audio center for my father's garage?

[Jack Boucher]

I'm looking to design an audio setup for my father's garage with maybe 4-6 speakers around the room, and a touch screen controller built into his work bench. I was thinking maybe a raspberry pi setup, since raspberry pis are cheaper and pretty good, but if anyone has any other low cost suggestions let me know. Wiring is not a problem - we have plenty of cable to use and plenty of places to put the cables. Feel free to move this thread to a more appropriate forum, if there is one. Also, suggestions for shop durable speakers would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!

 

[americanaudiophile]

You seem to be concentrating on the control aspect instead of the actual sound system. Without knowing the size of the garage, how loud your Dad likes his music, how much background noise there is, and the budget I can only give you a starting point.
Unless you really want to engineer the control system I would use a Sonos ConnectAmp (which can drive 4 speaker to a reasonable volume) and 4 JBL Control 28 speakers. These will play quite loud and are protected against damage. The are not really high fidelity but should be OK. The Sonos control app is free for ios, android (& Kindle Fire) devices so if you want an installed controller you can use any tablet that connects to the itunes, google or amazon app stores. He can use his phone.
Sonos can also be expanded to other rooms of you home and offers access to most music streaming services, internet radio, and local music files. Really easy to set up and use too.
If you want more volume you can use a Sonos Connect with any power amp you want with more speakers if needed.