Surround sound (1 Viewer)

[Andrew Sweany]

Hello!

My wife and I are breaking ground on a new house soon and I have the good fortune to have a woman that knows how much a man wants a shop. Itll be around 55 by 45 with a 20' ceiling and mezzanine around 2 sides.

I have no idea how to wire this for sound. This space will be a shop, place for friends to get together for fun or to watch the fight/game, family holidays, etc. Concrete floor, heated and insulated, you get the idea. Pretty much a place to do what makes ya happy with room to do it.

I want to have a way to run a TV (with xbox and apple tv), bluetooth for satellite radio and my buddy's phone with every song known to man, and good old am/FM radio off of it without a lot of hassle. The system itself can be hard wired as long as I can turn it up too loud I dont want it underpowered. Not that I like loud music much anymore, but when I do want to turn it up I dont want to worry about blowing something.

That's about the end of my short (ha!) list of wants. I know this wont be a home theater per say, I just want it to sound like one.

Oh and we are running CAT6a if that makes any difference. Thank you!

 

[JohnRice]

You want to keep some basic things in mind. Regular home audio equipment is entirely unsuitable for a room like that. You want PA equipment instead. There are fundamental differences, beyond just how loud they play. It’s also how the sound is dispersed and how big a space they are designed for.

For example, you’ll want to look at amps from companies like Behringer and speakers from companies like Peavey, and you’ll want to set them up in a way where nobody can ever get very close to them, so you can fill the room, without deafening people who are closer to them.

I don’t recommend using bluetooth for music. You can have a DAC with a cable ready for an iPhone, so you just plug it in and play music. The audio quality will be much better, and no risk of dropouts.

 

[DigitalDawn]

What is your speaker budget?

 

[Andrew Sweany]

I didn't even consider pa speakers, I will look at those. I'd like to keep components at 2000 or less if possible

 

[Wayne_j]

Behringer 215XL speakers $219.99 each.
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-B2...id=1539190685&sr=8-1&keywords=behringer+215xl

Behringer NU1000 power amp (2 channel/amp) $199
https://www.amazon.com/Behringer-iN...d=1539190787&sr=8-15&keywords=behringer+inuke

 

[Andrew Sweany]

How many of those speakers would you think is enough? Would I want to put the amp as close to the mid point of the speakers it powers? I wouldn't notice a difference between a speaker next to the source and one 65 feet away would I? What size wire would i need to run those? I'm assuming normal speaker wire wouldn't carry 1000 watts very well...

 

[JohnRice]

Do you want surround sound, or just two channel?

 

[Wayne_j]

It wouldn't make any difference where you put the amps. If you want surround you would need at least 5 speakers.

 

[Andrew Sweany]

There will be a card table and bar under a mezzanine, what will I need to do to get the best sound under there? Also, will 1 amp power those 5 if not, how many would I need?

 

[Andrew Sweany]

So that's what it'll look like, it'll be another quarter again wider when done. The kid drawings show the other mezzanine and what's under, bar on the left and card/game table on the right. The area under the mezzanine on the left is half closed off and half storage, won't be a lot of people activity.

What would you do?

 

[JohnRice]

Do you want to fill the entire room with sound, or will there be a specific area?

 

[Dave Moritz]

What is your over all budget and how big of a space is the HT going to be in? Are you looking to get into 4K in the near future? Do you want to get a projector and screen or a 1080p or 4K display panel?

 

[Wayne_j]

There will be a card table and bar under a mezzanine, what will I need to do to get the best sound under there? Also, will 1 amp power those 5 if not, how many would I need?

1 amp will cover 2 speakers as it is a stereo amplifier.

 

[Andrew Sweany]

I dont know if that picture showed up but under the top section is most important. Within reason and price I want the whole ground level to sound good, I'd love the whole area to have good sound but the 1 section is where it will be most appreciated.

2k plus or better yet minus budget, no plans to have more than a TV in the bar section.

I'm wondering if I should get a package setup to dedicate to the bar and card section with a couple powered pa speakers for the rest? Would that be closer to what I'mafter? I honestly dont know and really appreciate the responses. Google will give me speaker ads for a month for as many as I looked up today lol

 

[JohnRice]

I have a feeling you might want what you're going toward there. A smaller surround system for the TV, and another PA system for music throughout the building.

 

[JohnRice]

BTW, for the music system, you really only need one channel of amplification for channel of source. PA amps are generally stable down to 2 Ohm and can drive multiple, parallel speakers. I figure one speaker in each corner, a two channel preamp with DAC like THIS, and a two channel PA amp. Put those speakers up high, at the ceiling, angled down.

 

[Andrew Sweany]

Yes John, but have that all rolled into one system. I dont want the wife watching a movie or kid on the xbox blasting the surround setup while I'm listening to the game working in the shop.

Eta: that was for your first response. I'll have to look up what your talking about for the second

 

[JohnRice]

I think you'll be happiest with two systems. You just have to use only one at a time.

 

[Andrew Sweany]

Why do you say that?

 

[DigitalDawn]

I dont know if that picture showed up but under the top section is most important. Within reason and price I want the whole ground level to sound good, I'd love the whole area to have good sound but the 1 section is where it will be most appreciated.

2k plus or better yet minus budget, no plans to have more than a TV in the bar section.

I'm wondering if I should get a package setup to dedicate to the bar and card section with a couple powered pa speakers for the rest? Would that be closer to what I'mafter? I honestly dont know and really appreciate the responses. Google will give me speaker ads for a month for as many as I looked up today lol

Take a look at NHT speaker packages. Link Removed