Radio for the Garage.

[rosslord]

I need a radio for my garage, so I can sing along badly while working on the Elco. Everything I've seen that does internet radio, mp3 streaming, satellite radio and the like seems kind of delicate, and I think will likely get coated in grease and mashed up after a while. Anyone have any good radio advice? My wishlist would be:

- AM/FM so I can listen to Sonny Jurgensen and Sam Huff call Redskins games.
- streaming mp3s via wifi.
- internet radio (pandora, last.fm, etc.) via wifi.
- bonus points for sirius satellite radio, as I already have an subscription for the car.

My garage is detached from the house, so anything that requires being wired into computers or existing stereos is a non-starter, and I don't really want to get involved in any complex antennas. Thanks for the help!

[novaderrik]

i just have an old cheap house tuner, and just added a 20 year old 5 disc cd changer that i got for free. for speakers, i've got the center and front speakers from some old surround sound system.
it does a perfect job of adding noise to my shop to keep me from getting bored or thinking too hard.

[BonzoHansen]

a junker with a tape or cd in so you can plug what you want into it is great. i plug my ipod into a cheapo 20 year old stereo, works fine.

[absintheisfun]

I got a cheap ipod dock from walmart that has AM/FM on it as well. it suites my needs perfectly.

[rosslord]

Unfortunately, I don't have any surplus stereo equipment. I've moved about 5 times in the past decade, so I've adopted some pretty strict rules about ditching old electronics. If it's not plugged in, it's going out.

The dock is an idea. I have an iPhone, so something that I could drop that into might be nice. My concern is grubby fingers vs. shiny touchscreen. I would need one with controls other than just the screen.

Anything involving CDs or CD changers is out, as almost all of my music is digital now.

[wiedemab]

My setup is an old Laptop (and I mean old) and a bunch of Craigslist stereo components. The laptop connects to my home network and can pull music from my Homeserver, or most of the time now, I just listen to Pandora.

I would look on Craigslist. I paid like $50 for a pretty nice stereo receiver and $50 for some good ole wood cabinet speakers. The laptop is my wife's old school laptop from 8yrs ago, so it wasn't worth much of anything. You could probably duplicate what I have for $200 if you were patient on eBay and CL.

The stuff never leaves the garage and is pretty filthy and still works just fine.

[Mr. Anderson]

Already been suggested, but I picked up a docking station for my iPhone and it works great. I've got pandora, itunes, and radio. The sound is great. I spent the extra money on the extended warranty for it just in case something happens to it in the garage (a lot of dust, metal shavings, etc.) It has some controls on it but not much. I havent had any problems and it doesn't bother me touching the screen....they did have some with more controls, but they were more expensive.

[BonzoHansen]

garage sales can yield cheapo stereos

[BBPanel]

I ran Cat V wiring from the house to shop - used an old tuner - cable box and listen to XM Radio.

[fordsbyjay]

I had an old Harmon Kardon stereo and I added some MTX loud speakers for rockin out. IPOD docks can be had with RCA connections so they can be used with the old technology. I have no ideal about the wifi or internet radio with no computer. In my last garage I had internet out there. I like the idea of an old laptop. I have an old sony that is really too slow to run any newer programs but with a basic version of XP pro, no anti virus and no huge programs like office it would easily meet your wifi requirements.

[69496]

A buddy of mine put in a AC to DC convertor and installed a car stereo in the wall along with car speakers in the ceiling. It was pretty cool, unique, stealthy, sounded good and car head units can have all the features you want. What I liked best about it was that it was all in the walls or ceilling, no space taken up.

[paul67]

I bought a set of wireless speakers that had a range of 100yds could be battery or mains operated,tuned into internet radio on pc then transmitted to speakers.