Throw together garage audio

tourmax

Super Member
So, like lots of us, I have audio gear that I just dont have a space to use it in or its just lying around. I dont have a lot of extra stuff, but a few bits for sure.

We have just build a new house (retirement home) and I have a 24x28 attached garage that is my multipurpose workroom: park my truck and wifes minivan, workshop for my mustang build, metal shop, welding shop, woodworking shop, etc.

And I do like my entertainment. Have a 55 in TV, panasonic home theater combo thing, etc.

What I dont have is a stereo.

So I grab an Akai AA-910 that has been sitting around after I rebuilt it. Got that for 20 bucks a while ago becuase the FM section wasnt working.

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I had grabbed some “home builts” for speakers at the thrift store, but they turned out to be mostly junk, other than thier cool 70’s/80’s vibe:

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So i needed speakers for the garage space. All the ones I currently have are either too nice to put in a workspace (AR-4x’s, etc), or are waiting to be fixed/rebuilt.

So i cruise the local want ads and pull up a set of “Audiosphere research” Monitor 800 speakers. Theyre big biatches, floor standing models. 12” woofers x 2, 5” mid and 3.5” horn. Add says 45 bucks.

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I drop by today and have a look. Yup, theyre distressed. But the woofers pass a few quick checks and appear ok. Grills are coming apart, layer of dust (mildew maybe?) on all the drivers (theyre poly so no real worries), foams are all in good shape, couple woofer dust caps pushed in, cases are a bit distressed (one might have been dropped), etc. Probably once prized possesions that are now just generally neglected.

So i offer him 40 bucks and he says that will do. After we get them in my truck, he says he used to have 75 on the add and it now says 45 EACH. I say i dont want to rip him off if thats what he wanted (although I wasn't paying 80-90 bucks for them) but he says no problem and its time for them to go. We shake hands and I’m on my way home.

I hook them up to the Akai and they fill the garage pretty good. They are a little muddy/boomy, but i had already read they were kind of a “disco” set of speakers and while they would go loud, they were “bass-y”. So i was ready for loud, but muddy sound. Not a surprise with two 12” woofs in the box. They are probably still stiff like all the old speakers I tend to put back in service after a long sleep. I’ll do my standard run them overnight and maybe they will wake up a bit.

But with each on opposite sides of the garage and both at the other end from the work benches (as well as the tone flat) its pretty good as far as sound goes. Modern sounding as well as bass-y and muddy, but still good for the large space they are in.

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(Excuse the mess, still moving in)

Baker street just makes me want to blast them as hard as I can and they can handle all the Akai puts out...easily. November Rain also begs to be blasted, as well as a couple AC/DC songs. Subdivisions simply HAMMERS out of them, but Rush was heavy on bass and synth during that phase and that plays right in to these things strengths. Then some stevie ray from a cd player. They actually handle it ALL really good...for what they are that is. Audiophiles would find lots of faults in them, but thats not what thier intended purpose is for me.

They are certainly great for a garage system in a big open 24x28 space and thats all I want out of them. Well, they might end up entertaining the bous when they come over for a few wobbly pops as we shoot bs about cars and bikes in the garage.

Now those home builts will probably come apart and I’ll use the swivel stand built in to them to put the 800’s on, after I widen the swivels bases out a fair bit. That will work out pretty good as it will let me swing them flat to the wall so they dont stick out into the space where the garage door opening is. Less chance of the wife hitting them putting her van in and i can spin them back out when i want to listen to them.

The Akai will go up into a custom wall cabinet where the drill center is, along with the rest of the entertainment stuff. Case will have a matching one on the other side of the wall TV for assorted storage.

Should be cool!

:)
 
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An Onkyo HT receiver (100+ wpc, Class D) and New Large Advents are in my garage. Just a little bigger space than you have ("3-car" garage with a 10' or so ceiling).

Speakers are up on a shelf 6' high. It sounds surprisingly good, especially with the garage doors open.

So I finally found a use for the beat up NLAs.
 
Got mountains of spare gear here.

Used AVR for garage work area.
Just didn’t seem to “get it”.

Swapped to a big AVR that must be too distressed to flip. A Yamaha near TOTL from some year. 7.1 brute. Sorta sucked and figured out the speaker on the right was hosed, bad woofer.

Swapped in a couple CVs that showed up.
Better.
A couple nice Klipsch showed up. Wired them in the try them.

Just nothing special.

Starting to clean out dead wood from the sales floor and pulled a little Insignia out to scrap.

But it’s stereo, has a tape out, A and B switch so it would be handier in the work area for checking fresh junk.

Little bastard Insignia kicked that brute AVR to the curb so hard it flew across the sidewalk and into the wall!

I may need to move the Insignia to the tech bench because it’s handier than that damn NAD. The NAD has no A switch.

I may need to swap in more junk before I scrap.
 
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