Alright I need a home audio expert...

[Soul Shinobi]

I've been trying to research this myself but home audio equipment has quickly become complicated.

I need some advice for a setup. It's not actually for my house, but for where I work. I'm kind of the building maintenance go-to guy so my boss asked me to look into this, and I'll be doing the work myself. I can do a little home wiring and have a basic understanding of audio system so I'm not a total handicap.

Anyway, what I need is some speakers that I can easily put into drop ceiling tiles. I'm not sure how many I need, I'm thinking 4 or 5, but maybe you guys would be able to give me a better idea.

The environment is a library-like environment and the music will be classical music played softly. The ceiling is about 8' tall. There are two rooms that need them, one room is 12' by 12' so 1 speaker would do fine there. The other room is 40' long but the width has three consecutive steps, 13' then 17' then 21', each of these widths taking up about equal length (~13'). There are three general work stations in this room so I was thinking 3 speakers would be fine. We may also put one in the 12' by 8' waiting area.

I'll also need an amp, but I'm not sure where to go. Actually I'm not sure where to go for speakers either. We really can't spare much for the project, nor do we really an idea of how much it'll cost. I'm going to take a wild guess that my boss' limit is around $250. I don't want to put in just some cheap crap; some audio clarity and consistency would be nice, I'm looking for bang-for-your-buck, to put it short.

What's a good place to look for equipment? As for cables, I already know the best place to get the cheapest cables around, http://www.monoprice.com/ I know MonoPrice has a few speakers, but I'm looking for more options, and I'm hoping you guys can steer me away from absolute crap.

Thanks guys.

[Skruyd]

I know it is kind of... well I don't know how to put it...... But have you thought of getting a surround sound or home theater system and set the speakers on mono. It would be the easiest IMHO to set up. Considering they come with 5+ speakers plus a sub, and some come wireless. Of course that means batteries are needed >.> . I used my old one for the garage when the optics went out. The radio still worked in it.

[Fkyx]

$250 is pretty skimpy for what it sounds like you want to do. By no means am I an expert, but finding 4 or 5 speakers and an amp for that budget is going to be tough. The best bang-for-buck amps I've come across are actually headphone amps... they're good for 2.0 setups, but for powering 5 speakers.... mmmmm. Otherwise you're looking at more than $100 just for a cheap amp.

If you don't absolutely need an amp, I'd suggest going with Skruyd's idea. Find a cheap home theater system and use that. If you're looking to mount the actual speakers in the tiles, it shouldn't be too tough to disassemble the satellites.

I haven't been in the business for home audio for a while, though... so that's about as much advice I can offer. You may look around, maybe post here: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/

[gijonas]

$250 + what you want to do = crap.

You will need to get lucky with some second hand stuff at a good price or talk to the guy selling stuff out of his trunk down the road,his name is Chino.

[Soul Shinobi]

Butchering a home 5.1 surround sound system is a brilliant idea. I'll check out that forum, Fkyx.

gijonas, I knew someone was gonna say that.


Okay, here's what I'm looking at right now.

The more professional option would be:

4 of these speakers totaling $74.64
200 ft. of this 16 gauge wire totaling $24.60
Shipping on those $16.57
And this amp for $99.98, (free shipping).
Grand total $215.85

All the reviews for these speakers on MonoPrice say they're great value for the cost, and there's no need to go crazy on wire unless you're an audiophile. My only concern is the amp, this one doesn't look great, but I really can't spend too much more. I assume I can run 4 speakers in mono off of it, and I may need connectors to hook up the speakers (would these be the banana clip type?).


As for the option of using a 5.1 system, I'd probably grab one of these from NewEgg, the one I choose being based on reviews from Test Freaks (a meta site for hardware reviews I just found). That could run me $130 to $300, and I may still have to buy some wire to solder in extensions.

Would having different length wire for each speaker have any adverse effects?

[Aerotech]

Got any used car audio components laying around? Pick up a 12Vdc power supply from Radio Shack and use a car stereo, you can get loads of speakers from a junkyard.

[John Drivesabox]

I did something similar to this for a "project" last year in an old supply warehouse. 3 or 4 rooms, I spent a day and a half crawling through the ceiling and ripping out old/reinstalling old wires. Aesthetics wasn't really a concern for anyone else but me, I was able to tear out what I needed and use existing vents as acoustically transparent paths for the sound; speakers were installed and stayed above the ceiling tiles but the sound just eminated through the old heating vents.

I say, figure out where you want each speaker first. Then remove the tile or cut a hole in the ceiling where you can install a OEM (wrong term, I know) looking vent grill in the ceiling. Route your wires and install your stuff above the ceiling, for $250 or less it should look fine.

For the amp? Will your customers or clients really know that the left channel or Handel's Messiah was missing. Again, for $250 tell your boss you're limited. Or just install it and don't say shit about stereo/mono. I'm sure as long as there's sounds that don't resemble dogs mating, everyone will be fine.

[Soul Shinobi]

I actually just got some RCA adapters (2 to 1 then a 1 to 2, half assed to the max!) to convert the input to mono.

Cutting holes in the drop ceiling tiles will be easy and the speakers I'm looking at are made to mount flush with a wall or ceiling, so it should look good.

Wiring will be the real test... Gonna be a pain.

Gonna go over the hardware with my boss, hope to order the stuff soon, I'm excited.