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Speakers for the party system

Twice a year, we host a gathering of around 120 friends for several days. Across the years, we have gotten much better at supplying food, beverages, camp sites, showers etc. The issue is music for wild dancing! Until last year, we used the main floor of our house and our reference level sound system. Everyone was very happy but me... I always worried about spills, chills and expensive thrills. Last year, we finished the basement and moved the party downstairs. The room is almost the same size (900 sq ft), but with lower (9 foot) ceilings. I bought a fairly descent system, but the party girls wanted much more punch and thump. Can anyone recommend a reasonably priced speaker that will really fill this room with booty moving magic? I've noticed some good deals on PSB scratch and dent stuff but have never heard these. My main system uses Dunlavy V with Plinius SA-100 monos, so the competition is fierce. Song selection includes everything from Mikey Hart to Mojo Nixon, Parliment to Massive Attack, The Beatles to Lou Reed...
eadese
ohlala
993 posts
 
I was impressed by JBL's Studio 38s. Musical and enjoyable. Not the best for sitting still between them, but with the good amount of bass, musicality of the mids, and non-glaring tweeter, I think they could do a party.
hueske
124 posts
 
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T EVER USE HIGH-END SPEAKERS TO PLAY AT A PARTY! Done it twice, lost two pairs of speakers. Do yourself a favor and invest in some EV pro-audio cabinets or something. Go down to Mars or Guitar center and see what they think. They throw a HUGE arc of sound, provide more coverage, and are built like Tanks. Destroyed a pair o' B&W 6 series BTW, as was mentioned before. High-End is high-end, partying is partying. Talk to the guys at the Pro-Audio asylum about this sort of stuff. I'm sure they've got a lot to say. Cheers!
gotog
75 posts
 
If you don't want to use subs and are looking for a full range speaker I would suggest:

New: Axiom Audio Millenia M80 Ti ($1,100) - solid Canadian made speaker... check out www.axiomaudio.com

Used: Von Schweikert VR4 II's can be had for less than $2,000 on this site. Nice speaker..full range down to 20 hz
blkadr
731 posts
 
Use a pair of subs to get the "punch". Use the a high pass filter to protect your main speaker woofers from over travel (run them full range when you listen at sane levels). Use plenty of clean power so you dont clip and trash the tweeters. I use speakers with 5 1/2" or with 6 1/2" woofers and they both play very loud, but your room is much larger than mine. Some speakers of modest size can play surprisingly loud if given lots of {quality) power.
With a room as big as yours, pro sound may be the way to go, but dont discount the subwoofer option. Most PA type systems dont play below 40hz, even if they have large woofers.
bliptrip
10 posts
 
I've use a trusty older pair of VMPS Super Tower R speakers for party use. The crowd's ears will usually give out before the speakers do.

Your most cost-effective option would be to simply rent a dj speaker setup for the night. 900 square feet with a low ceiling like yours would not take a lot of pro audio to get the boom. A couple of 15" or 18" based Cerwin-Vega/EV/JBL towers with 200 watts per channel would be more than sufficient.
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