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Recommendation for MP3 player?

For the MP3 player i have a very old Ipod, but normally use the current phone for stored music. I generally prefer radio in the garage.

For the hardware you can't beat quality vintage stereo or surround sound. If you watch for it this can be found on Marketplace or garage sales for cheap.

For several years I've had 1979-1980 vintage Nikko Stereo & Amp paired with mid-80's Bose satellites & sub in 2 corners & Bose 301's in the other 2 corners. My shop is 19'x19' and even at low volume the sound is full and crisp.

I also use an early Yamaha surround sound with stereo tuner at times. Not as much punch as the Nikko but great sound output.
 
Listen to Marc and Jonathan………and Doug too:sarcastic:. You really can’t beat vintage equipment. Sign me up for an 80’s boombox and those bad boys can carry sound way down the block. Back in the 80’s boombox battles actually existed. The good one’s didn’t crackled and they maintain their clarity, but they love that extra low bass- saying goes “how low can you go”. IYKYK.
 
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Steelart99 said:
I've been busily browsing the world for the Marshall Kilburn II as it is rechargeable rather than hardwired for power. I'll be moving the speaker around and/or taking it on my frequent mountain hikes ... along with a bottle of wine ... and my lovely bride.
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Its kinda big for a bike ride. But you could always strap it to the handlebars like we used to do when we were kids. Lol
 
ripjack13 said:
Its kinda big for a bike ride. But you could always strap it to the handlebars like we used to do when we were kids. Lol
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Just “Jerry rig” a guitar strap or a camera strap and you would start an entirely new fashion trend or fad.

If you ever get in trouble with you other half, you pull a John Cusack……..well Dan, you won’t have the caaarrrr, but you’ll have your bike: and you can’t beat a Peter Gabrielle song, “In Your Eyes”……

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Arn213 said:
Just “Jerry rig” a guitar strap or a camera strap and you would start an entirely new fashion trend or fad.

If you ever get in trouble with you other half, you pull a John Cusack……..well Dan, you won’t have the caaarrrr, but you’ll have your bike: and you can’t beat a Peter Gabrielle song, “In Your Eyes”……
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HAHA I like Peter! :cool: But, I'm more of an offroading kinda guy

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Old phones and IPods work well, but much better, if you want better control of the Playlist, multiple Playlist, save the Playlist, change bpm, edit or want to sample a tune while another plays, is an older laptop with DJ software on it. Bluetooth capability is a plus, but a cord can work well also.

Virtual DJ 8 is a free download and easy to use. It's a great interface to play your music on.

I rarely use this in the garage unless I have a specific genre on my mind. It does require you to actually have the music loaded onto the hard drive.

This and a portable JBL speaker makes for a great evening of patio music.

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ripjack13 said:
View attachment 269382View attachment 269383

Thats the one in my kitchen.
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Marc @ripjack13 - dude, you need this miniature Randy Rhoads white “Flying V” right next to the mini Marshall……….Michelle hopefully will not notice as it will blend in with the white pipe :sarcastic:. Come on man, I know you still have some “pull”- you can get some of your guitar slinger friends to autograph it! You need a really tiny little pen with a very fine point nib as a Sharpie will not work!

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Took the first step: Marshall Kilburn 2 speaker ordered. :cool:

Next step will be finding one of my old cell phones to use as a dedicated player or getting an MP3 player with Bluetooth capability. Either option with good fidelity.

You guys are great :good2:
 
Steelart99 said:
Took the first step: Marshall Kilburn 2 speaker ordered. :cool:

Next step will be finding one of my old cell phones to use as a dedicated player or getting an MP3 player with Bluetooth capability. Either option with good fidelity.

You guys are great :good2:
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I don’t know about the attractiveness part…..…….
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Here's a nickle tour of what I learned about digital music. Two things primarily impact sound quality of digital recordings - bit depth and sampling frequency. Sampling frequency is how often the system takes a "sample" of the digital data. From what I can figure, this is similar to "frames per second (FPS)" in a motion picture. The more FPS the smoother more seamless the picture (think about the old flip-books of a galloping horse vs the old B&W silent movies vs todays movies). Similar for music, the higher the sampling rate, the less chance for rough music. I'm sure this ties in with buffering somehow but that's more technical than I care to get. But most digital music systems these days operate at 44kHz. There are higher frequency systems but what I read is they mostly capture higher sound frequencies we humans can't hear anyway. So there is a diminishing return to pay for a higher frequency system.

Bit depth is best defined as the number of bits per sample. Most common bit rates are 16, 24, and 32 bits. It's pretty easy to find 32 bit systems so that's doable. But bit rates depend on processing capacity, so the higher the bit rate, the more powerful the processor, and the more it costs. The player (processor) produces the signal based on sampling rate and bit depth that goes to your speaker.

So the next piece of the puzzle is the speaker. A cheapo speaker (or ear buds) will convert high end digital data to hollow, tinny sounding noise. Conversely, a high end speaker can't convert a cheapo digital signal into good sound. In a wood shop or job site, where one is typically surrounded by load noise, it might not make sense to buy high end equipment for sound quality. Might make more sense to buy rugged, durable equipment that can stand dust, noise, the possible drop or knock, etc. For less hazardous environments, it makes sense to consider the best sound quality you can afford balanced with battery life, ability to play multiple data formats (e.g. MP3, WAV, FLAC, whatever your music is saved in - some players I saw only handled certain formats which would require one to convert other formats), storage capacity, transportability, and ease of uploading songs, making playlists, etc. If you're playing this through the speakers in your truck, if those aren't decent speakers, you can waste money buying a high end player. The music will only be as good as the weakest part of the system.

I get a kick out of ads for TV's that try to show you how clear the picture is - and the person looking at the ad is looking at it on a cheapo laptop with low resolution.
 
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I feel like I'm being "Flashed" .... :unknown: from message #31
 
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MP3's, Marshall, BT, Bit Depth!!!!!!! My head is spinning. All Lil Mikey wants is a windup mechanical monkey with a set of cymbals!
 
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Mike Hill said:
MP3's, Marshall, BT, Bit Depth!!!!!!! My head is spinning. All Lil Mikey wants is a windup mechanical monkey with a set of cymbals!
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Heck, I just wish I had the hearing capability I had as a youngster :impatient:
 
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A little bit of off-topic dry info:

My hearing took a bit of a beating when I ran an acoustic test facility for a few years. Our facility would generate up to 168 db of sound level pressure. My control room was about 1500' away in a separate concrete walled building and we still all wore ear plugs plus ear muffs. Getting anywhere within about 100' of the chamber during a run would literally make your bones hurt. We didn't deliberately do that. We could run non-stop for days/weeks on end. FWIW, the actual sound level doubles every 3db (logarithmic-ish) ... so since standing 100' from an aircraft jet engine is 140db ... then 168db = OUCH :negative:

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