Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
I have my old stereo receiver in the shop with wired Bose speakers. Living in a rural area the stations I listen to don't have as many commercials as "city" stations. Plus it's nice to hear a news and weather report now and then. I do have a large playlist on my phone with MP3s that I made off my CDs and could hook that in if I wanted to. But I reserve those for when I'm on the the zero turn or my tractor using bluetooth earbuds.
When I tell people I have not got a mobile they look at me with a strange expression of incredulity/disbelief/shock/horror or all the above, they just don't get it. I can't get signed onto the Felder/Hammer Yahoo group because I don't have a mobile number, such is life.
Chris
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
I am using Raspberry Pi with Volumio software and have access to hundreds of radio stations. I am actually streaming every day for 10+ hours at home.
I have an old laptop that I use to listen to SiriusXM online. Or I can connect to my desktop and play music that I have stored there. Hooked it up to an older amp and have a set of speakers in the workshop along with a set in the garage area for when I am working there.
I will have to look into the Pi and Volumio set up. I have a couple of them for other projects, and can see myself doing that.
I guess I'm still old school also. I have the Makita job-site radio so I listen to my local radio stations and can then take it if I'm working outside. Uses an 18V battery or AC. I can also plug an old cell-phone or iPod in for streaming and keeps it dust-free.
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Mark Patoka
Stafford, VA
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Use pandora and sirius xm built into my receiver. Xm any connect for my truck and devices costs me $10 a month paid a year in advance. Use it from the phone to bluetooth earbuds while mowing as well.
Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.
I Listen to CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). No commercials, interesting programs, nice music............Rod.
I used to work at one of Spotify's competitors so I can speak from experience as both a user and from a product perspective.
If you're not worried about the difference between $5 per month and $10 per month, then spotify is absolutely the best option. You can listen to anything you want to listen to, or you can listen to pandora-like radio stations. It will cover all of your potential music listening modes.
As for devices, I totally agree with others that Sonos is the best in-home music device for streaming. The sound quality is pretty good (I don't think it's hifi, but I guess that's relative), and the convenience is is tough to beat. You can stream local radio stations (meaning over the air radio) for free, listen to podcasts, listen your own music files as long as they're on a computer on your home network, or use your streaming service of choice.
Pretty soon it will also be controllable using Alexa (echo and echo dot) so you won't even have to pull your phone out to control it.
I have two play 1 devices and the older model of the Play 5. Unless you like a lot of bass, I would take the Play 1 over the Play 5 any day. The sound quality is amazing, it's small, and it's relatively inexpensive. I personally think that the older model Play 5 sounds a bit muddy, but the new one might be better.
I'm in the Sonos connect club. My Sonos feeds into an amp that is wired to ceiling speakers but I control content and volume through the wi-fi/phone app. I subscribe to Rhapsody (now Napster) but I've become a big fan of Amazon Prime. Tune In is great. I've also been trying out Slacker Radio for their station content, but not sure it's any better than Amazon. Tune In accesses a lot of podcasts, but if you have a Sonos Connect you can download Stitcher which is another free service that deals primarily in podcasts.
The problem is woodworking involves enough noise that I cannot listen and concentrate enough on podcasts so I reserve them for when I'm doing finishing or something non-noisy.
As a former employee of Sirius/XM I used to get the service for free. I had a portable receiver that went from my truck to my home stereo system. It was great because where I live there wasn't any local stations I cared for. After leaving the company, they naturally wanted to charge me for the service. I miss it a lot now and I may sign up accordingly.
When they offer you a deal, they are extremely reasonable ($50 for 6 months), but then they automatically bill you the normal cost at renewal time. Then the price goes up substantially. But if you don't have WIFI, it's one of the only options next to a local radio station broadcast.
Use laptop, connected to FM transmitter (SCOSCHE from Walmart, in automotive radio section) to play internet radio stations, and you tube. By having transmitter in shop, "Work Tunes" allows me to hear music and still have ear protection. Amp is from thrift store, along with speaker set (RCA brand.) Left and right channels feed thru crossover on bass port. Unreal good quality sound. For my CD collection, I use my "Sony Walkman) through transmitter. This set up allows me to hear music when working on slab in front of shop also. Because we only have Very slow DSL, streaming services are not an option