I use a 40GB iPod and Altec Lansing self powered speakers with a sub woofer. It isn't the quality of my main stereo, but it's plenty good for my shop. I placed a block of wood over the sub port to tighten the bass. I paid $100 5 years ago. CompUSA now has them on sale for $49 and a Grand Opening of a CompUSA advertised them for $39 2 weeks ago. My CD changer just gathers dust now.
Dave
One word: DirecTV
I live in the midst of numerous trees, no yard at all. Still could put up the satellite antenna and get a fine picture.
Steve
I would do a combination of suggestions. The Duke has it right with the media player, and XM is a must. I've had it in the car for about 4 months now and don't know how I lived without it. Anyway, I would find an old PC, Get a wireless adapter for it and some decent speakers and put that in the shop. That way you could stream music off the net, or talk to us here. You can even stream XM, albeit with less quality. If you do decide to rip the CD's somewhere, spend the extra $ for a second hard drive and a RAID controller so you can mirror the drives. 300 CD's is a lot of rippin', if the drive goes you're back to square one. For the ~$125 difference it's cheap insurance. I just built one of these for a friend, so let me know if you want details. iTunes has great radio, and it's free.
-jim
yard sale 20 bucks detached speakers am fm cassette. cheep sealed unit keeps dust out ok. if it quits i will throw it out and find another yard sale. a nice reciever like you mention will have vents in it to allow heat to escape and will allow dust ti get in. IE it wont last too long. the cheep ones have no vents because they dont have enough power to build up heat. but they sound fine for the shop.
skeez
--Yeah, I'm of the gotta-have-sounds tribe. I've been making do with generic boombox with tape/cd/FM for years. Latest addition: Woot had cordless rechargable headphones for sale for $39.- a pair the other day. Now I'll be able to keep the beat when the power tools are turned on.
PC with Creative audigy card and ATI all in wonder 9600. 65 GB of High quality recording. Outputs to Pioneer surround hand me down from the house. Ancient set of 4 Sansui 12" speakers that still rock. Dishnetwork feed including Sirius and cd quality music, DSL for streaming and s-video output to an old 20" TV for watching the Packers. Or are you referring to the Strat and the 1965 Fender twin reverb to which comfort would you be referring ;-) I guess you could say the shop is media enabled....
snip shop audio stuff....
I had a series of boom boxes which all died sawdusty deaths. now I have an ipod. I have the earbuds tucked into the foam inserts of a cheap set of hearing protectors, which seems to improve the sound quality a bit, and the cables routed underneath my shirt, which seems to be enough to keep them from getting snagged on stuff. the ipod mini is small enough to not be too bulky in my pocket, but today I'd probably get a nano.
Line-level audio run from the primary system (via 75-ohm RG6/U) room-2 output to a 25 year old Kenwood 35 wpc integrated amp (KA-3500) feeding a pair of Yamaha bookshelf speakers.
Feeding the main system is a pair of Sony CDP-400 changers configured for random-play alternating between players for no delay between songs. 700 discs at approx 10 songs per for a 7000 song random play catalog (30% jazz, 70% rock).
E, so you finally upgraded that junk rack mount. Guess I'm gonna have to stop out with my chisels and fire up that tormek. b
Most of the time, background 'anything' will do, but when Offspring, Ramones or Idol come along, I want to be able to 'jack it'!
When I sit down to listen, I'm a lot pickier than that..... truth is, I listen to anything done well. Wasn't it Glen Miller who said: "When it sounds good, it *is* good."? (punctuation is a bitch here...)
In the garage at home, I have a used $30 Ebay bookshelf style stereo. The speakers are hung on the wall about 12' apart. The box is AM, FM, cassette and CD/mp3. I bought it for the CD changer but rarely use it. The whole unit is mounted high enough on the wall that it doesn't interfere with anything so the remote is a very handy feature.
On the job I rarely use a radio unless I'm doing something that doesn't require much thinking or if there's a Chiefs or KU game on. In those cases I use a small walkman FM radio with earbuds.
I've worked around a lot of guys using the various portable job site radios. I'd say 80% are the Dewalt but I think that's just because they were the first ones around. They sound okay and are sure portable enough to move around. Everytime I see one I have the urge to toss it down the stairs to see if the commercials are true.:-)
Mike O.
Any more 'live' Stones concerts lately?
Dude...I *never* joke around...
I appreciate your response. I'm a bit surprised that it wasn't mentioned earlier because it is a legitimate viewpoint. Distraction of any kind can be dangerous. For instance, when I do a full 1-1/2" bullnose (That bit is 'captive'..i.e. no wiggle room) around an island top for somebody, I concentrate to the point where I will lock the shop-door before I start, lest I be startled by somebody's arrival. I'm pretty diligent when it comes to safety. I will NEVER play air guitar with a router in my hands..but I have been known to do that with a sander.
My silent pieces come in big chunks in the summer at the shore of the Bay Of Fundy. 3 days to de-compress before opening that first Keith's beer of the season (I do not consume any alcohol during the rest of the year) and no sounds other than the diesel of a fisherman setting out his lobster traps, a bit of surf, and the fluffing up of the duvet because it's bed-time.
Yes, the music should be 'background" without being distracting. It is too easy to screw up a project or have an accident when not paying full attention.
That said, I listen to classic rock as background. Part of the reason to escape to the workshop is so that I can listen to my music without my wife complaining.
I use iTunes as my music source, running on a computer in the next room with speaker wires passing through the wall and some indoor/outdoor speakers that seem less bothered by saw dust. I have about 300 CDs ripped into my library so I put iTunes on a random shuffle most of the time and let it do it's thing.
An old clock radio turned low to 90.9 FM (in Detroit) WRCJ, I think ... classical radio all day, classical jazz all night.
It is background to my thinking, not competition. In fact, it's seldom even turned on.
I can ignore it when I need to think clearly but it's 'there' when I have an idle moment not requiring any sort of focus. When I'm doing any sort of concentrated thinking (figuring flow rate in fpm of my DC, for instance), it gets turned off.
I don't go to the basement to listen to music. I go there to make shavings and dust.
Bill
snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote in news:1133378351.001919.134440 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:
The Nano works great! The days just flew along, working in the shop.
Then I had to go back to work. At work.
Patriarch
Yep, got radiant heat too. Full time out there starting 1-3-06
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