Audio in the shop

[Mike Hollis]

I’m a Sonos fan. I don’t have any in the shop yet but I’ll order a couple more soon.

I love me some Sonos - got my first setup back in 2010 - a Sonos Amp, a pair of outdoor speakers, and an iPod Touch in a waterproof case. Made using the hot tub very enjoyable. I now have way too much money invested in Sonos products, but I love the platform.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I loaded an old iPod with a "Canadian Folkies and Rockers playlist" and put it in our daughter in laws stocking. She asked if I would recreate it in Spotify instead. I was a bit deflated. Her brother in law
(a musician) said "Spotify is from the devil, they don't pay royalty's". I still buy CDs. I also check them out from the library. I am fairly confused about what is proper?
Thanks Jim. We just got a hand-me-down Mac. I am a dufus on the PC. Some say Apple is more intuitive.

[Alan Lightstone]

I use my Echo Show in my workshop. Sound isn't great, but neither is my hearing and it also functions as an intercom in the house.

I've resisted using headphones with sound, as I don't want to miss any potential dangerous noise that I am missing from power tools, machines, etc... I do have a Sony noise cancelling pair I can use with Bluetooth, but I rarely do for that reason.

[Derek Meyer]

I rip my CD's to .wma lossless format and play them back in my car, or from my work or home computer. I use a program called dbPowerAmp to do the ripping. It also has a audio converter that can do batch conversions of files from one type to another, and can add effects such as volume normalization. I just tested it and I was able to do a batch conversion of one album (13 songs) with volume normalization in about 10 seconds. The ripper can rip most of my albums to .wma lossless in 2 minutes or so, depending on album length. It also collects metadata and album art info from several sources (fully configurable). It sells for about $40.

[Tom Duboski]

I too, use an amazon echo for signal, which I have connected to a recycled, self-amplified, computer sound system [speakers and sub]. My shop is out in the barn so I installed an elementary signal booster, which keeps things consistent. Access to a few contract streamers, i.e. spotify etc. in addition to amazon, allows for a vast inventory of voice controlled selections and playlist options. Cash outlay very small, sound quality for a shop -pretty decent.

[John Lifer]

I usually have a set of bluetooth earbuds in my ears. Unless I'm using my RAS which is louder by far than anything else in the shop, the earbuds reduce the noise a decent amount and I can easily catch phone calls also. Usually pandora or iheart. I've got an old internet radio that works fairly well as wifi is weak in the shop, If I'm gluing up or other quiet operations, I'll plug phone and stream through it. Lots of Cheap solutions.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I am following the news story's about the Artist's abandoning Spotify. I have always admired Canadian Rockers and Folkies.

[Alan Lightstone]

From good old Amazon my long awaited Echo Studio arrived yesterday and went in my workshop. I’ve synched it to my old echo shows in the finishing room and the workshop.

Much, much better sound than the echo shows. Really helps in the workshop.

Not much industrial design to it. Just a large cylinder, but it produces music or podcasts as loud as I want without overwhelming base, which is the problem with the echo shows.

[Clifford McGuire]

I just got the Nest Audio. I cast the BBC or my music to it at a comfortable volume.

If I'm running a power tool, I can't hear it. But that's fine. I should be concentrating on the task at hand.

[Charles Coolidge]

I use a pair of Mackie CR8-XBT 8 inch Multimedia Monitors with Bluetooth - https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...with-bluetooth

When I need to shake the dust off stuff in the shop I let loose with these

mymarshallstack.jpg

[Jim Becker]

Serious stuff there with those Makie units, Charles. And what's not to like about a Marshall stack?

[Charles Coolidge]

Serious stuff there with those Makie units, Charles. And what's not to like about a Marshall stack?

I have been guilty of startling the neighbors cows.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have been guilty of startling the neighbors cows.

That extra churning provides buttermilk, maybe?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I am deaf hearing via a cochlear implant (CI) and a hearing aid (HA). The hearing aid helps only in a small band of frequencies but can provide a small sense of directionality. Because hearing with a CI puts the electrical stimulation directly to the nerve in the cochlea, it doesn't use the advantage of the mechanical inefficiencies of the middle ear as it bypasses it. This leads to all the weak reflected sounds from flat hard surfaces being received amplified and heard. It can be a struggle to ignore these sounds which provide a kind of reverberation making it difficult to hear music or conversation. Speakers would not work well for me in the shop.

So, I prefer to use some affordable, better quality wireless headphones to listen to music and/or television. Headphones provide a better acoustic environment and I hear better as a result. Imagine that, a deaf man listening to and enjoying music.

Near the end of the year, I caved to my wife's wish of several years and we acquired a newer "smart" Samsung 65" flat screen tv. (Our old 46" Sony high def wasn't good enough but she's put up with me for 53 years, she had earned it!). The new tv only had digital audio outputs. The 3 Sennheiser wireless headphones I had I used one with the old television, one in the basement family room for PC and stereo use and the one in the shop only have analog inputs for the base station. While an optical splitter worked okay, none of the digital-to-analog converters I bought provided a good analog signal for use with the headphones I owned so this week, I bought a new Sennheiser Bluetooth stereo set of headphones. They arrived yesterday afternoon. After charging them, they worked quite well last night.

I use wireless stereo headphones with a stereo boombox with analog and digital inputs in my shop.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Ken, Thank you for this post. I am glad this technology is available.