Stereos, recievers, what is it?

[stinkity stoink]

Hello. I am so confused about all the searching I have been doing on stereos.

I am in the finishing stages of my garage build and need a stereo system. I have a 24x26 garage with a loft on one side. I have speaker wires in all the cornes. On the loft side they are up and down. It is a total of 6 wires exiting the sheet rock.

I am going to be using this garage to work. . On occasion I like to crank up the music. I have no Idea what to buy.

I see 5.1 , 7.1, dvd, blue ray , blah blah blah. It is too much for my small brain.

Can any one suggest a system I can pull out of the box plug it in and basically have a radio , a cd player, and be able to hook my I pod up also. I might be interested in hooking it up to a t.v also. I guess the more accesories I can hook up the better.

Thanks for any input

 

[mdoolittle]

Any of these would be overkill for you

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002AKKFQW/?tag=atomicindus08-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001S2RD90/?tag=atomicindus08-20

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002IKKFU0/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[ket-tek]

You just need a stereo receiver if your not concerned with surround sound decoding or anything like that. A receiver is just meaning that it is an amplifier, source selector, and radio tuner in one unit.

To power multiple speakers you have to know the ohm loads of the speakers and amps to find how many you can parallel into a pair of outputs.

Or take the guesswork out and buy a speaker selector switch that allow multiple pairs to be hooked up to a single output and it will handle the ohm load safely..

So you could get a basic receiver and a single input / triple output 'auto matching' speaker switch. The safe low cost way to do it, and you will have radio, and also be able to hookup an ipod or cd player to also.

 

[WNYflyer]

Check out Yamaha's website for their micro systems. Looks like they have ones now that will run ipods, usb, cd's etc.

 

[crewchief888]

i have an old bookshelf system with a busted CD player.

my garage is unheated, and unisulated, so i dont want any electronics out there that are gonna get damaged.

when this one quits working, ive got another one, also with a busted CD player...

 

[bighig]

I just got a Harman Kardon model HK 3490 off ebay reconditioned for about $200. Simple receiver to use and hook up. 120 watts x 2 channels. You will have plenty of things to hook up to it, ( tv, subwoofers, ipod, dvd, etc. ) The power is unbelieveable, Harman Kardon receivers put out alot off power. They list True power so even a 45 watt or 60 watt x 2 channel will thump whatever speaker you hook up to it. You can add ONLY two sets of speakers, speakers 1 and speakers 2. That is a total of Only 4 speakers total. In my opinion you only need 1 set of speakers. ( left and right ) The other receiver is HK 3390 and it is an 80 watts x 2 channel receiver. If you use your ipod just hook the ipod jack it comes with. Again it is a simple and well built receiver. Good luck, the neighbors are gonna love you.

 

[54FordPanel]

The key to mine is an old Apple iMac computer. I have a wireless connection to my modem/router in the house.
That way I can have Pandora, which I am heavily addicted to. Also, I can stream internet talk radio. So I have my old computer, (which I can use as a computer for the web, etc) and run a jack into the receiver as a CD player. I can play iTunes, Pandora, internet radio, and regular radio when I have a urge to listen to commercials again.
The receiver is old, the speakers are old, but it sounds great. Being able to listen to commercial free tunes is better.

 

[BOONEY7750]

If you want to go 6 out you will need a seperate amp and receiver, or a switch and a conventional AVR (Audio Video Receiver) such as the ones other people mentioned. Your best bet may just be to by an older stereo receiver at a yard sale and run a switch. If you really want to do it right I agree on the Harmon Kardon stuff. I have an AVR247. HK uses very low resistance to push the sound. Most box store units sacerfice clariety by pumping huge watts. This makes these units less than ideal for a switch. I am not an expert so if someone wants to tear me apart go for it, but this is just my opinion based on the research I made when I was looking to buy.

 

[ChristopherLutz]

Ok - for what it's worth...here's my 2 cents:

- the 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 designations are only for home theatre set up. (The ".1 refers to the subwoofer and the number before that refers to the number of discrete speakers in addition to the sub)
- You DO NOT need anything like this in the garage - for hundreds of reasons.
- The ONLY thing you need/want for a garage is "stereo". (This is 2 discreet speakers and signals...same thing you get in a car - works with the "balance" functionality - move to the right the sound only comes from the right channel...back to the left, only from the left channel".

For a Garage, you aren't going to put your speakers in the acoustically correct location - instead, you will place them where they fit nicely. All of the home theatre specs above have VERY specific placement locations.

A Receiver is a unit that brings in signals and (usually) amplifies them so that they can be played over the speakers. High end systems will have seperate receivers and amplifiers...again, not important here.

Most receivers accept signals from multiple sources: Tape, CD, Record Player, iPod etc. The choices you have really depend on the age of the receiver and what was common today. If you're shopping new, CD and iPod will most certainly be included.

If you're looking for something more vintage - you can run a CD player into the older receiver (ditto with the iPod)...you'll just have to use the ports that were originally designed for something else (like a record player)

You didn't mention budget...speaker tech has come a long, long way. You can get monster sound out of small speakers today....whereas 25 years ago, the speaker cabinet also had to be big.

To be perfectly honest, you'd probably get plenty of sound out of this:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/iLive-Portable-Stereo-System-With-CD-Player-AM-FM-Radio-And-iPod-Dock/11008050

If you want something older for looks, nostalgia whatever, give us some more context and background - happy to help.

 

[1984GMC]

Pawn shop system...

Picking up a set of these next, I keep blowing out the smaller speakers.

 

[rodm1]

You could get a AC to DC converter and use a car stereo you have laying around. That is what I've done works well.

 

[dfndr]

Things have changed so much. That gorgeous high power Yamaha would have cost a fortune in the past. I've given so many large wonderful stereos and speakers to Salvation Army because of technology changes and space considerations it hurts to think about. What I've done now is gotten the mini TEAC unit from Costco. CD, AM-FM, Ipod, speakers and sub-woofer. Compact and sounds great, especially if you've been using air tools and shooting for a while. Hope this helps. Rick

 

[jvitez]

www.audiogon.com

If you know anyone in Canada, www.canuckaudiomart.com. This is generally more mid-fi stuff.

http://www.classicaudio.com/

 

[stinkity stoink]

Wow thanks for all the responses.
So what I am understanding is I don't need all this 5.1 ,7.1 crazyness. I allready have a 5 disc cd changer. So all I need is a reciever/ tuner and speakers. If I happen to want to have the speakers on in the loft area I need a speaker selector switch.

My budget is about $400 I was thinking. I don't have to spend it all though. I am not concrned about looks vintage or high end looking it doesn't matter. I just want loud clear music