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"OldNick" wrote in message
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I am going to be a real PITA here, to myself and others. I have a 50'
* 30' * 12' shed that is sitting doing nothing, while I fill up a 20'
x 20' "shed" with my gear.

Trouble is, I have to get 350 yards of power lead to the big shed.

BAH!

Kids play!

We had to pay to have 3 phase power run to our location. Just over 2 miles.
Got a damned good break because the single line serving our area was in need
of upgrading anyway. We had to pay only for the third conductor, plus the
distance from the main line to our property. Worth every penny when you
consider my need, owning a 50 KW induction furnace.

Harold. Regarding the amps vs speaker wire thing. I would seriously
look at using signal lead, well-shielded and earthed and driving a new
amp, over running the power to speakers. If you have a listening room,
that's where you listen. The shed will prob. have **** acoustics, and
you are already distorting the sound if you introduce other sounds,
even if you raise the whole thing to tinnitus levels G

Yeah, I've already considered all that, but it's no different from what I'm
used to in the shop environment. My plan is just a slight modification of
something I have already done before, and I was pleased with how that one
turned out.

A halfway decent amp will be better than all the crap you are going to
do to achieve controllable music in the shop. Crickey! Use an FM
transmitter! G

You have full control over volume. You can, if you wish, enter into a
full-fledged equaliser to compensate for room acoustics, volume, etc
etc. All onsite.

I had that, minus the equalizer (had it, but not on site) with my old setup,
which I will emulate here. In fact, I have three sets of controls, the
autoformers I spoke of. They were purchased long ago, from a company in
Utah, where I used to reside, that specializes in sound distribution. I
was totally pleased with the performance they provided, and should be again.
I had the option of turning sound off completely, or louder than was
comfortable, using the same amplifier I intend to use here (barring my
buying a new one). Unless I don't understand, they don't rely on passive
resistance to function. The only difference now will be the speaker set,
which is far more capable, but still efficient. The JBL speakers have horns
for the highs and mid range--so they're not power hogs. I can't
imagine what more I'd need to be happy. I don't expect my listening while
working to parallel my listening while relaxing, just to provide music I can
tolerate. I am very selective in what I listen to and have been known to
go far out of my way to turn off that which annoys me. There will be no
Willie Nelson played here. I'm particularly hard to please when it comes to
vocalists. Can't stand the vast majority of them. I love classical
music, but not all of it. Don't even like all of jazz, my favorite. My
setup is to pacify a crotchety old man that has little patience for things
that don't please him.

No matter what LPad you use, if it will handle the power or not, your
Macintosh/speaker is being aurally abused by using it. It's simple
passive resistive stuff in a complex system that as you have read is
far from passive.

I admit that I have also started to subscribe to the "listen to the
music, not the sound" school. If you are so tied up with the system,
are you enjoying the music? I have just listened to some classical
stuff on a $50 ****-box. It definitely stole from the experience. But
even my boppy, tin-eared wife could understand the difference, so it
was extreme. _AND_ I still liked the music. With something _good_, but
not from Big Mc, the Law of Diminishing Returns bites hard. Add in
environmental shortcomings, and you multiply that.

I have been caught in the trap of listening to the system instead of the
music, but a recent experience convinces me that it's more involved than
that. I'm convinced I'd never be happy with a poor system.

Carmina Burana is a particular favorite of mine. While driving to a
distant town recently, it was being played on the radio. I drive a '94
Dodge pickup truck with a diesel engine, so it's not an old beater, it's a
reasonably new vehicle, still in excellent condition, with a reasonable
sound system. The lows were almost totally absent from the recording,
lows that I had come to love and appreciate when listening at home. From
that I learned that I'm far better off to pursue my objective in a way that
I'm familiar, and tolerate what appears to be minor imperfections in the end
result. Should my setup fail to perform adequately, I can always make
changes. Everything I've done is in conduit, so I have future options.
My approach is the least expensive of any of the options.

Assuming I live long enough to finish what appears to be an interminable
project, I'll give a report on my level of satisfaction. Don't hold your
breath!

Thanks for the comments.

Harold