Bookshelf speakers for garage

[Eric Z]

hello-

i am in the market for some bookshelf speakers that will be used in my garage. i do not want to spend over $250 for 2 speakers mostly because it's for my garage.

any recommendations? i plan on looking at the usual brands through a dealer and online (used)- def tech, mirage, b&w, canton, etc...

i hear a lot of people talking about athena speakers from best buy- i went there to listen to them and i couldn't even tell if they were good or not (since there was so much background noise in the store). any thoughts on those?

my garage can also get cold in the winter since i live in the chicagoland area. should i be concerned if the temperature is near 35-40 degrees? would it be better to go with outdoor speakers?

thanks!!
eric

[topspeed]

I would definitely go with outdoor speaker because if you're anything like me, the garage door is pretty much open all weekend while I'm goofing around outside. I dunno, sound quality isn't really paramount to me while I'm working on the cars or whatever because I'm moving around so much. I'd try to get the cheapest stuff I could find, maybe something from Rat Shack or check ebay. If you want something a little better, Cambridge Soundworks always provide big bang for your buck and have wide dispersion patterns which is important in this kind of app.
http://www.cambridgesoundworks.com/s...ry=spk_outdoor

Hope this helps.

[Eric Z]

that definitely helps, topspeed! good point about the garage door being open a lot! i agree with the sound quality point as well. it's just hard sometimes to 'settle' for a speaker that may not be great quality. i just have to keep on reminding myself, that IT'S FOR THE GARAGE!

one more quick question- are outdoor speakers built to be more durable regarding colder temps? i know outdoors usually have a metal screen/grate, but that's all i see as a difference.

thanks again!
ez

[dean_martin]

You might consider getting a pair of used NHT SuperOne xu's. The xu designation means they have a hard plastic enclosure. They are more durable than the standard SuperOne and they also come with wall mounting brackets. You won't need stands and won't have to worry about spills in the garage ruining your speakers. They're also a sealed box so you won't have to worry about dust or other debris accumulating in a port. (Technically, they're not outdoor speakers, but they seem like they would be a nice compromise.)

On the downside, they're not the easiest speaker to drive because of their sealed design, however, I have a pair that I drive with a 50wpc NAD integrated and they do fine. As far as their sound, I would say they have tight, controlled bass that doesn't go real deep but I think they go low enough. The highs are smooth rather than bright. They also present a nice soundstage. Continuing on the downside, you probably won't be able to audition them before buying, however, I've seen them recently on audiogon and they may still be available on www.yawaaudio.com. They were $300-350 speakers that can be found used for around $150.

[bargainseeker]

I also would recommend outdoor speakers for an unheated garage.

An indoor/outdoor speaker that I can recommend from personal experience is the BIC America DV52si. I bought a set of four of these with the matching center speaker when I put together a low cost home theater system for my father-in-law. I was frankly astonished at how good they sound considering the price I paid (I bought them for peanuts on uBid). They have a very neutral full-range sound. They sound quite good on all types of vocals -- a difficult test for many loudspeakers. Here is the Audio Review reviews section on this speaker. Here are reviews for the same speaker in its indoor-only cabinet. Amazon.com offers these speakers in silver for $73.99 with free shipping. They are also available in white and in black.

[Eric Z]

thanks for the recommendations, guys! this definitely helps in my search of inexpensive speakers. one additional question- i am going to using the same receiver (yamaha 5760) to power these 2 bookshelf speakers as well as my main HT in my living room- (the living room wall is the same wall as the garage). would i just be able to run speaker wire from the speaker b connection? my main goal is to be able to listen to my speakers like this-

1. just listen to speakers in garage
2. listen in both garage and living room (obviously same music since it's off of one receiver)
3. just listen to HT in living room

i'm thinking i can just switch from speaker A to B and that should take care of it. am i on the right page?

thanks!

[bargainseeker]

thanks for the recommendations, guys! this definitely helps in my search of inexpensive speakers. one additional question- i am going to using the same receiver (yamaha 5760) to power these 2 bookshelf speakers as well as my main HT in my living room- (the living room wall is the same wall as the garage). would i just be able to run speaker wire from the speaker b connection? my main goal is to be able to listen to my speakers like this-

1. just listen to speakers in garage
2. listen in both garage and living room (obviously same music since it's off of one receiver)
3. just listen to HT in living room

i'm thinking i can just switch from speaker A to B and that should take care of it. am i on the right page?

thanks!

Yes, that should work in most cases. It depends on how the receiver handles the B speakers and on how low are the impedances of the A and B speakers. Check your Yamaha 5760 manual. I think Yamaha uses the rear channel amplifiers to drive the B speakers. If that is true, you will lose the rear channels in the living room when listening in both rooms but you don't have to worry about low impedance. Some receivers put the B speakers in parallel with the main left and right A speakers. If that is true of your receiver, you should set your receiver for 4 ohm speakers on the back and should not run both A and B speakers at once if your main living room speakers already have low impedance (e.g., magnepans). In that case also, you should choose 8 ohm speakers for the garage.

[topspeed]

one additional question- i am going to using the same receiver (yamaha 5760) to power these 2 bookshelf speakers as well as my main HT in my living room- (the living room wall is the same wall as the garage). would i just be able to run speaker wire from the speaker b connection?

That should work. If your Yammie has multi-zone capability, I'd utilize that function as it will allow you to listen to different things on you HT and in the garage at the same time.

Outdoor speakers sport more differences than just hard plastic enclosures. Good ones are weather resistant and they utilize different materials in the construction of the driver to avoid premature rotting or damage from the elements. Most of the important stuff (crossover) is water sealed too. There's a reason they are rated for outdoor use and it's not the just the cabinet they come in.

[Lensman]

i am in the market for some bookshelf speakers that will be used in my garage. i do not want to spend over $250 for 2 speakers mostly because it's for my garage.

any recommendations? i plan on looking at the usual brands through a dealer and online (used)- def tech, mirage, b&w, canton, etc...

i hear a lot of people talking about athena speakers from best buy- i went there to listen to them and i couldn't even tell if they were good or not (since there was so much background noise in the store). any thoughts on those?

my garage can also get cold in the winter since i live in the chicagoland area. should i be concerned if the temperature is near 35-40 degrees? would it be better to go with outdoor speakers?

As Topspeed recommended, you should definitely go for weather resistant speakers. Given your budget and stated preference for speakers from a company on the higher end, you might want to add Paradigm's Stylus speakers to your list of considerations. Paradigm's catalog describes the Stylus series as having fully sealed enclosures (no ports) and specifies them as weather, water and UV resistant. They have aluminum grills and come with the necessary brackets for wall mounting. They're also magnetically shielded and have an available matching center channel in case you want to put in a home theater out there.

Here's a link to the Stylus pages on Paradigm's site:

http://www.paradigm.ca/Website/SiteP...lusseries.html

[bargainseeker]

I was browsing the web this evening and found some other outdoor speakers you may want to try. See the new Rocket OD100 Outdoor Speakers at $99 per pair. Based on the quality of their other speakers (made for them by Swan), I expect that these outdoor speakers will offer great value for the money. If I were buying outdoor speakers with my own money right now, these are the ones I'd order. If they didn't live up to my expectations, then I would take advantage of AV123's no-questions-asked 30-day in-home satisfaction guarantee.

[46minaudio]

http://www.hometheaterdirect.com/
Give the $59 pair a try.30 day trial and 5 year waranty....

[Eric Z]

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!!

There's no big rush for these speakers (is there ever a rush?), so I think I'm going to shop around online as well as local places to looks for closeouts, floor models, returns, etc.

Thanks again!!