Music in my shop.

[Dale Cruea]

I have a cheap radio in my shop that will only pick a local soft rock station.
They have been playing the same old worn out songs for about a year now.

Late last I decided to try to hook up my computer to the radio to get more channels.
First attempt was a lot of static. Woops forgot to hook up the ground wire.

Now I have music.
Static free and very good quality.
I set up icons for different genre of music I like.

No commercials to speak of. Like maybe 2 an hour or even less. I never notice them.

Woodworking and smooth jazz.
Now this is woodworking.

Later I may listen to a little classic rock.

[Jim Koepke]

My location of being in a valley in the hills makes my selection pretty sparse.

My computer is too far from my shop for that. My solution is an iPod with an FM transmitter. There are a number of genres which can be chosen to fit the mood of the hour.

jtk

[george wilson]

I can't get decent reception. Probably from my fluorescent lights W/ magnetic ballasts. At the time of building,costs went WAY over the top,and I had to buy a huge number of lights,so did not get the electronic ballasts.

[Bruce Page]

iPod + WiFi + Pandora = great tunes anytime, 24/7.

[Mark Dorman]

Never tried pandora but I do listen to tunein radio. I also listen to live 365. There are thousands of free channels. but I have a cheap stereo in the shop. one of the pluses of Neander work is being able to hear the radio.

[Jack Curtis]

I put several firsts in the shop: first cd player, Toshiba (btw, best cd player ever, nice and warm, but it no longer plays every cd), from the mid-1980's; first speakers, JBL 77 from 1972, still perfect; first tuner, Marantz, '70's era, still perfect. Great sound. Maybe you can tell I never throw any of the working stuff away.

[Brent VanFossen]

Pandora plus a home wifi, and a Sonos system. Any style, good sound, and for $36 a year, no commercials.

[Adam Neat]

Another Pandora fan here, If no access I fire up the IPOD thru the radio

[Jim Matthews]

I put tunes on my phone.

An auxiliary jack goes into the amp.
If someone calls, the music is interrupted.

Only one wire required.

[David Keller NC]

A (slightly) different take on this. I listen to NPR in my shop almost exclusively. It's not so much b/c of any political leanings I have, it has a lot more to do with the absence of someone trying to sell toyotas every 30 seconds by screaming at the top of their lungs over the airwaves.

But, reception in my basement workshop is spotty at best, and always includes a background hiss from static. So I listen by using my iPod, a Klipsch speaker dock, my home wi-fi connection, and the WUNC radio app. Viola - perfect live radio reception, and no hiss.

If you like "news radio" (i.e., all talk, but not "talk radio" in the sense of political commentary), many stations now have their own app that allows similar perfect reception over the 'net.

[Mario Soldevilla]

I also use my Iphone thru an amplifier, with the tunein radio app. which I listen to coast to coast am 24/7, which is great since this is a late late night early morning show i would otherwise not be awake to listen to. plus the myriad of podcasts i enjoy as well as my full library of music. There is no shortage of audio pleasure in my shop.

[Bob Glenn]

I just take my lap top out and use our WiFi system to access one of many radio stations on the internet.

[Andrae Covington]

Interesting to see how people get music etc. in their shops. I like Pandora but I don't have a computer in the shop or anything wireless. My method is similar to those who hook up an ipod to a stereo. A few years ago I bought a little $100 stereo system that has a USB port. A 4gb flash drive, for example, will hold around 500 - 700 mp3's, depending on bitrate quality and length of songs. That's a pretty long rotation for shop time, and there are much larger flash drives available, up to 256gb now. Of course this method requires having the mp3 collection in the first place; internet radio gives you more flexibility.

[Eric DeSilva]

How does hooking your computer to your radio get you more channels? Are you streaming through the internet and using an aux input on your radio? Why would a ground wire make a difference? Did you create a ground loop or something?

[Jack Curtis]

I rip/load a lot of my cd's into the computer; but I certainly don't buy mp3/4 as primary, the quality is just not there, not in the speakers, not in the source.