Speaker Purchase Suggestions?

SweetBennyFenton

Active Member
Hello all. My theatre has decided to invest a bit of money (around $2000) for a new set of speakers. Now, I need to do the research to figure out what to buy. Problem is... I'm not much of a sound guy.

We have a set of Bose 802 speakers in the space already. They sound good and have a wide reach, but they don't really have much in the way of low end. I was thinking about suplementing them with a pair of speakers that can re-enforce the low end that is missing from the Bose.

Basicly, we just want a well rounded sound when we use the two different speakers together. It would also be nice to be able to feel my teeth rattle when I turn it up far enough.

Would any of you more experienced Sound People be willing to make a few suggestions?

Thanks.
 
You don't want to add another set of speakers to add to what you have. You need a subwoofer or two with a crossover.

If the Bose offer enough volume and coverage, the addition of subs and a crossover will round out your sound and enable you to rattle your teeth when desired.

How large is your space? What are the dimensions?
 
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The Bose 802 is not always a good choice for many theater applications due to several factors but if they are working well for you then there is no reason to not try to keep them. Do you know if you also have the associated Bose controller? That could affect both the response of your existing speakers and how you might have to approach any changes.

As Bill suggested, adding subwoofers might be a good option. Part of that may depend upon the use of the space. If the system is used for music quite a bit then subs might be a great addition, if it is used primarily for speech reinforcement and light music then some new higher output, wider response mains might make more sense.

Before getting into specific products you might also want to think about things like where you would locate the speakers or subwoofers, how you can get cabling to them, etc. Probably best to make sure they are a viable solution and identify any practical considerations before getting into specifics. Also keep in mind that adding subwoofers would mean additional cable, a crossover, an amp (or powered subs) and some installation and tuning, so factor that into your budget.
 
$2000 should make an acceptable down-payment on a pair of these:
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MSL-6 : Horn-Loaded High-Q Main Loudspeaker

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For a space that wide and shallow, I'm sure your split hang is giving you nasty comb filtering. A good start might be to reconsider the position of your speakers.

This is modeling we did for a church, the seating area was 80' wide by 50' deep.

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1761d1239247837-hpr-153i-auditorium-naz_proc_hang_jpeg.jpg
 
If Phil doesn't want the MSL, I'll take it...

Keep in mind, if you purchase subs, you do need to account for cabling, a processor (whether it be a simple crossover or a DSP to control the entire system), and all the necessary cabling. Also you need to think about how you're going to get signal to it; will it eat up a return on the snake for an aux fed sub, or will it just come off the main L-R? If it's a theater, I'd seriously lobby for aux fed; one more level of control for things like effects and keeping the vocals out of them if your board isn't equipped with high pass filters.
 
Thank you all for the advice. I do have the Bose Controler that goes with the speakers.

BillESC- A center cluster would certainly even out the sound in the space, but being able to make sound come from one side of the stage or another is important to us.

I will factor in the cost of a crossover, additional amp and needed cable into my costs.

Thanks again.
 
I'd personally go with something along the lines of two dual JBL 18's and a XTI 6000. The amp you can program the internal crossover, and the price will run you around 6k. If thats out of the question i'd maybe thing about going with powered subs, then you dont need an amp or crossover. I would say makie makes a nice one, but now makie parts are impossible to find, so i strongly do not recomend going with makie, but i also really like JBL's powered sub system.
 
I'd personally go with something along the lines of two dual JBL 18's and a XTI 6000. The amp you can program the internal crossover, and the price will run you around 6k. If thats out of the question i'd maybe thing about going with powered subs, then you dont need an amp or crossover. I would say makie makes a nice one, but now makie parts are impossible to find, so i strongly do not recomend going with makie, but i also really like JBL's powered sub system.
Why dual 18"s? Which dual 18"s, JBL offers a number of them? This approach may address the filters for the subs, but what about the high pass filtering for the 802s?

I think you could probably do with a lot less sub and/or amp. Using the JBL MRX 528S for the sub, probably the 'entry level' dual 18" JBL sub, that is rated 97dB/1W/1m, 4 Ohms and 1,000W continuous (for comparison the SRX 728 is 98dB/1W/1m, 4 Ohms and 1,600W). The XTi 6000 is rated at 2,100W/channel into 4 Ohms, since that is at 1kHz maybe derate that to 1,900W to 2,000W for sub use. So the subs would be capable of around 130db at 1 meter. However, the 802s have a maximum output of 114dB at 1 meter and depending on the existing amplifier used to drive them the output here could be lower. I think that physically smaller and less expensive sub and amp options might be more appropriate in this particular application.

Depending on the Bose controller that is already there it may support a mains and subs configuration. You could use the Bose controller configured for subs and 802s to achieve the high pass filtering for the mains but the Bose processors only support preset Bose speaker combinations. There is definitely no guarantee what that does would work well at all with other preset processing or even necessarily with all other subs. If you use any subs other than Bose subs the existing processor supports then you'd probably should use an external crossover.
 
You're almost up in Mackie territory there in Oregon. For $2k you should be able to find a used pair of SRM450s and an SWA1051 or SRS1500 or SWA1801 sub to match. No, the quality won't be too high end, but should be pretty decent.

All of these speakers are self-powered, so you'll need to run power cords to them, but you won't need to buy amps. You should also run the sub off an aux from the board (and preferably all three channels through EQs) so you can balance the sound in the room to your taste.
 

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