Speakers and FM transmitter

[~DOC~]

Just looking for opinions and what you do for sound. Do you use speaker and Fm transmitter both? Or just one? 

What equipement do you use? What’s extras did you purchase? Cables?  How did you hook it up? How did you get your transmitter several feet away from the source? If you can name the exact equipement and where you bought it.

Finally how do you rate your FM transmission? What issues did you have to overcome? 

I am at that point to purchase and I want to make a well informed decision. 

Thank you in advance

[Mr. P]

I use a fm transmitter from my pc which transmits to a stereo receiver for my outdoor speakers and to car radio's. You don't need to go expensive as by law you are not suppose to transmit too far.

here is one of my cheaper but very reliable transmitters:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CM2VPMQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited November 1, 2018 by Mr. P

[~DOC~]

59 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

I use a fm transmitter from my pc which transmits to a stereo receiver for my outdoor speakers and to car radio's. You don't need to go expensive as by law you are not suppose to transmit too far.

here is one of my cheaper but very reliable transmitters:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CM2VPMQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have looked at that one but there are many complaint for hum / Hiss noise. Did you experience this? This unit hooks to the PC with a 3.5 mm audio cable. How much of an extension can I install. My PC is in the basement and at the back. I would say that most will tell me I need to mount closer the road. 

[Godney]

If your looking for a quality transmitter look to EDM they are pricey but the quality of sound is worth it.    Also i do have speakers on my system for people on the sidewalk and to answer your question about antennas i use a handmade J Pole antenna  tuned to 88.5 mz

[Speedster]

I use the FM transmitter that came with the TSO ShowTime Central Starter Package.  That's for the people who drive by and want to listen in their cars. 

For people walking/jogging down our streat, I run a long audio cable from ShowTime Central to a Yorkville Coliseum Outdoor Powered Speaker that is placed outside underneath our living room window.  I had it set on a timer to power on at 4:00 pm and power off at 9:00 pm.  If you do a google search you can probably find it for about $150, which is what I paid for it last year (can't remember the site I bought it from lol). 

[Mr. P]

3 hours ago, ~DOC~ said:

I have looked at that one but there are many complaint for hum / Hiss noise. Did you experience this? This unit hooks to the PC with a 3.5 mm audio cable. How much of an extension can I install. My PC is in the basement and at the back. I would say that most will tell me I need to mount closer the road. 

I have been using mine for eight years without a single issue. You will also find that most people use this type of transmitter without any issues as well.

[mpageler]

|For Halloween night, I  bring out the powered speakers from my desktop computer.  Rest of the time for Halloween and Christmas, I  run just the FM transmittal with no additional speakers.     I spend a little more and when with an EDM transmitter.  Lots of past thread on transmitters if you do a thread title search for "fm transmitter". After 4 season with EDM, I added a j-pole antena to boost sound quality.   I like to listen with personal readio and just wasn't cutting it w/o a proper antena. 

 

[GriswoldStyle]

12 hours ago, ~DOC~ said:

I have looked at that one but there are many complaint for hum / Hiss noise. Did you experience this? This unit hooks to the PC with a 3.5 mm audio cable. How much of an extension can I install. My PC is in the basement and at the back. I would say that most will tell me I need to mount closer the road. 

Normally that is the audio cable. I just use the audio cables with shields on them. Everytime I try the cheap cables from Amazon or eBay or even the cheap one that comes with the transmitter,  I get hum or hiss issues. Buy a quality shielded audio cable and most times you won't have any issues. Most of these transmitters are all the exact same thing and model but just with a different name stamped on it.

[ItsMeBobO]

1 hour ago, GriswoldStyle said:

Normally that is the audio cable. I just use the audio cables with shields on them. Everytime I try the cheap cables from Amazon or eBay or even the cheap one that comes with the transmitter,  I get hum or hiss issues. Buy a quality shielded audio cable and most times you won't have any issues. Most of these transmitters are all the exact same thing and model but just with a different name stamped on it.

Troubles I have had in the past turned out to be the cables.   Get a spare.   Monoprice has good prices but... their low end stuff is more likely to fail. 

[PhilMassey]

Computers are inherently messy devices electrically and RF wise, and ground loops are very common when connecting to any other audio devices. One of these can sometimes help.

https://www.amazon.com/JacobsParts-AFILTER-B-2-Channel-Stereo-Isolator/dp/B00TED5T64/ref=sr_1_10/147-2873173-8796653?ie=UTF8&qid=1541164036&sr=8-10&keywords=audio+isolator 

Optical SPDIF connections are best of all, but not usually an option for our uses.

[tlogan]

I use the whole house transmitter I bought with my package and two outdoor speakers. I use Cat5 to run to the speakers. You can double up the strands to create a left/right pair and you only have to run one cable from the amp to the speakers. Haven't had any issues and I can hear the radio as soon as I turn in to my neighborhood (I'm the first house).  

[k6ccc]

23 hours ago, ~DOC~ said:

Just looking for opinions and what you do for sound. Do you use speaker and Fm transmitter both? Or just one? 

Both.  The speakers are kept pretty quiet so it does not annoy the neighbors, but just loud enough that people on the sidewalk can hear.  The speakers get shut off at 9:00 PM.

23 hours ago, ~DOC~ said:

Finally how do you rate your FM transmission? What issues did you have to overcome? 

My first year I used the Whole House transmitter (better called the Whole Room transmitter).  Even with a well known tricks to make it transmit better, is was pretty bad.  The range was dismal.  By that I mean that as it came out of the box, the useful range was a single digit number of feet.  With a semi-real antenna on it and the hidden high power switch, it would at least get across the street...

After that I have used a CZE-05b with a fairly real antenna.  It worked well enough that I put an attenuator between the radio and the antenna.  Audio quality is very good.

23 hours ago, ~DOC~ said:

What equipment do you use? What’s extras did you purchase? Cables?  How did you hook it up? How did you get your transmitter several feet away from the source? If you can name the exact equipment and where you bought it. 

I fully admit that my situation is NOT normal.  At the bottom of this post is a diagram of my audio distribution, and here I will explain it.  My show computer originally was located in my family room.  So the audio distribution is fed from the family room.  When I moved the show computer to the garage data cabinet, I had to add 70 feet of cable to get into the family room.  In order to send low level audio any long distance, it MUST be done some degree of properly or else it will get noisy.  The primary requirement is that it be sent as a balanced audio line, and not unbalanced.  Almost all consumer equipment uses unbalanced inputs and outputs - which is fine if you are running audio from your CD player to your stereo in the same stack of stuff (I'm not getting into digital or optical connections here).  Fortunately it is very easy to convert an unbalanced line to a balanced line with the use of an isolation transformer.  There are a few other ways, but a transformer is simple, cheep, and works quite well.  So at my show computer, I come out of a sound card with the typical 3.5mm stereo phone plug which consists of three wires (left, right, and common ground).  That goes just a few inches to a pair of isolation transformers (one for each channel) to make balanced audio.  Each channel is then carried via a separate shielded twisted pair cable to the sound mixer in the family room.  Note that there is no connection between the ground of the shielded cable and the ground of the 3.5mm phone plug.  To keep this slightly shorter, I wont get into the details in the mixer, but suffice it to say that it outputs separate outputs to the yard speakers and the FM transmitter.  The Main output of the mixer is a true balanced output and runs through a pair of about 140 feet of shielded twisted pair cables (one per channel).  The end of these cables are another pair of isolation transformers to convert the signal back to three wire unbalanced line to a 3.5mm phone plug which connects to the FM transmitter.  The Aux output of the mixer is a semi-balanced output so I run that into isolation transformers, then through about 110 feet of shielded twisted pair cables.  At the amplifiers there is another pair of isolation transformers and then into the two amplifiers.  Each amp is a 75 watt per channel amp with the same audio being fed into both inputs.  The amps sit on a shelf in my bedroom closet:

  Each 8 ohm output drives a single 75 watt rated speaker permanently installed in the front yard:

Here's the signal line drawing:

Edited November 2, 2018 by k6ccc

[~DOC~]

5 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Both.  The speakers are kept pretty quiet so it does not annoy the neighbors, but just loud enough that people on the sidewalk can hear.  The speakers get shut off at 9:00 PM.

My first year I used the Whole House transmitter (better called the Whole Room transmitter).  Even with a well known tricks to make it transmit better, is was pretty bad.  The range was dismal.  By that I mean that as it came out of the box, the useful range was a single digit number of feet.  With a semi-real antenna on it and the hidden high power switch, it would at least get across the street...

After that I have used a CZE-05b with a fairly real antenna.  It worked well enough that I put an attenuator between the radio and the antenna.  Audio quality is very good.

I fully admit that my situation is NOT normal.  At the bottom of this post is a diagram of my audio distribution, and here I will explain it.  My show computer originally was located in my family room.  So the audio distribution is fed from the family room.  When I moved the show computer to the garage data cabinet, I had to add 70 feet of cable to get into the family room.  In order to send low level audio any long distance, it MUST be done some degree of properly or else it will get noisy.  The primary requirement is that it be sent as a balanced audio line, and not unbalanced.  Almost all consumer equipment uses unbalanced inputs and outputs - which is fine if you are running audio from your CD player to your stereo in the same stack of stuff (I'm not getting into digital or optical connections here).  Fortunately it is very easy to convert an unbalanced line to a balanced line with the use of an isolation transformer.  There are a few other ways, but a transformer is simple, cheep, and works quite well.  So at my show computer, I come out of a sound card with the typical 3.5mm stereo phone plug which consists of three wires (left, right, and common ground).  That goes just a few inches to a pair of isolation transformers (one for each channel) to make balanced audio.  Each channel is then carried via a separate shielded twisted pair cable to the sound mixer in the family room.  Note that there is no connection between the ground of the shielded cable and the ground of the 3.5mm phone plug.  To keep this slightly shorter, I wont get into the details in the mixer, but suffice it to say that it outputs separate outputs to the yard speakers and the FM transmitter.  The Main output of the mixer is a true balanced output and runs through a pair of about 140 feet of shielded twisted pair cables (one per channel).  The end of these cables are another pair of isolation transformers to convert the signal back to three wire unbalanced line to a 3.5mm phone plug which connects to the FM transmitter.  The Aux output of the mixer is a semi-balanced output so I run that into isolation transformers, then through about 110 feet of shielded twisted pair cables.  At the amplifiers there is another pair of isolation transformers and then into the two amplifiers.  Each amp is a 75 watt per channel amp with the same audio being fed into both inputs.  The amps sit on a shelf in my bedroom closet:

  Each 8 ohm output drives a single 75 watt rated speaker permanently installed in the front yard:

Here's the signal line drawing:

WOW Nice your serious about your sound........

So where you are at is my goal but how about starting out?

[~DOC~]

My current thought run 3.5 mm 25ft. away hooked up to FM transmiiter  (FM not decided). What should I add?

Also not sure about speakers yet and how to use them. I figure just use the FM transmitter to run my stereo which runs the speakers. Any suggestions on outdoor speakers?

[k6ccc]

One of the easiest is one or more FM receivers driving speakers and the show computer only driving the FM transmitter.  More when I get back to a computer.

 

[ItsMeBobO]

A $5 garage sale boom box will pick up your FM signal for those who get out of their cars.   No wires.  No amps.  No fixed mounting.  Nothing to bury,  hide or fuss over.  Actually I like having the boom box out for people to see that they should tune their radio.  An amazing percent of people just dont get that I could be transmitting.     I have a very expensive indoor home theater sound system but expectations there do not flow into the yard.

[PhilMassey]

I do the same thing as Bob. Seal it up in a black garbage bag and poof......weatherproof.

[dansamy]

I got this for sitting on the porch for Halloween

https://www.walmart.com/ip/G-project-G-boom-2-Wireless-Speaker/323944843

Worked great. 

 

[james morris]

I use Orion 5000 used to be black box Fm transmitter  I bought a 500 watt amp at pawn shop 75 dollars I use a pair of kicker out door speakers puts out great sound

Edited November 4, 2018 by james morris

[JPat]

On 11/1/2018 at 8:26 PM, Speedster said:

I use the FM transmitter that came with the TSO ShowTime Central Starter Package.  That's for the people who drive by and want to listen in their cars. 

For people walking/jogging down our streat, I run a long audio cable from ShowTime Central to a Yorkville Coliseum Outdoor Powered Speaker that is placed outside underneath our living room window.  I had it set on a timer to power on at 4:00 pm and power off at 9:00 pm.  If you do a google search you can probably find it for about $150, which is what I paid for it last year (can't remember the site I bought it from lol). 

I run the same set up and works great.  Cars can pick up the broadcast halfway down the street and those who walk or bike up can hear is broadcast into the street from the house.