Vintage audio setup in a detached garage...
- Thread starter seely
- Start date
jcamero
Who are you people anyway?
I've always had a system in the garage. Using it for background music while "puttering around". Finding a decent spot, and chair to sit back and listen to music is tougher. My car is usually out of the garage, but the wife's is not. If the garage was not such a mess from the winter, I'd post a picture.
yosl
Active Member
As a Canadian used to temperatures that are the equal or colder than Michigan and having had many a garage system here are some considerations. Firing up any system when the ambient temp in the garage is well below freezing e.g.: -10 to -15º C (14 to 5º F) always carries with it risk. On the receiver/amp front, all mechanical switches, pots and tuner mechanisms stiffen up to the point where things wouldn't necessarily work as they are supposed to with the risk than something might break. On the speaker front, surrounds on woofers will become more brittle, bass response could be interesting. Humidity is not an issue at temps below freezing as cold air can't hold much moisture. It does become an issue when you bring frozen equipment in from the cold into a warm house (condensation) but if you put heat on your garage and allow things to warm up gradually, condensation should not be an issue. I also would suggest that trying to use a CD player, cassette deck or TT at below freezing is a very bad idea, just too many mechanical bits and pieces that will be stressed beyond their design criteria.
Rodents are rarely much of an issue if you keep your gear up high including your speaker cable runs. For whatever reason in my garage systems and that of my friends, receivers/amps are up on shelves and speakers are mounted high on the walls, if anything to keep them out of the work space. Unless you leave your receiver/amp switched on (source of warmth) or surround it with uneaten granola bars, there is nothing to attract them.
In summer, relative humidity around the Great Lakes can get quite high but again if your 100 year old garage still breathes and hasn't been turned into a vapour barriered marvel, conditions wouldn't be much different from your home. A possible exception could be very hot weather where an un-insulated garage could get really hot but then what are the odds you'd be in it? Your stereo gear will survive unless there are wild swings of temperature in a short period of time.
For what it's worth.
Rodents are rarely much of an issue if you keep your gear up high including your speaker cable runs. For whatever reason in my garage systems and that of my friends, receivers/amps are up on shelves and speakers are mounted high on the walls, if anything to keep them out of the work space. Unless you leave your receiver/amp switched on (source of warmth) or surround it with uneaten granola bars, there is nothing to attract them.
In summer, relative humidity around the Great Lakes can get quite high but again if your 100 year old garage still breathes and hasn't been turned into a vapour barriered marvel, conditions wouldn't be much different from your home. A possible exception could be very hot weather where an un-insulated garage could get really hot but then what are the odds you'd be in it? Your stereo gear will survive unless there are wild swings of temperature in a short period of time.
For what it's worth.
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