neighbors hate me.

hard12catch33 · Mar 17, 2017

I have an old Pioneer 2 channel receiver and two old MTX 10" floor speakers mounted horizontally above my garage door. Sounds great whether door is open or closed and people from the street have no idea they're there.

timbitca · Mar 17, 2017

I currently use a clock radio to listen to the radio in the garage. Will be upgrading my work bench this spring and I hope to find an older stereo to stuff into one of the cabinets with my computer to replace and upgrade the sound. Hopefully find one I can integrate with the computer.

Burb · Mar 17, 2017

I use a Bluetooth soundbar/sub combo, and either plug my MP3 player into it(which also has an FM tuner) or I just stream from my phone or tablet to the sound bar

Bondo · Mar 17, 2017

King Nothing said:
What do you guys have for tunes in your shop/garage? Looking for a simpler alternative to the 25 year old semi-functional home theater receiver I'm using now.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ayuh,... I blew the bundle, 'n bought a Bose Wave radio,...

I Love it,... Huge sound, outa a tiny box,...

Got 1 in the garage, 1 in the livin' room, 'n a 3rd at the waterfront patio,...

maxpower_hd · Mar 17, 2017

A guy at work has one of these Bose Sound Link we listen to there. He links it to his I Phone. It sounds really good even in a huge truck garage. I was thinking of getting one myself for when he isn't around.

https://www.bose.com/en_us/products...e_iii_silver?perfsourceid=MC113165&src=K22350

rzims · Mar 17, 2017

Like some of the others, I have an older receiver I got on the clearance shelf at best buy for 50 bucks plugged in to a couple of bookshelf speakers.
I bring the kindle out and stream music though my Amazon Prime account or plug in the ipod or if there's a Sharks game on I have the radio tuned to that...

blacksporty · Mar 17, 2017

Wife got me a Bose Soundlink III for Christmas (bluetooth portable speaker). I would have never spent the $$$ on myself for this but I have to admit it is pretty awesome. Great sound and more than loud enough for my 3 car garage plus I can take it anywhere.

Eslader · Mar 17, 2017

glentre said:
I'll be back looking at this thread for ideas for another alternative if our wifi doesn't reach the finished garage.

Glen

It's all about signal strength. I run a multi-antenna router that I resisted buying for a long time because $200 for a router seemed insane. But now instead of losing wifi just by going out to the porch, I'm still connected to my wifi 3 houses down.

If a higher-end router doesn't work, you can put a wifi access point closer to the garage. If that doesn't work, grab a coffee can and build a cantenna

Angry welder · Mar 17, 2017

Car stereo powered by a used computer supply with 6*9 speakers mounted in the bottom of the box. With this I can use my phone for Mp4's or Pandora or whatever.

Scud67 · Mar 17, 2017

A Ryobi One+ boom box with input for ipod and SiriusXM tuner.... can pretty much listen to anything I want, and it sounds good/ plenty loud enough.

EricP · Mar 17, 2017

My shop tunes are a craigslist affair with nearly everything picked up on the cheap. Several hundred watts of power from two receivers pushing four speakers (Yamaha and Klipsch Heresy speakers) and two powered subs. "Flying" the speakers keeps them out of my way and I like the way the sound floats across the room. Adding a Bluetooth a receiver that puts out analog signals straight to the receivers opened the door to stream music from my Ipod Nano or smart phone. The system sounds very nice, accepts streaming media, is out of the way, and didn't break the bank.

CJ7VFR · Mar 17, 2017

This is a great thread!

In my garage and shed I have old, single speaker AM/FM radios that have a cassette player in them! I have had these two radios for at least 30 years now. When I am in the garage or shed I am normally working on things and making a bunch of noise, so I don't really need any super sound systems. I just want background music.

In my basement I have some speakers mounted up in the ceiling, and those are powered by an amplifier that has both an iPod interface and a Bluetooth receiver hooked to the amp. I can either hook my iPhone directly up to the iPod interface, or I can just stream the music on the iPhone to the Bluetooth receiver.

I also have a speaker switch box that the amp is hooked to so the amp can also power a set of patio/deck speakers I have outside. I can have the speaker switch box running power to my basement speakers, the patio/deck speakers, or both at the same time.

I added the speaker switch box and patio/deck speakers mostly for my wife. She likes to sit out on the deck with her laptop when she has work to do when she is home.

I put a few receptacles in the basement to hook the entire amp/speakers/iPod interface/Bluetooth receiver/speaker selector box items to, and those receptacles get turned on by a single switch right inside the basement door that leads out to the yard. This way, my wife just has to flip a single switch and she can listen to her music from just about any device she wants.

Jim

braidmeister · Mar 17, 2017

I had an old deck from the house in the shop, but stepper motors (on the CNCs) stepped all over the AM and new shop metal siding made it hard to pull in the FM. Adapting an MP3 was a kluge so...

Now I am using one of these ($34): SanDisk Clip Sport with 64GB mini SD card (because screw iTunes) along with one of these ($59):Anker Soundcore

It's got a GREAT sound and is totally portable. Speaker is waterproof-ish and has internal battery that can charge phone etc. Clip Sport lasts 25hrs before recharge.

btdobie · Mar 17, 2017

Speakers came of the clearance rack at Menard's. I looked for several months trying to find a good cheap 70-80s stereo, but ended up getting a new Yamaha at 30% off by combining a discount coupon with a gift card promotion on AWD.

Laptop is also handy for looking up information online, BSing on GJ, or ordering parts/tools.

uscarry45 · Mar 17, 2017

i use a receiver i bought off off craigslist-- i really like the ability to hook up both an external AM and separate FM antenna -- I am doing pretty good with inside antenna but I think I could get some more stations by installing an outside one.

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