TECH Home/garage stereo system
- Thread starter joekan
- Start date
Intestinal Fortitude
Have Faith
Hi
You would be surprised and amazed what you can find at garage sales
Macgyver
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yep was going to say the same thing.
You’ll need an amplifier too. Also, most systems are 5 speakers these days. Expect to pay at least $400 for a halfway decent setup
wobble
Veteran Member
There are some really nice Bluetooth speakers with amazing sound and long battery life that you could use your cell or computer to play anything from internet/HD Radio/any of the streaming services.
I've had a pair of really nice Ultimate Ears that are far from top of the line and still sound incredible. I bought them several years ago..maybe 2018 for about $200 for the pair.
You can put them anywhere...
I've had a pair of really nice Ultimate Ears that are far from top of the line and still sound incredible. I bought them several years ago..maybe 2018 for about $200 for the pair.
You can put them anywhere...
Go vintage, with that Pro look.
A salvage car stereo with half the display out, mounted through the side of your toolbox with speakers in an ammo crate, hanging from the ceiling.
Be sure to cut all the holes while drinking heavily, make patch bezels out of some kind of scrap.
Screw those up too, hide the sins with copious amounts of RTV.
Wiring, mismatched bits from the rats nest of, "don't know what this wire does...cut it out". There should be a wire-nut every coupla feet...on every wire, no crimp connecters allowed.
Powered by an old battery and cheep ass charger. Wires held on the posts with crappy chicom vice grips.
Tech notes: No matching screws allowed,
wire connections may be twisted with electrical tape,
antenna should have a bad connection such that it goes out in the middle of a good song requiring you to crawl out from under the car to smack radio twice...just in time to hear the song end.
If you find an OEM radio with the traveling bar display, make sure the bar is broken. When a station fades out, you have to blindly search for the next best. When you $#it some friend into helping pull a 200lb transmission (bench press style, no floor jack) the first thing they do is mess with the radio and you spend 10 minutes trying to find that station again.
A salvage car stereo with half the display out, mounted through the side of your toolbox with speakers in an ammo crate, hanging from the ceiling.
Be sure to cut all the holes while drinking heavily, make patch bezels out of some kind of scrap.
Screw those up too, hide the sins with copious amounts of RTV.
Wiring, mismatched bits from the rats nest of, "don't know what this wire does...cut it out". There should be a wire-nut every coupla feet...on every wire, no crimp connecters allowed.
Powered by an old battery and cheep ass charger. Wires held on the posts with crappy chicom vice grips.
Tech notes: No matching screws allowed,
wire connections may be twisted with electrical tape,
antenna should have a bad connection such that it goes out in the middle of a good song requiring you to crawl out from under the car to smack radio twice...just in time to hear the song end.
If you find an OEM radio with the traveling bar display, make sure the bar is broken. When a station fades out, you have to blindly search for the next best. When you $#it some friend into helping pull a 200lb transmission (bench press style, no floor jack) the first thing they do is mess with the radio and you spend 10 minutes trying to find that station again.
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ChetekTech
Veteran Member
I'd recommend local sales and auctions. That's where I got mine, albeit some time ago.
Pioneer SX-950 w/ 4 Pioneer CS-99A speakers. Has been proven to shake concrete. Realistic STA-2100D for a backup.
Pioneer SX-950 w/ 4 Pioneer CS-99A speakers. Has been proven to shake concrete. Realistic STA-2100D for a backup.
Back in the day, I had Pioneer TSX-20 deck speakers on the deck behind the rear seats of my car. At one point I got broken into, and they stole the speakers but left my under-dash tape deck (and it was an expensive one.) I wasn’t sure whether I should’ve felt relieved or insulted. But those speakers were fantastic.
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Marthanoir
TB Fanatic
Bluetooth ear phones and my phone , does the job,
Wildweasel
F-4 Phantoms Phorever
Garage stereos in my experience usually consist of an old car stereo and speakers with a 12-volt power supply to run it. You always needed to do something with the factory stuff when you upgraded your car to something better.
Wildweasel
F-4 Phantoms Phorever
A great description of a hillbilly engineered sound system.Go vintage, with that Pro look.
A salvage car stereo with half the display out, mounted through the side of your toolbox with speakers in an ammo crate, hanging from the ceiling.
Be sure to cut all the holes while drinking heavily, make patch bezels out of some kind of scrap.
Screw those up too, hide the sins with copious amounts of RTV.
Wiring, mismatched bits from the rats nest of, "don't know what this wire does...cut it out". There should be a wire-nut every coupla feet...on every wire, no crimp connecters allowed.
Powered by an old battery and cheep ass charger. Wires held on the posts with crappy chicom vice grips.
Tech notes: No matching screws allowed,
wire connections may be twisted with electrical tape,
antenna should have a bad connection such that it goes out in the middle of a good song requiring you to crawl out from under the car to smack radio twice...just in time to hear the song end.
If you find an OEM radio with the traveling bar display, make sure the bar is broken. When a station fades out, you have to blindly search for the next best. When you $#it some friend into helping pull a 200lb transmission (bench press style, no floor jack) the first thing they do is mess with the radio and you spend 10 minutes trying to find that station again.
Thunderbird
Veteran Member
It is amazing what is available on Facebook marketplace.
JBL Bluetooth speakers sound incredible And if you get multiple you can link them together. I have the boombox 2 and it will surprise you how good it sounds and what bass it will put out. Also have the extreme 2 and it sounds great as well.
note that before you buy different speakers to make sure they use the same linking method. JBL switched so the older versions will not like to the new and vice versa
note that before you buy different speakers to make sure they use the same linking method. JBL switched so the older versions will not like to the new and vice versa
sy32478
Veteran Member
Craigslist is great. You can pickup what was mid-tier receivers that will make your garage rattle for $50'-$75. People care much more for surround sound and FX and dump HiFi stereo gear that is great for music (beyter than current surround gear) for very short money. If iy doesn't have an HDMI jack, many will just want to het rid of it.
Easy way to filter for desirable gear look for older analog receivers with silver faceplates and analog tuning dials. i am partial to Yamaha, but there are plenty of forums to lookup prices and reviews of vintage gear.
Easy way to filter for desirable gear look for older analog receivers with silver faceplates and analog tuning dials. i am partial to Yamaha, but there are plenty of forums to lookup prices and reviews of vintage gear.
energy_wave
Has No Life - Lives on TB
There was an estate sale today a few streets over from my place. I would never have known about it but my nephew, 610 miles away in NC emails me to get my ass over there, his buddy is in town to clean out his family's empty house. No public notice, just a quick one day sale to sell off junk while he's in town for the weekend. Just an open door to the porch with an estate sale sign written on cardboard. I spent $42.00 on stuff. Records, tapes, reel to reel, etc. He ended up giving me almost two car loads of free shit he needed gone ASAP. The best items I got were a pair of speakers. I researched them and find they are worth a good buck. I think they're keepers. Also bought an Akai reel to reel player and 12 record albums full of real early era 78's. He also threw in several hundred classical CD's and a stack of DVD movies. Also 60 framed advertisements. I had a real good day.
Rt 9:34
AR-2a Speaker Find, Repair and Listen!
Rt 9:34
BassMan
Veteran Member
No school like the old school!
energy_wave
Has No Life - Lives on TB
He made $42.00. I'll make over 2 grand. Everyone's happy.No school like the old school!
Thanks for reminding me about my garage/man cave. I have some audio equipment that might go well there. Would make messing around in the garage more fun. I tossed lots of audio stuff in our move, but have some pieces left. Along with my beer fridge, working out there could be fun. But, yeah, go low end unless you’ve already got nice stuff you aren’t using. And, a boom box might work fine. Hate that I threw away a nice one before the move.
Dobbin
Faithful Steed
Owner has "de-emphasized" his sound systems generally. It's not like his college years when a sign of a good stereo was if you could make the window sash rattle.
Retired to the top of the barn are a couple of 3' high speakers that were wired in to the house stereo system with "monster" wire.
But the rise of Bluetooth has obsoleted them.
Now she (his wife) listens to her Cellphone with her Bluetooth "earbuds" - or uses a Bluetooth enabled "boom-box." The battery is this boom box is now defunct (Owner says ALL batteries eventually go defunct) but when plugged in he admits it is a good sound. She can carry it around and plug it in anywhere in the house.
Owner has found at a yard sale a couple of the old tape-player D battery capable boom boxes. One for "carry around" and one lives in his "man-cave." These normally are plugged into the wall - but CAN be used on the batteries.
He'll frequently take one down to where he is wood cutting or something else. With chainsaw/earmuffs I'm not sure how he actually hears anything. I guess they make "sound enabled" protective earmuffs - but Owner is the physical embodiment of "cheap."
Our recent power outage (Wednesday ice-storm) brought the battery powered radios into service. Part of Owner's "preps" I think.
Dobbin
Retired to the top of the barn are a couple of 3' high speakers that were wired in to the house stereo system with "monster" wire.
But the rise of Bluetooth has obsoleted them.
Now she (his wife) listens to her Cellphone with her Bluetooth "earbuds" - or uses a Bluetooth enabled "boom-box." The battery is this boom box is now defunct (Owner says ALL batteries eventually go defunct) but when plugged in he admits it is a good sound. She can carry it around and plug it in anywhere in the house.
Owner has found at a yard sale a couple of the old tape-player D battery capable boom boxes. One for "carry around" and one lives in his "man-cave." These normally are plugged into the wall - but CAN be used on the batteries.
He'll frequently take one down to where he is wood cutting or something else. With chainsaw/earmuffs I'm not sure how he actually hears anything. I guess they make "sound enabled" protective earmuffs - but Owner is the physical embodiment of "cheap."
Our recent power outage (Wednesday ice-storm) brought the battery powered radios into service. Part of Owner's "preps" I think.
Dobbin
Desert Dweller
Veteran Member
Go to Amazon type in Tribit Bluetooth Speaker, I've been using one for about 2 years now. I use it and my phone and ditched the big home speaker set up. I use it in the car too. Great little set up
Big Red Clay
Contributing Member
I went to a soundbar after my garage stereo tuner went bad. I watch a lot of sports (mainly football and golf) with my neighbors in the garage. I have a couple of big TV's in my garage for this end (75" and a 65") and I bought this Samsung soundbar with a sub included. Sounds great when I play music from my phone via bluetooth. Works good for my karaoke set up that I bought from Amazon recently It was about $150 bucks when I bough it a few years ago at my local furniture store. Really suprised by the quality of sound that it puts out based on the small investment.
Big Red Clay
Contributing Member
Oh forgot to add that I strongly agree with the post about the JBL Bluetooth speakers above. Those little things sound great and will really pump out some volume if you crank it up. I use mine on my deck and in my golf cart.
Southside
Has No Life - Lives on TB
Yep, I DO need a DAC, as well as some speaker work. The crossovers are getting noisy.
JBL bluetooth speakers with your laptop on your fav online station, watching YouTube’s, etc or hooked to your phone and playing your playlist, satellite radio, or podcasts. Some of the larger JBLs will make you “feel the music” like a bass/woofer thumping along.
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
This^^^ OC bought me a Bose speaker for my studio last year, since my CD/radio had died, and I just put my YT play list on and listen to music, with no commercials!
packyderms_wife
Neither here nor there.
Listen to live Glenwood MN radio on Radio Garden
Explore live radio by rotating the globe.
radio.garden
For those of you with blue tooth speakers don't forget Radio Garden!!! Music 24/7 from around the world. Right now I'm listening to a station out of Minnesota.
Telescope Steve
Veteran Member
I would keep an eye out for a speaker that makes some nice bass sound. I listen to headphones most of the time, but you don't feel the bass without a bigger speaker or sub-woofer. I mean the kind that makes old rock sound good.
energy_wave
Has No Life - Lives on TB
The records I scored over the weekend, turns out one is a recording of a Connie Frances interview on WMCA radio from 1953 which is very early in her career. It was a personal copy from the estate owner who was a radio announcer in Brooklyn back in the day.
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Chicken Mama
Veteran Member
If you were closer, I've got a JVC 1-bit 5-disk player, JVC A/V controller, Samsung DVD/VCR, Pioneer 6-disk, and Onkyo amp w/six speaker support taking up space. Shipping would be a b*+@h though.
Some years ago I noticed the number of HIFI Stereo stores have dropped in fact I would have to travel 100 miles or more to find such store. I have high end equipment the maker of the speakers made by Henry Kloss died years ago so they are no longer being made but the maker of the receiver is still around ! Harman/Kardon. I'm one of them people that will spend $5,000. or more on a complete system.
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Sandcastle76
Senior Member
New thing on the market…”Turtlebox”. 12”x9”, weighs 10 lbs., practically Indestructible…water proof, floats, pretty loud - 120 decibels, good tone, 20 hours of playtime when charged, or use the charging plug. It’s 85 watt battery can charge your cell phone and other devices, is Bluetooth and has aux ports for add on speakers. Expensive, but oldest son loves it for the beach and in the mountains for music and to keep all his off duty “toys” up n running.