Advice on a music systems for the woodshop

[Roger Feeley]

You mentioned TV, a receiver and vinyl records. Dust is your enemy. No matter what you do, You should build an enclosure with a fan that pumps filtered air into it to produce a positive pressure to keep the dust out.

I would digitize your albums. The above mentioned enclosure will probably introduce vibration into the system so you can either have a weird hum or really bad scratchy noise from the dust.

[Bob Falk]

Thank you everyone for the advice. A lot to chew on. Cheers, bob

[Dave Cav]

OK, I'm a little late to the thread. I agree with Robert, no TV. It's too much of a distraction and you're there for woodworking, not TV watching. I use a Chromebox, a Lepai amp and a couple of old bookshelf speakers to listen to either Pandora or the web stream from a local jazz or classical station.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I am a vinyl guy and have +/- 1000 LPs, but I would be hard pressed to put a vinyl rig in a woodworking shop....unless you were dedicated enough to house it in an adjacent, but closed off (by at least a somewhat weatherstripped door/wall) room. As suggested by Wes above, the room could also be an office/man cave that could serve other needs and if you really wanted a TV, you could put it in there. I don't really see the need for a TV in the actual shop, but that's just me. You could keep the media setup as free of dust as possible that way. You could get 2 pairs of used speakers (1 for inside music room and another with speaker wire run through to somewhere acceptable in your shop) Upon reflection, I could see having to stop what you're doing to go flip a record every 20 minutes to potentially be a PITA as far as shop momentum (at least for me.) This is where the beauty of a good internet radio station, custom made digital playlists/mixtapes, or potentially shuffle on an iPod shines.

I have an old iPod and Li-Ion powered Makita job site radio(shares batteries with my other cordless tools) that I use on the job site and in my shop, and while I would like some more volume capability at times, it does the job for me when I'm in the middle of a project or cleaning up in the shop/basement. I also don't have any space at all for a permanent stereo setup in my shop space as it's tight enough as is. When I really want to be an audiophile and dig into some tunes front and center, I just go upstairs to my living room and fire up my Sansui amp, 2 turntables, and Klipsch Cornwall speakers and crack a beverage.

[Pete Staehling]

OK, I'm a little late to the thread. I agree with Robert, no TV. It's too much of a distraction and you're there for woodworking, not TV watching. I use a Chromebox, a Lepai amp and a couple of old bookshelf speakers to listen to either Pandora or the web stream from a local jazz or classical station.

I bought a reconditioned Lenova Thinkpad (inexpensive) for the shop and scrounged a couple 17" Dell monitors (someone set them out by the curb on heavy pickup day). I stream Pandora to a pair of Altec Lansing computer speakers with sub woofer.

It has worked out great, for music, internet browsing, playing videos, using Sketchup, and other misc. tasks.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I'm with Prashun- Sonos is your best bet. As long as you have wifi reception in the shop, you just need to buy the sonos speakers (no need for their "bridge" device). You can control the music with your phone, and it works with just about every imaginable music streaming service.

It has better sound quality than bluetooth, and it won't drain your phone's battery. Your phone just acts like a remote control, whereas with blue tooth, your phone streams the music and broadcasts it to your speaker via bluetooth.

Sonos sells a sound bar unit, so it would work with your TV if you want it to.

And lastly, since you want access to your MP3s, you just need your MP3s to be stored on a computer that is on the same network as your Sonos system. You install the sonos application on your computer, and now you can stream your MP3s to any Sonos device on your network. This means there's no need for you to use an MP3 player.

So if you go with the Sonos sound bar, I think Sonos checks all of your boxes.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have a note book that I use in shop for music source. If your shop is too far away from router, you can use a second router (the old one you have in the drawer) as a range extender. I hook notebook to a FM transmitter. Bought transmitter in the automotive section at Walmart for about $14. Takes two AAA batteries. I use the rechargable NMH ones from HF. By using FM transmitter, I can operate tuner and amp, plus head phones when running machines. My speakers are an old set of RCA's, which the left / right feed goes thru sub woofer, then to speakers. Sometimes plop a CD into Walkman, then connect it to FM transmitter.

[Christopher Dopp]

I have this amplifier hooked up to a pair of wall mounted speakers. I currently use an iPod Shuffle as the music source but you can hook up just about anything with an RCA or headphone jack.

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-...-wpc--300-3800

It's really tiny, sounds great and is dead simple. Also pretty tightly closed up to keep dust out and cheap.

[David DeYoung]

My shop is connected to one end of my house. WiFi was spotty until my sons bought me a range extender. It plugs into any 120v outlet and boosts the signal. I have it plugged into an outlet in my house that is near the shop. I think the cost was in the $50 to 75 range.

[Marion Smith]

Congrats on the new shop Bob!
I have a new shop too, and some of my 70's stereo stuff is out there in a ReStore find hi-fi cabinet with glass door. Receiver, cassette deck, equalizer and turntable. I have a pair of EPI 150 speakers mounted in the rafters to avoid them taking up valuable wall or floor space. I have a coax feed from my outdoor antenna for FM reception. Not too many cassette tapes in my library, I use the tape deck mainly for the Dolby circuit. Turntable works fine for when I'm in an "album side" kind of mood! It's behind the glass door and also has its own dust cover. I purchased a 3.5mm stereo plug to RCA phono Jack's adapter and a 3ft RCA phono Jack's/plug cord. This is plugged into the Aux input of the reciever. Thru that, I can listen to anything on my mp3 players, or plug it into my android phone for streaming iHeartRadio off of WiFi from the router in the house. It's the best of both worlds!
My wife bought me a USB turntable to digitize all my vinyl 2 years ago. With the number of albums I have, this would consume months and months of what little free time I have with my 6 day a week work schedule. Dunno how I will ever get to that, if ever. Enjoy your new space Bob, make some cool stuff!!

[Bob Falk]

Thank you Marion. I am enjoying the shop, but am finding its just too small :-) The hi-fi cabinet with a glass door is a good idea....I'll start looking for one. Cheers, bob

[Osvaldo Cristo]

I have read sometimes about people placing sound in their workshop presumably to listen music and sometimes to watch TV... but it looks me very dangerous. Do you listen music while working in the workshop

IMHO it can be very dangerous as besides to miss some important signal from misbehavior from any tool or accessory, it can rob your attention and induce you to make mistakes. For me it is similar to walk in a public road using earphones and listening music... It looks me very risky, almost crazy.

I do not listen music, eat or drinking while working in the workshop... Perhaps I am very old school...

[Bruce Page]

Osvaldo, I think it depends on your comfort level. I have had music in the shop (no tv) all my life. When I worked as a machinist someone always had a radio going, sometimes more than one.. and that WAS distracting. Still, I don't remember anyone ever getting hurt because of it. I never play it loud enough that I can't hear an abnormal machine sound. I'm not saying that everyone should have music in their shop but for me it's not a problem and frankly, I'd be bored without it.

[Larry Frank]

I use my older smartphone hooked up to an amplifier. It still connects to the WiFi and has room for a lot of music and connects to SiriusXM

[Van Huskey]

For those saying no TV don't discount the ability to watch an instructional video while actually working in the shop. I am one that rarely plays music in the shop, I actually find it distracting (though I love music, maybe I love it too much and focus too hard) and TV in general would be a huge distraction but keeping up with sporting events while doing the mundane like sanding is nice and the ability to stream youtube instructional videos and watch instructional DVDs actually in the shop increases their effectiveness for me.