Studio for a singer (1 Viewer)

[Robert Hurtado]

I have a friend who loves to sing and is adding a room to his house. The room is the size of a two car garage. He really likes to sing. He preforms with a few groups around here.

He wants a clear, deep sound. He asked me to set something up before the drywall goes up. Should I just run speaker wires in the walls? Do you think surround sound is neccesary for listening to music? You are supposed to hear music from the front stage, like if they were right infront of you correct.

Would two speakers be good enough or should I put enough wires for four front speakers?

 

[Cees Alons]

Hello Robert,

I think you should wire for t least 5.1 sound (3 front, two or three rear and a sub - this last one is not loudspeaker wire!).

You're right that he may want "stage" sound, but it's much easier not to use something that's there than using something that's not there. In the future he may want to add other experiences (and surround sound is certainly a realistic one) to his experience.


Cees

 

[Bob McElfresh]

By all means - wire for 3 speakers in the front and 3 in the back (a rear-center speaker is becoming popular).

Go to www.partsexpress.com and get a spool of in-wall rated 12 ga speaker wire. The CL3 in-wall rating is part of the fire code in some areas. You do want 12 ga for the long runs. I think the brand name is Carol.

Run everything to electrical outlet-box's and pull enough wire to create an un-broken run from equipment to speakers. You can always cut the wires off and install wall plates with binding posts later.

Run the wires in a zig-zag fashion in the vertical walls. Use insulated staples, but pound them in only half way. Years from now he may need some slack. Tug the wire to pop the first staple and you have 12-18 " slack. Tug again to get more.

Try to avoid long runs in parallel to AC power cords. This will induce a 60 hz hum in the speaker wires. Cross power wires at 90 degrees whenever possible.

Label, Label, Label. Get wire-labels from Radio shack. Write letters on the white part, then wrap the clear-tape over the writing. Otherwise, even perminent marker will fade in a year or so.

Put lables at 1 ft intervals on both sides of where the wires will emerge from the walls. Use a simple "A", "B", "C" scheme.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Robert,

Your thread title mentions a studio, then when we open it up you’re talking about surround sound and “listening to music.” What exactly are you looking for? A rehearsal or recording space? A room for music listening? A home theater?

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Robert Hurtado]

I talked to him some more to clarify his purpose. He wants a few in-wall speakers that will sound decent with an amplifier he already has. The room will have kids in it during the weekdays so he doesn't want any equipment getting in the way. He just wants to plug in his amplifier to the wall to listen to music or kareoke.

I was thinking of putting two speakers in the front and two in the back. There's a window in the center front so it might be hard to place a speaker there. I'm thinking of just running the wire from speakers to a 1/4" RCA terminals.

The amplifier is a peavey escort 2000. It might be cheap. It puts out 75watts @ 4ohms and 50watts @ 8 ohms.

Do you recommend any in-wall speakers? Do you think ceiling speakers are a good idea?

 

[Robert Hurtado]

The amplifier has those 1/4" headphone style outputs on it. They are not RCA's. Do you know if and where they might sell wall plates with these connections?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Robert,

The karaoke requirement raises some flags. If that’s what your friend wants, then he’s trying to merge two worlds, pro and home audio, that don’t always mix well.

Any kind of live performance requires speakers that are much more robust than your typical home speakers. I don’t think you’re going to find any in-wall or in-ceiling that are up to the task, at any that may be suitable are going to cost a lot of money, more than you your friend paid for his entire Peavey Escort system.

For instance, your friend’s Escort is pretty low end as far as pro speakers go, but even at that they have 10” woofers. Your typical home in-wall will have a little 5-1/4” or 6-1/2” woofer. A few of the higher priced ones have 8” woofs; I don’t know of any with 10-inchers.

This is not something to be taken lightly, because live vocals have considerable dynamics. Aside from that, consider what would happen if the mic ever got dropped. That right there is probably enough to toast an in-wall.

There are ways to do it, of course, if he really wants to. For instance, multiple speakers could be wired in combinations of series and parallel. This would “spread the load” so that each speaker would be well within its limits. Of course, this would add to the expense.

Personally I think your friend should just build some shelves up high enough so that they’d be out of the way of the kids, and put his speakers on those. You could still use in-wall wiring and wall-mounted jacks for easy connections.

Parts Express. You could use a one of these up where the shelves are, and a short speaker cable between the wall and speaker:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=248-126

Down where he wants to set the Escort, he could use one of these:
http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showd...number=248-128

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Robert Hurtado]

Would running each 8ohm pair of speakers in parallel to each channel be a good idea? That would be a total of four speakers on the amp and I was thinking of adding a separete sub with built in amp. I can just run that off from the RCA output right. This amp will give me 75watts of power at 4ohm. Is that RMS or max watts?

If I wire them in parallel for a 4ohm load will I have to look for speakers that RMS half of the 75watt output? Those would be pretty cheap speakers. Is it a better idea to just get two 8ohm speakers wired to their own channel? I would still need a sub.

Do you have any recommendations on speakers of subs for this set-up?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

I certainly wouldn’t do less than two speakers per side.

If you’re looking for brand recommendations, you should post a new question in our Speakers and Subwoofers section. Forum rules and all.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[Robert Hurtado]

The max watt rating is the capacity of the speaker, but the RMS is what you should try to match right. Would it be resonable to get a 500watt rms speaker for a 150 watt max amp? I think the 150watt rating on the amp is RMS. Does anyone know.

From your suggestions, it sounds like four speakers and a sub with internal amp will work in this room. I think I'll go with this. Thanks

 

[Cees Alons]

A 500W speaker is overkill for a 150W channel, even if it's RMS. Don't be too afraid for a little "mismatch" as long as it's almost right, e.g. a 150W speaker would certainly not be wrong.

Note, that a mike in a room that size will mean that you cannot have an enormous amplification (while the mike is on), because of the potential feedback problem. Rule of thumb: the person with the mike cannot hear (should not try to hear) his/her own voice from the speakers.


Cees