Office sound system

[Benny Smyth]

A friend of mine has asked for my advice on a sound system for his office so that they can listen to the radio. He found a few suggestions that came all in, but were apparently 'too expensive'.

So I'm going to need help on this. What's apparently needed is 3 or 4 wall mounted speakers and an appropriate amp to drive them (ceiling mounted is not an option). Quality of sound is not an issue, but price is. It's basically just for background noise.

I'm an active speaker guy as I could never really get my head around matching amps with speakers, so if anyone can assist, I'd be most grateful.

[Nakatomi]

If its really just for background music go to Richer Sounds & pick up 4 small hifi speakers, wall brackets and an amp with 2 sets of switchable speaker outputs. Loads of recent model amplifiers have them. Oh and some cheap speaker wire too. The amp speaker switch will deal with how to present the speakers to the outputs... Pretty simple I think. Failing that, use 2 amps, one for each pair but connect one amp input to the REC or tape output of the other. Then your mate can have 2 'zones' where the volume can be different too.

[yourdj]

I know you don't want actives, but a pair of half decent studio speakers would be a good bet as you will have a much better sound than std speaker systems. i have 2 spender speaker and the sound that they produce is great. You can listen to music at a much better quality, which is only a good thing being a DJ, specially if you want to do some production at some point. :)

http://www.thomann.de/gb/studio_monitors.html

[rth_discos]

A friend of mine has asked for my advice on a sound system for his office so that they can listen to the radio. He found a few suggestions that came all in, but were apparently 'too expensive'.

How much was too expensive so we know what we're playing with?

And how many people are in this office?

[Nakatomi]

I know you don't want actives, but a pair of half decent studio speakers would be a good bet as you will have a much better sound than std speaker systems. i have 2 spender speaker and the sound that they produce is great. You can listen to music at a much better quality, which is only a good thing being a DJ, specially if you want to do some production at some point. :)

http://www.thomann.de/gb/studio_monitors.html

I think you mean Spendor speakers Toby. And yeah, they do make very nice monitors. But this isn't for Benny's office ;)

[Nakatomi]

Looky here: http://www.richersounds.com/product/amplifiers-receivers/yamaha/rn301/yama-rn301-blk

And here: http://www.richersounds.com/product/standmount-speakers/mordaunt-short/m10/mord-short-m10-blk

Job almost done - assuming it's not a huge open plan office where 200 people work.

The Yamaha receiver is Airplay compatible, has a builtin tuner, and can output to 2 pairs of speakers.

The M10 from Mordaunt Short will sound quite respectable.

I suspect the eye watering prices have come from 'specialists' who deal in workplace music systems.. & they come up with a zoned PA amplifier with 'installation' speakers which sound like cack compared to even cheap hifi speakers.

Failing that.. for not that much more money why not just slap 2 pairs of Sonos wireless speakers in? The hotel where most of my gigs are just had 18 of the blighters installed and for the size of them the sound is impressive. About £170 each though.. http://www.richersounds.com/product/multi-room-components/sonos/play:1/sono-play1-blk

[Benny Smyth]

How much was too expensive so we know what we're playing with?

And how many people are in this office?

About £400 all in. No idea on numbers.


I suspect the eye watering prices have come from 'specialists' who deal in workplace music systems.. & they come up with a zoned PA amplifier with 'installation' speakers which sound like cack compared to even cheap hifi speakers.

Believe it or not, it wasn't. He found a simple amp and speaker package from a retailer.

Thanks, Justin. Big help. Although if it costs more than a fiver, I suspect that it'll be out of the question. :rolleyes:

[rth_discos]

For installation stuff, I've only ever seen 100v stuff installed.

http://www.thomann.de/gb/swissonic_sa_33.htm

And as many of these as you need:

http://www.thomann.de/gb/bosch_lb1_speaker_black.htm

I'd keep to smaller drivers and more speakers, so that the sound coverage is better spread, and there's less bass, so people can easily talk over it.

[yourdj]

I think you mean Spendor speakers Toby. And yeah, they do make very nice monitors. But this isn't for Benny's office ;)

Yes. I clearly did not read the original post properly. :)
Standard hifi type system would suffice.

Yes Spendor - spell check.

[Excalibur]

Yes. I clearly did not read the original post properly. :)
.

Not like you, Toby. :whistle:

[Benny Smyth]

Not like you, Toby. :whistle:

The tangent he was going on, I was waiting for him to start recommending vacuum cleaners.

[Marc J]

Sonos Play 1's can be found for £150ish each.

3 is just over budget, and 4 would be £600...but they're great, and can be upgraded / expanded on later.

Or stick Google Chromecast Audios (can sometimes be found for £15 each) into the line in of any powered speaker (e.g. http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-CE500A-Active-Environment-PA-Speaker-Black/ALS - £95 each with wall bracket included - you might need http://www.gear4music.com/G4M/XLR-F-35mm-Minijack-Cable-05m/G8A as well) and you've got a cheap Sonos alternative :)

Both need WiFi though, which I'm assuming is available.

[Nakatomi]

Sonos Play 1's can be found for £150ish each.

3 is just over budget, and 4 would be £600...but they're great, and can be upgraded / expanded on later.

Or stick Google Chromecast Audios (can sometimes be found for £15 each) into the line in of any powered speaker (e.g. http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-Lighting/Behringer-CE500A-Active-Environment-PA-Speaker-Black/ALS - £95 each with wall bracket included - you might need http://www.gear4music.com/G4M/XLR-F-35mm-Minijack-Cable-05m/G8A as well) and you've got a cheap Sonos alternative :)

Both need WiFi though, which I'm assuming is available.

The Sonos Play 1s at the hotel sound really impressive for something with a 3.5" woofer. They're bi-amped too, which I think is overkill for something so small but maybe that's why they sound so good. Put it this way, if you think they're gonna sound tinny & utterly naff like a £100 ghettoblaster with similarly sized speakers (I did!), think again!

[Marc J]

The Sonos Play 1s at the hotel sound really impressive for something with a 3.5" woofer. They're bi-amped too, which I think is overkill for something so small but maybe that's why they sound so good. Put it this way, if you think they're gonna sound tinny & utterly naff like a £100 ghettoblaster with similarly sized speakers (I did!), think again!

Sonos are good speakers...I've got a Play 1, Play 3 and Play Connect Amp (for ceiling speakers) at home and I really like them. Not long after I made the decision to go Sonos, Google released their Chromecast Audio, though...if that had been an option at the time I may have looked at them instead...

[ukpartydj]

For ease and price I'd just go with a surround sound speaker system. You can get a set of 5 decent speakers on ebay 2nd hand for just over £100 and a good amp for the same again. Normally you can adjust ohms etc on the amp and the buggers have so many inputs they can plug anything into it!

I spent £300 on some very nice sounding 5.1 speakers and amp. You could easily get away with spending £100 and still be plenty good enough for background.