Garage Majal: Turning Up the Tunes

I can appreciate some quality sound from a good stereo, but I prefer to spend my disposable income on cars and car parts. :-) But recently, I've pieced together a small stereo for the Garage-Majal using some components I largely had on hand.

I still have a Luxman R-113 receiver from my college days. I bought this thing brand-new as a freshman in 1987 for— wait for it—$500. Ouch. I gave up plenty of pizzas and beer that semester, and questioned my own sanity for a couple weeks after the purchase, but the funny thing is that 23 years later I'm still using the Luxman occasionally. Used Luxmans actually have a pretty strong following online for their powerful, clean sound even compared to today's receivers.

For the home theatre with surround sound, newer receivers have all sorts of better technology today, so the Luxman is now in the Garage-Majal. The only drawback to the Luxman out there, or so I thought, is that I didn't think I could hook up a subwoofer to it. Back in 1987 there were no subwoofer jacks on the back of most receivers.




But fortunately, the Luxman has A and B speaker channels. I'm using the A channel to run some small satellite speakers resting on the wall cabinets. I found out that I can hook up a powered subwoofer to the B channel, in this case a front-firing JBL (JBL Northridge E150P 10-Inch Powered Subwoofer with 150-Watt Digital Amplifier, Single (Black Ash)) that I wasn't using anymore inside the house.

The powered subwoofer needs to have speaker jacks, and when using those, set the LFE switch to Normal. Lastly, you can adjust the bass using the crossover frequency knob.




I'm a little embarrassed to say I never hooked up a subwoofer like that and didn't even know I could. I'm glad though that the Luxman didn't end up on eBay.

On deck in the next couple months are some lighting upgrades.







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Introducing the Garage Majal v3.0

I'm currently living in my third home and each one has had a fixed-up garage.

The first one was nice (for a condo) with two huge windows with wood valances covered in a black and white checkerboard print. It also had track lighting to illuminate some framed prints on the light grey walls, and a shiny grey epoxy floor. My second garage (in a townhouse) had a short wall of cabinets and a countertop, which was pretty cool, but honestly it was kinda small and dark (since the townhouse was an interior unit.) Both times I went to sell the homes, the fixed-up garages were strong selling points, so it seemed like time well-spent.

My current garage is my first two-car garage, with a small bump out. It has windowed doors and a service door that lets in a little more light. The ceiling is 12 feet high and it is painted and has baseboard moulding. I epoxied the floors (Rust-Oleum 203006 Garage Floor Kit, Tan) and had added unfinished oak cabinets that I stained and a 10-foot laminate countertop when I moved in.

Recently, I spent some time taking it to the next level. I added under cabinet lighting (Westek XC335KB 24-Inch Plug-In 60-Watt Xenon Under Cabinet Light, Nickel) hooked up to a dimmer switch (Lutron TT-300NLH-BL Credenza Lamp Dimmer Black).




I also added a stereo with iPod hookup using a Luxman receiver (from my college days circa 1988) and two invisible Anthony Gallo Micro Nucleus speakers. I also wired for a subwoofer (but my receiver doesn't have a subwoofer jack...) I hid the power and speaker wires with a cord cover (Wiremold C50 White Cordmate II 5-Foot Wire Channel)





I added a vertical power strip (Tripp Lite PS2408 Multiple Outlet Strip 15-Amp 8 outlets 15ft Cord) on the side of the cabinets. I then added crown moulding and base moulding on the wall cabinets, and base moulding on the floor cabinets.




On the wall, I installed a set of tilt-out hardware bins to hold hardware and various bits.




I'm still deciding on what type of lighting to install in place of the fluorescent lighting on the ceiling now...





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