help needed - PA for a cafe

[lonoise]

Despite reading all sorts of guides etc. on forums I still can't find the answers due to my ignorance/stupidity. Thus the question here.

 

I was asked by a friend to help with a sound system for two cafes.

While I'm quite comfortable with designing sounds systems for friends homes, this is a somewhat different monster as quite a few speakers are involved.

 

We're talking about 8 speakers in each location.

My initial idea was to go with 100v line as the quality of sound is not paramount. The problem is at one location I've got 8 speaker cables sticking out of the wall.

 

So... should I still wire them in parallel and then connect to 100v amp? Or should I try playing with passive solution using switch? Any other ideas?

The other place is similar but no cabling done, so I was just thinking of wiring all speakers in parallel and plugging to a 100v amp.

 

The good thing is all the equipment is still to be bought.

The bad thing is the budget is roughly £500 per location.

 

I've found an online shop that will be able to do amp+speakers for £460? Does that even sound reasonable?

 

Sorry, lots of questions, but I'm really quite new to the matter.

Thank you very much for any replies in advance.

[azlan]

Just a couple of questions.

How big are the rooms you are talking about fitting out?

Is the sound system for background music, or will it be mainly for speech? Do they need to go loud, or is background level enough?

[Andrew C]

On the technical aspect. All 100v speakers in parallel, simples.

 

<£500 sounds a tad cheap, but maybe OK. I'd have thought that you'd be paying of the order £50 a box + an amp.

[back_ache]

You don't have to make the sound quality compromise of 100v.

 

A lot of power amps now "2 ohm stable" depending on what impedance speakers you go for you could put four speakers on each channel.

 

When doing a sound design for restaurants I find it best to leave some headroom as when they say "it's just for background music" they usually are omitting the caveat "most of the time" :) , the other thing to watch out for is placement of the amp make sure it will always have good airflow, and not in a place where over time it'll get mistaken for a shelf!

 

As your budget is tight, I would be tempted to leave out buying a source and just provide speakers, amp, equaliser and a 3.5mm jack for their mp3 player or whatever.

[lonoise]

thank you for all the replies.

 

the spaces I have to fill are quite small (ca. 150m2), the sound level will be low at all times, its a cafe that operates 10am-5pm and that's it. no noisy custom, no parties.

for the source they'll be using laptops/mp3 players... and god knows what else =)

 

since the budget is rubbish, and I'm a complete newbie, I was looking at this: www.rs100.co.uk. Apparently they offer 60w amp + 8 speakers at £460

 

the speakers will have to be wall mounted on brackets, so my other line of thought was to buy 60w adastra amp and this:

http://www.cybermarket.co.uk/shop/public-address/100v-line-speakers/monacor-eul-30-sw-pair-of-black-371624.html

 

any good?

 

once again.. thank you soo much for all the answers. nice to see a forum where when asking stupid questions you dont get flamed immediately

[Jivemaster]

Have you had a look at Richer Sounds website or shops? They even do a supply service for your kind of need. Avoid 100v line unless you really need it.

[boswell]

Do you need to have control over individual speakers?, ie turn them off /on or set different levels. If you do then you will have to go the 100V route.

If they can all be ON and at the same level then you can use 8R speakers in parallel/series to give 8R (that's 4 per side on a stereo amp) and it will be less strain on your amp.

It's also harder to find cheap amps that go down to 2R.

Look in CPC for some ideas

 

HTH

[ghance]

The APart Pub PA package is really good value, but at £500 I'd probably go down Richer sounds for 8 of the cheapest speakers I could lay hands on. Then armed with the change go find the best budget amp.. QSC GX series or eBay.. Or if I really had to then a Behringer or maybe Samson. I'd wire the 8 boxes as 4 pairs in series to make 4 x16ohm circuits, then pair the lines in parallel to make 2x 8ohm circuits. Wire the 2 circuits to L & R.. Not pretty, but with a large enough amp it will work

[KidRay]

A quick browse at Richer Sounds reveals speakers from £29.95 a pair, so under £120 for 8 speakers. This leaves plenty of your budget for amplification. Thomann's T.Amp range have had some recommendations on this forum. You could even get two per installation which would give you control over different areas.