I'm looking for a good home audio amplifier and speakers. I would like to hook up my MP3 player (Sony Walkman) to an amp and speakers to put out on my back deck by the pool. I'm looking for quite a bit of volume and decent sound quality. Any advice is much appreciated.
Looking for Technical Audio Advice
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I'm don't know for sure but you may still be able to use the speakers with you MP3 player.
What your budget?
There are all kinds of options. Simple "boom box" style systems that connect via bluetooth to your phone, etc. Or you could go the route of a dedicated system of media sources, amps, speakers, etc. But it all depends on your budget.
Any of those suggestions will work for your needs.
If you were looking for audiophile quality sound indoors, there's only two words you need to know, tube amps. Nearly 100 years in use and tubes are still the gold standard for producing excellent sound. Tube amps are amazing things when matched with a high quality output transformer and the proper speakers.
I better shut up or I'm going to talk myself into blowing a bunch of money in a major upgrade over what I'm running now. Especially with me being home alone this week. I can empty a decent sized bank account on quality audio equipment in under a half and hour. "I'll take that, and four more as a back up. Is that a genuine Indian blue diamond stylus? Give me 12. How do I want to pay? Charge it to my offshore dog and ponies account as usual, Throckmorton."
If you were looking for audiophile quality sound indoors, there's only two words you need to know, tube amps. Nearly 100 years in use and tubes are still the gold standard for producing excellent sound. Tube amps are amazing things when matched with a high quality output transformer and the proper speakers.
I better shut up or I'm going to talk myself into blowing a bunch of money in a major upgrade over what I'm running now. Especially with me being home alone this week. I can empty a decent sized bank account on quality audio equipment in under a half and hour. "I'll take that, and four more as a back up. Is that a genuine Indian blue diamond stylus? Give me 12. How do I want to pay? Charge it to my offshore dog and ponies account as usual, Throckmorton."
I have a Pyle Pro PA that is Bluetooth and wireless that I use for my back deck and my tailgates.
As always, probably the most important question to answer before commenting any further.....something tells me country might not be especially likely to follow Rafone's suggested platinum-plated path :grimace:
I have a yamaha amp and tuner (don't know the model) but is very powerful and produces crisp sound matched to my Klipsch KG4 speakers. They are absolutely the best speaker I've ever own. I supplemented the system with KG2. I doubt they make these anymore. I bought the KG2s in an auction held at Sound Investments when they were on High Street way back when.
It really boils down to money. However, it you want to listen to the music critically, spend the money on high quality equipment. Start with the speakers. That is the voice of the system.
Crutchfield catalog might be a good place to start to assess options and pricing.
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I see it all the time. People wanting to do something, but not knowing how much they're going to be willing to spend. I sell and install Home Automation equipment, and do plenty of outdoor audio, and the budget is always one of the first questions that has to be asked. Mainly because the options are so endless.
If his budget is a few thousand, then I could recommend something nice that could eventually go beyond just backyard audio.
Here are three that I would recommend:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1243927-REG/pyle_pro_psufm1072bt_disco_jam_2_bluetooth.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/prod...0ibt_800w_wireless_rechargeable_portable.html
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/853217-REG/pyle_pro_pwma1090ui_800w_dual_channel.html
I have a little ion tailgate speaker that has never let me down. I consider it my first born.
https://www.ionaudio.com/products/details/Tailgater-iPA77
I do have to hide the microphone from my uncouth associates.
LOL @ Born! Have you been looking in my windows?
You forget I'm a radio guy. I've got Orban audio processor in a rack upstairs and another one in storage. Those things cost three grand 30 years ago and all the do is optimize sound. One was given to me.
One thing about radio stations and studios, there's a lot of redundancy involved to keep things up and running. I know a few guys who build and and replace studios and stations. You can buy some amazing stuff for pennies on the dollar from those fellas if you've got the cash on hand when they've finished a job. If had to pay retail for most of the stuff I have, I'd be living in storage lockers sleeping between the equipment and racks.
I know a guy in an adjoining county that has a 10kW AM transmitter in his barn he bought from one of them. Other the WWVA and couple of other stations he's got the fourth or fifth most powerful transmitter in the state sitting in his barn while slowly restoring it. If he was to modify it to broadcast on shortwave with right antenna he could be heard coast to coast and in Europe with a strong signal. As he's a former pirate broadcaster, I don't ask questions. Out of sight and out of mind.
If any of you Kanawha/Putnam County guys remember a guy by the name of Elmer Fike who ran Fike Chemicals in Nitro, Elmer was a ham radio operator. He was also huge contributor to the Republican Party. In the days when the FCC would take your CB radio for cussing on the air, Elmer had a 5 kW converted AM transmitter in his basement for AM mode ham work. The legal power limit for AM mode is 1.5 kW. The FCC would take all your equipment and fine you heavily for exceeding it. Not Elmer. Elmer was a personal friend of Nixon and Barry Goldwater, When Elmer would key the mic on that transmitter, he would futz up TV's for miles around.
A lady Mom knew taught at Rock Branch Elementary School off the hill from Elmer's house. Elmer would wipe out their intercomm system on a near daily basis for years with that beast. The FCC wouldn't go near him. Elmer swung a big stick locally and in Washington. The guy was worth tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds. He tooled around in a beat up old Chevette wearing bib overalls. He was buddy of my Grandpa's, I used to love to hear them swap lies for hours. Elmer was something else.
You forget I'm a radio guy. I've got Orban audio processor in a rack upstairs and another one in storage. Those things cost three grand 30 years ago and all the do is optimize sound. One was given to me.
One thing about radio stations and studios, there's a lot of redundancy involved to keep things up and running. I know a few guys who build and and replace studios and stations. You can buy some amazing stuff for pennies on the dollar from those fellas if you've got the cash on hand when they've finished a job. If had to pay retail for most of the stuff I have, I'd be living in storage lockers sleeping between the equipment and racks.
I know a guy in an adjoining county that has a 10kW AM transmitter in his barn he bought from one of them. Other the WWVA and couple of other stations he's got the fourth or fifth most powerful transmitter in the state sitting in his barn while slowly restoring it. If he was to modify it to broadcast on shortwave with right antenna he could be heard coast to coast and in Europe with a strong signal. As he's a former pirate broadcaster, I don't ask questions. Out of sight and out of mind.
If any of you Kanawha/Putnam County guys remember a guy by the name of Elmer Fike who ran Fike Chemicals in Nitro, Elmer was a ham radio operator. He was also huge contributor to the Republican Party. In the days when the FCC would take your CB radio for cussing on the air, Elmer had a 5 kW converted AM transmitter in his basement for AM mode ham work. The legal power limit for AM mode is 1.5 kW. The FCC would take all your equipment and fine you heavily for exceeding it. Not Elmer. Elmer was a personal friend of Nixon and Barry Goldwater, When Elmer would key the mic on that transmitter, he would futz up TV's for miles around.
A lady Mom knew taught at Rock Branch Elementary School off the hill from Elmer's house. Elmer would wipe out their intercomm system on a near daily basis for years with that beast. The FCC wouldn't go near him. Elmer swung a big stick locally and in Washington. The guy was worth tens of millions of dollars, if not hundreds. He tooled around in a beat up old Chevette wearing bib overalls. He was buddy of my Grandpa's, I used to love to hear them swap lies for hours. Elmer was something else.
Coop be careful recharging that battery. They tend to let off gas that is highly explosive in tight or closed spaces when charging. A porch or patio with an outlet for the charger
is the way to go.
The info is out there with things, but it's often ignored. I love the little buggers, but you've got to be careful with them. A spark at the right time and there goes the room.
You should come tailgate with me on the Mountain Top man. We let the freak flag fly.
Thanks for all the advice. My budget is definitely not a few thousand. I was hoping to spend a few hundred (total or each, speaker and amp, if need be). I'm looking for decent audio quality and enough volume such that the neighbors a 100 yards away definitely know I'm listening to some music.
No, the sealed lead acid battery they're selling a the bottom of the page for speakers such as the Ion.
Then your best bet is the type of device Coop linked. Simple, decent sound, portable.
As a kid in Ripley, I was taken to the annual Lincoln Day Dinner there where Elmer would pass out his pamphlet of political musings. Years later I was dressed out in a protective suit w/supplied air as Elmer in regular clothes and no respiratory protection took the US EPA team I was with on a tour of his shut down Nitro facility. The tour didn't last long as Elmer wouldn't stop shaking drums as we passed them to see if anything was in them. We then went to his office to listen to him rant about the plant shutdown, etc. He was quite the character.
I know. He once told 'em to get out, he could fix it himself. All he needed was some pipe!
I used to get a kick out of visiting relatives in Nitro when I would come back this way in that era. You'd have all the people from EPA down around the pool and the park in moon suits. The residents would be swimming and playing ball, looking at the EPA folks like they were a bunch of nuts.
Nitro has a huge boat ramp built on a Monsanto asbestos dump in what used to be a backwater. That beats what they had in there before. In the 70's when they bulldozed fill over the thing and they built a park on top of it for the local kids! Playground, sandboxes, a basketball court, it was crazy. But so was the Mayor in Nitro at the time. The EPA shut that park down a couple of years before Elmer faced off with them.
When I was a small boy, Fike Chemicals shared the same building with Raleigh Junk, which is still in the place. When I'd be up visiting my Dad's people I'd hang out with my cousin. His Uncle by marriage worked for Elmer burying barrels with a bulldozer and handling all the other nasty stuff. We would walk over and talk to him when we saw him as we all played baseball in a little field there. There was nice sized chunk of vacant land there along the river. As the property that Elmer leased got filled up, he leased it the other property and started burying barrels.
At that time riverfront property in Kanawha Valley wasn't as highly valued as it is now, it was so polluted there were massive fish kills in the summer when the oxygen levels fell to zero, it reeked like the hinges of Hades. The guy who owned the land, told Elmer he could lease it to bury barrels there while he got his plant in Nitro proper up and running. That area used to be the unincorporated town of Sattes. No zoning laws.
Flash forward 40 years. If you go to Roadside Park and look across the river you'll see a bunch of McMansions. Two huge ones are built on the piece of land Elmer buried his barrels under. The largest of the entire bunch is built over the septic system of the initial jewel in my Great Uncle's trailer court empire, the house's annex is built over the old open sewer that served that entire end of town. The ground is so damned polluted they'll never get the chemicals out.
I can't go to Roadside Park without looking across the river and thinking of Elmer.
I used to get a kick out of visiting relatives in Nitro when I would come back this way in that era. You'd have all the people from EPA down around the pool and the park in moon suits. The residents would be swimming and playing ball, looking at the EPA folks like they were a bunch of nuts.
Nitro has a huge boat ramp built on a Monsanto asbestos dump in what used to be a backwater. That beats what they had in there before. In the 70's when they bulldozed fill over the thing and they built a park on top of it for the local kids! Playground, sandboxes, a basketball court, it was crazy. But so was the Mayor in Nitro at the time. The EPA shut that park down a couple of years before Elmer faced off with them.
When I was a small boy, Fike Chemicals shared the same building with Raleigh Junk, which is still in the place. When I'd be up visiting my Dad's people I'd hang out with my cousin. His Uncle by marriage worked for Elmer burying barrels with a bulldozer and handling all the other nasty stuff. We would walk over and talk to him when we saw him as we all played baseball in a little field there. There was nice sized chunk of vacant land there along the river. As the property that Elmer leased got filled up, he leased it the other property and started burying barrels.
At that time riverfront property in Kanawha Valley wasn't as highly valued as it is now, it was so polluted there were massive fish kills in the summer when the oxygen levels fell to zero, it reeked like the hinges of Hades. The guy who owned the land, told Elmer he could lease it to bury barrels there while he got his plant in Nitro proper up and running. That area used to be the unincorporated town of Sattes. No zoning laws.
Flash forward 40 years. If you go to Roadside Park and look across the river you'll see a bunch of McMansions. Two huge ones are built on the piece of land Elmer buried his barrels under. The largest of the entire bunch is built over the septic system of the initial jewel in my Great Uncle's trailer court empire, the house's annex is built over the old open sewer that served that entire end of town. The ground is so damned polluted they'll never get the chemicals out.
I can't go to Roadside Park without looking across the river and thinking of Elmer.
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