Stereo in the Garage

[hill7410]

Looking around for some speakers inside and a couple outside, any recommendations of a certain brand that you guys like? Also any receivers out there that are good for inside the garage?

[IFallsRon]

I have a generic combo receiver/tape deck/turntable in my back garage that I picked up for maybe $5 at a church garage sale. I can turn it up enough to bother the neighbors with little distortion.

[Sandmannd]

I just have an old stereo from the mother in law. It's in the back of the garage and you can blast it out the front enough where I don't need anymore speakers. Just get a cheapy as they get full of sawdust and everything else.

[pisces]

What's a "turntable"?

[IFallsRon]

Dude needs a turntable to get his garage hip hop on.

[BoxMN]

 Originally Posted By: pisces

What's a "turntable"?

That there is funny. It's also funny when my Grandson asked me why we "dial" a phone number He also asked what a "record" is, ha! I am getting old indeed!

Oh yeah, the little kids don't know what Gilligan's Island is.

Sorry, to answer the question, I have an old Sony receiver (1990) with Monster Cable and Klipsch speakers. Its a thumper, but takes up lots of room and gets hot

[pisces]

My neighbor has one of those Bose Wave radios in his garage and it sounds great at both low and high volumes, Might think about this option (with CD player). I'll suggest maybe that the days of receiver and remote speakers is gone. I guess this doesnt do anything for your outside speakers though, so maybe not right for you.

[CJH]

I would go cheap for the garage. As mentioned previously, they are exposed to alot things they aren't meant to be. If you want to spend the money, outdoor speakers would probably last the longest.

[Shack]

Ah, a thread I can relate to in a big way.

I have loved music since (I guess) I was a baby. Most have fathers that lived for fishing, I have a father that lived for music and mostly rock and roll. From my fathers 1000 plus record collection, to his hundreds of cassette tapes and now C/D’s, I have lived all most every aspect of rock, heavy metal and other weird stuff my father introduced me to as a child. Yes, yes even Frank Zappa. The reason I bring this up, is I believe this has lead myself to building one of the best radio systems I could in my garage. My father also loved music outside working in his yard and the neighbors learn to live with it. It is little things in life like a garage stereo, that people like myself do to bring back nostalgia from the old days and blow your old man away when he comes over. In more ways than one.

I do agree with the one thing people are saying so far, start out cheap. I have bought most of my system components from pawn shops and labor trades for other services. If you do not protect your unit, it will have major effects on quality of sound and longevity of the system. Dust, dirt, moisture, vibration and the once in a blue moon, inevitable massive damage situation. I always have run my receivers to the max with speaker wattage. This I have found can lead into premature failure of a receiver in a garage setting if it is left unprotected. So protection is key. Via it be a old towel or a custom build cabinet, protection is a major thing to invest in for all of the components.

In the end, it comes down to how far does one want to go for music in the garage. Is it a simple boom box or a built in month long project. I took the built in month long project. I spend way more time than most in my garage and again, I love music. We entertain people in our garage from birth day parties, large get together and even a couple of large keggers now over the last couple years. With still a lot of smokers in the family and friends circle, I will not allow smoking in the house. This leads everyone out to the garage. One word of caution, the better the system in your garage, the more your buddies seem to find reason to pop over from time to time.

Here is the hart of the system. It consists of (From the top) DVD, dual cassette tape player, receiver and 5 disc C/D player

. I built a cabinet just for the system. I never liked having it on a shelf.

Note how I made it slide in and out for easy access to the rear area.

This shows what I did to conceal all the wires needed. All wires for my system are in the walls and only a small areas of wire show, because of the need to

Here is an image of one of four large speakers I have in garage. My walls are high, so I tilted the speakers down to direct sound to floor area.

This image shows what is needed to hold these huge things up. Note the speaker wire going up into attic. Please do not note the cob webs (LOL)

Here some more images of the speakers. I think it is 16" speakers on the front wall and 12" on the back. I placed the higer quilty speakers on the front wall, so the best quality sound shoots to the work bench area.

The next faze of Shackbash’s garage experience was visual entertainment. Once I installed the sounds system, I figured what could I do to make it better. Well, visual came to mind. I wanted to make the visual experience the same as the sound experience. Where ever you are in the garage I wanted to see T.V… I was given 2 T.V.’s which I had to perform light repairs on and had one extra sitting down stairs. Intergraded the sounds system, T.V. and my satellite T.V into the garage . The major plus I found (other than the sound and feel of football games out their) was my satellite T.V. package included Serious Radio and I fell in love with this right away. I almost do not play any tapes or C/D’s anymore, just satellite radio. Here we go.

Here is the main T.V.

Here the other two T.V.'s

All the T.V.'s feed off of the same signal. I ran coaxle wire to all of the. I figure bars do this, why can't I.

Here is a couple images of why I have done this. Its a little dirty, but she is my pride and joy.

Well, I have to go now and get ready. We are having a Texas hold'em tourny on Sunday for the game out in the garage. It should be good times.

P.S.,

When we where the only people living out this way, I loved mowing the grass and being able to hear music over the mower. I have been told with the all the garage doors open, the music can be heard form a 1/2 mile away. LOL

Good luck.

[jwhjr]

Now that's a garage! Nice setup shackbash!

[fishin58]

Nice setup, but was that a Zima i saw in the background!

[hoggs222]

It looks like one of the metal bud bottles. Wow, I haven't had zima in quite some time..........Thank God!

[Sandmannd]

Holy smoke shack, that is quite the setup. Nice job.

[Shack]

Sorry guys, I have not had a Zima since High School .

Thanks guys. I could have done some things other ways, but I figure it will do and this could help with ideas on music in the garage for other people. I feel the garage is much more than just a place to store cars and what not. It can be used as an office, work place for both automotive and wood working and a place to entertain.