Rock the Garage!

[Deleted member 133]

No pics yet - since this is so far mostly only a plan in progress but...

As I have been contemplating the twice-annual task off swapping over three sets of tires (this time all season off; winter on) in my garage, I was mentally going through my prep check list. Tires: check. Torque wrench: check. Tunes: not yet checked.

"Normally" I'd just turn on the car radio of whichever vehicle I am working on at the time. But I got to thinking...

Why not patch in another set of speakers from my outdoor zone switch box in the family room HT to the garage? And then I can play whatever I want while I'm working out there, and it should sound a whole lot better than the sound escaping from the car.

So I looked at all the spare speakers that I have around and none of them really suited. (The thought of mounted a pair of Koss CM/1030s to the garage rafters was not giving me the warm and fuzzies!) What I really wanted was something small and rugged that I could leave pinned up in the rafters of the garage. And, you know, the ever-faithful Realistic Minimus 7 just might be perfect.

Problem was that I had no spares kicking around. So today I went onto Kijiji and found a pair in great shape for $25CDN - and the guy selling them lives 5 minutes away from me! So I popped over and purchased the pair.

Then, I figured, why not add a sub? I've got a great little compact Yamaha YST-SW105 sub that would mate very nicely with the Minimus 7s AND could be easily installed up in the rafters as well with the help of but a few 2 x 4s and some nails.

So in the coming days I'll head over to Home Despot to buy a spool of speaker wire. I've already got cable access from the family room shelves where the receiver and speaker selection switch box are located (it runs off Zone 2 of my Pioneer receiver, and the switch can handle four pairs of speakers but only has two connected so far). It's then a straight shot across the exposed floor joists in the basement to the garage wall where there's already a length of conduit going through with room for the speaker wire.

I'm keen to find out how this is all going to sound. Will let you know.

Jeff

 

[heeman]

:music-rockout: :music-rockout: :music-rockout:

ROCK CANADA!!!!

Jeff's Garage..............

Party Time!!!!!!!

:music-rockout: :music-rockout: :music-rockout: :music-rockout:

 

[Haywood]

You are WAY more motivated than I am. I have a Squeezebox Boom WiFi table radio that I use on the deck or in the garage.

 

[Deleted member 133]

Well it took me a good 4 hours but the garage speaker system is now in place.

Ran the speaker wire as planned without problem. It goes from my speaker selector switch off the family room HT receiver's Zone 2 output to the speaker inputs on the sub. Then from there to each speaker. I use the sub's internal crossover (set around 130 Hz) and level controls.

It only took a few songs to get the sound about right to my ears. No further tweaking needed. This is a garage after all!

It does sound very good. With lots of reserve left it plays as loud as I, or the neighbours, would ever want.

Here's a few pics showing the Minimus 7s and the Yamaha sub mounted up in the rafters.

Jeff

 

[Wardsweb]

Well it took me a good 4 hours but the garage speaker system is now in place.

Ran the speaker wire as planned without problem. It goes from my speaker selector switch off the family room HT receiver's Zone 2 output to the speaker inputs on the sub. Then from there to each speaker. I use the sub's internal crossover (set around 130 Hz) and level controls.

It only took a few songs to get the sound about right to my ears. No further tweaking needed. This is a garage after all!

It does sound very good. With lots of reserve left it plays as loud as I, or the neighbours, would ever want.

Here's a few pics showing the Minimus 7s and the Yamaha sub mounted up in the rafters.

Jeff

That is awesome. You rock! I guess now it's literally. :music-rockout:

 

[Barney]

WOW Jeff. I miss my minimus 7 , they were outstanding & heavy. I'm using a Yammy YST-SW120 in our family room. Had that Yamaha forever.
Rock on my friend but be careful climbing ladders, as we get older, the bones get weaker.

 

[Deleted member 133]

WOW Jeff. I miss my minimus 7 , they were outstanding & heavy. I'm using a Yammy YST-SW120 in our family room. Had that Yamaha forever.
Rock on my friend but be careful climbing ladders, as we get older, the bones get weaker.

I've always liked the design of the Yamaha YST series of subs. I use a YST-SW80 in the living room, and a YST-SW160 has a very specialized role in my main HT.

The just-garaged YST-SW105 has an interesting history of sorts. I bought it from an eBay seller a few years ago. I was looking for a 160 and it was listed as such. But when the (obviously smaller than expected) package arrived at my door, it was found to contain the 105 instead. I contacted the seller and he refunded my full purchase price and said to not bother shipping it back. Cosmetically its got more than its fair share of bumps, bruises, nicks and scrapes. It came missing three of the control knobs. I contacted Yamaha and they sent me replacements - free of charge. But while it does not look like it would win a beauty pageant, it's in excellent functional shape. I'd been using it under my desk in my office (along with a pair of Altec Lansing computer speakers) and it worked there very well. Because it was no beauty queen it was without hesitation that I perched it high in the garage rafters.

Interestingly enough, I was now without a sub in my office set-up (where I do an awful lot of non-critical listening). But then I remembered that I had stashed away a sub/sat system when I dismantled my oldest daughter's bedroom furnishings a number of years ago. I retrieved it and, wouldn't you know it, it's a Yamaha system that uses a YST-MS25 sub. There's that YST again! Because it's designed to only work with its paired Yamaha sats (ie. no speaker connections etc.) I couldn't have used it in the garage, however it's now working great in my office.

Gotta love this hobby!

Jeff

 

[Deleted member 133]

So my daughter is over decorating for the trick or treaters expected to come a knocking shortly and I decided to pipe some scary sounds into the garage. In previous years I'd just stick a portable unit of some kind up in the garage eaves alongside the front walk-up, and put a CD in it on repeat.

This year I figured I'd just fill the garage and let the sound work its way out into the neighbourhood.

So I put on my favourite spooky track (a woman's screaming voice), set it to repeat, and adjusted the volume until it sounded loud enough.

I left it playing for a few minutes as we continued to decorate and when I came in I noticed a loud (enough to hear) fan sound coming from the receiver. Apparently the Pioneer receiver has not only heat sinks, but a fan that kicks in when needed. Strange thing is that the receiver's top has run hot before and the fan has never been on, but now, at an admittedly high volume setting, it's making itself known for the first time.

Funny thing is that, at the volume setting that I'm using (-5dB) for Zone 2, the fan is tracking the screaming voice: screaming starts, fan ramps up; screaming stops briefly, fan stops briefly; etc. At a higher volume setting it runs pretty much constantly; at a lower setting much more intermittently. Neat.

Then again, probably a case of small things amusing (my) small minds.

 

[Yesfan70]

Looks cool Jeff. I did something similar (minus a sub), but I just used the system I had on my back deck. I still need to run a CAT5 cable to where the receiver is located, so I can hook up a spare Squeezebox to it.



I need to get a sub too.