Stereo In The Elements


Over years I have accumulated a few leftover pieces of equipment.  I have a detached garage that I am tinker in and I'd like to put a simple stereo system out there.  My question is if a stereo can weather well in an uncontrolled garage environment.  It certainly gets cold in the garage but I haven't felt it get overly hot.  With that said I wouldn't be working in the garage in the dead of winter - December through February.  Therefore the operating range would be 40 degrees at the coldest to 90 degrees at the most (I have my limits for manual labor).   However the equipment would not be removed from the garage outside of those temperatures.  The setup would be permanent.  

Current setup would be:

Klipsch Heresy speakers
Chip Amps (Clone or Gaincell...whatever you prefer)
CJ Premap (yes with tubes)
The source will be a DAC (not owned yet) and some sort of streaming device (Auralic/MicroRendu/etc).  Must be Roon Ready.

Basically I don't want to kill equipment in 3-5 years, but I am OK if they are a little worse for the wear in 20 years.  




chadlesko
One major issue is going to be condensation. Cold is OK, but not cold and damp.

Best,

E
condensation changes is factor. i would be only concerned about speakers. would not want to destroy heresys for their collectors value. 
use outdoor speakers or some technics speakers purchased at garage sale or good will.
Mmmm, I wouldn't subject 'nice' equipment to the rigors of a garage environment.  Dust is the biggest enemy...heat and cold to the levels you've stated aren't really an issue.  Moisture would be on a par with that, as Erik pointed out.  If the space is subject to 'feeling damp' in the am, I'd hesitate putting those units out there...

Current shop array for me is an older Sony receiver and CD changer mated to an old SAE 2-band parametric eq.  I can plug my phone with Spotify into it; local OTA radio here is pretty dismal...  The Sony drives a 'low budget' line array of 3 Pioneer bookshelf  pairs hung from the ceiling that are
loud enough to be heard over the machinery when desired.

If you want a 'garage stereo', I'd opt for that..  Unless you've got one of those 'pristine' spaces one sees in the adverts for tiled floors and matching tool cabinets.  My shop has AC and heat, but it's not run 24/7/365.  And since we work wood, dust gets EVERYWHERE despite efforts to minimize it.

Unless it'll break your heart to part with the equipment, I'd sell it off.  Buy some stuff you can live with and not suffer heartbreak over if it died.  Use the excess $ to add to the 'main system' or Bluetooth it so it can drive the garage set....

That's my next move, but it's not a big priority at present...

Good luck....;)
to hear something over operated machinery the best to use is noise cancelling headphones, but than there are cases when you actually want to hear machinery and not tunes.
It's a garage !!! - I would never put those components in it - the dust will get everywhere and will absorb humidity = damage beyond repair.

I'd give that system a year - then it's doomed for the garbage.

But - it's your system

Personally I'd buy a mini system, like those from Yamaha - they are surprisingly good and when it dies you are only out $300

A least - buy some outdoor speakers - they are built for this type of duty

Regards... Steve
Buy yourself a used system; integrated amp, DAC and bookshelf speakers (possibly a sub). Don't put those Klipsch speakers in a garage.

Enjoy the music without concern over the system.