Thank you all for the awesome ideas and suggestions. I really do appreciate it. I thought it was time to update this thread on what I decided, purchased, and installed. To start, this forum was not the only place I asked advise for this. My wife was also involved. Her suggestion was to go with a smart speaker. A bit more expensive that what I wanted, but honestly, cheaper than some of the recommendations listed here.
I poured a ton of research into smart speakers, having never owned one. I needed to know what they were and how it would benefit me over a wired speaker hooked to my old home theater amp.
To start, I don't need to have a home theater amp or wires. My old theater amp does have Bluetooth connectivity so I could stream Spotify to it from my phone, but if I wanted to walk out of the shop for a few minutes, or to the other end of my shop, it would lose connectivity. FM radio is also possible, but honestly, who likes to listen to ads while working? I could hook up an old laptop or mp3 player perhaps, and that was the direction I was going, until my wife's suggestion.
A smart speaker, hooked to my wifi (I do have strong wifi in my shop) does not need anything but power and a shelf to sit on. Ok, it does need a bit more, namely access to an app on my phone, but thats really only for initial setup. They can also alert me to different things like when someone opens my driveway gate, or when dinner is ready. I know when someone comes over, expected or not, such as deliveries. The gate opens and the speakers make a chime sound. I know then to go greet whoever it is. Or my wife can send me a message telling me dinner is about to be ready. Call me all sorts of names you wish, just not late to dinner. But most importantly, it streams music without the need of my phone.
After doing a bunch of research, I decided to take advantage of a Black Friday deal and get two Nest Audio speakers.
I paid $175 for two speakers. One of the things that pushed me towards these speakers is how they link to each other, making them stereo. I placed one on either side of the shop, facing each other. The sound is quite good! When turned up, I can hear them over my air compressor. The little shelf they sit on is from amazon.
I use my voice to control them. Simply tell the speakers to start playing music, and without my phone even in the shop, they play. I often tell the speakers to set an alarm for whatever time I need to leave the shop, then start playing music. When its time to head inside to shower, to make that doctors appointment in time, the speakers let me know without looking at a clock. Lets me focus on the project I'm working on.
After having these up for about a week now, I can say, I think I made the correct choice. I'm not overly concerned that Google is listening to my shop conversations. I mean, my phone does that anyway, and if Google really wants to listen to
that chatter, its their loss!
Again, thank you to all who have provided their input. I really do appreciate it.
