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Sound System for a basement dance floor (1 Viewer)

Girish

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Size of dance floor 20X25( hardwood floor)carpet all around
I was thinking four wall mount speakers.
Budget $2000-3000 for speakers, amp and pre
Two questions
(1) Can you put ceiling mount speakers that will serve the purpose(I don't think so)
(2) Is this OK budget. If yes please suggest some equipment.
The usage will be seldom for parties etc
 

John S

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Pretty darn big room. I'm not so sure some DJ setup wouldn't be more appropriate on this one.


4 in-cieling / in-wall speakers is probably not going to cut it.


$2000 to $3000 in a more professional DJ setup would rock this room proper.
 

Matt:Brunmeier

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the mackie's have built in amps too, so you don't need to blow money on ultra nice amplification stuff for them.
 

Jacob C

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I'll throw another vote in for the mackies (though there are many good speakers out there). I used to play with a group that used the SAz series. Very nice IMO especially for the price.
 

Kenneth Harden

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I would just get this sort of setup:

This system

Basically, it would be able to kill everyone in the room.

Yeah, you NEED pro speakers for what you are doing, something like those Mackies would work fine.
 

LanceJ

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Girish: don't know how much sound quality you want but I've heard the following speakers and to me they seemed to be built well, they sounded pretty good and they DO get loud:

MTX TP112 DJ speaker

With my Massive Attack CD playing (Mezzazine) using an Onkyo receiver high frequencies were clear & forward-sounding but not harsh; bass was powerful though as usual for P.A. speakers like this, it didn't go extremely low. IMO four of these in a space like yours should do a good job (but check out the larger versions below). And placing them in the room's corners should really increase their bass response.

These have 1/4" audio input jacks for pro amps along with regular binding posts.

The price has been steadily going downwards since large speakers like this aren't popular anymore and I'm sure few people expect to see such a specialty model at a store like this.

Here is MTX's page for this speaker, and its big brother with dual 12" woofers which Best Buy sells online.

Sorry I don't keep up with pro amplifier gear.
 

Jerome Grate

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MTX's are pretty good, the only concerns that come to mind is the protection of the tweeters is a capacitor that can burn out with 150watts plus and these speakers are usually hollow with no insulation in them hence sounding hollow. When I use to get speakers like these years ago as a D.J. I had to modify them by adding insulation for tighter bass and a passive crossover inside to channel the lows and mids to the sub and the highs where they belong.
 

LanceJ

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Jerome: maybe the speaker maker thought some boominess would give their speaker more of a "club" or exciting sound?

Kenneth: that album is very cool-it's minimalistic & darkish music is a trip to listen to, espcially on a good system. And it's bass-centered elements which contribute so much to its moodiness make it the only album I have that can bottom out my Bostons' woofers at volume levels waaay lower than any other CD I own. :eek:
 

SethH

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EAW makes probably the best quality pro audio speakers around. The powered Mackies are nice too, but if I had that budget I'd definitely go with EAW.
 

MikeNg

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One drawback about pro speakers is they sometimes take up valuable floor space (I'm sure there was a reason why you were considering in-ceiling) and are often heavy and don't mount easily on the ceiling.

Another option is to install an array of in-ceiling speakers instead of just a few. If you're worried that there won't be enough SPL and you're not concerned about stereo imaging, etc., then do the in-ceiling but put in MORE, say instead of 4, you put in 8 or 12.

Of course, you'd have to buy a couple more amps, but the quality and coverage of sound would be much better (since each speaker would have to work less to achieve the overall desired sound level).

AND, no matter where you were on the dance floor, you're right in the middle of the sound!

You can probably pull that off with a $3000 budget if you installed yourself.

Got a picture of the room?
 

Mark Seaton

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Best bet would be some wall mounted brackets for mid to smaller sized, probably pro speakers, with one or two subs on the floor somewhere. The powered Mackie suggestion isn't a bad one. They are surprisingly cheap considering they include the power.
 

Kenneth Harden

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Mark brings up a good point. Nice sub/sat system.

Maybe get their smallest active speakers and their big 18" powered sub. That ought to be fatal :D
 

Leo Kerr

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If you want to go in-ceiling, put in lots of 70v speakers, then put in a sub somewhere for the
 

Girish

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the ceiling is 9 feet high. I will look at the mackie speakers. The idea of putting a lot of in-ceiling speakers suits me a lot because of floor space saving.
 

Mark Seaton

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9' does help with making ceiling speakers more useful, but personally I'm not a big fan of that subjective effect for this purpose. The satelites can be mounted on Omni Mount brackets off the wall or even from the ceiling. That's my preference. A subwoofer is really needed in either case. With the sub you don't really need/want 20Hz extension, you want strong output. Most you will see will list their useful range down to maybe 35Hz.

You will see that different speakers have different shaped horns. Ideally you would want 4 speakers with a rated ~90 deg horizontal coverage. A little wider isn't a problem, but much narrower than 70 deg and you won't get good coverage over the dance floor unless the speakers are a bit outside the footprint of the dance area. As another tip, if you do 4 speakers in the corners of the area, flip the right/left on say the back pair vs. the front pair so it alternates as you go around L/R/L/R.
 

PeterK

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sorry for the dumb question but couldn't you just get a whole truck load of whatever HT speakers. and a couple svs whatevers. Wouldn't that not be comparable to these speakers you guys are talking about. or is there something special about these one?
 

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