Business speaker setup

[jeremy holst]

I have a store that has about 12-14 ceiling speakers and in the back there are 7 speaker cables coming out of the wall. I believe that certain speakers are connected to each other. The business that was at this location did have music coming out of these speakers but I am not sure what king of receiver I need to get all speakers playing the same music at the same time. It does not need to be loud at all ( it is just background noise for a mattress store).

Would just a basic receiver work and if so how to I connect the 7 speaker cables to one unit?

anything helps

thanks

 

[WaynePflughaupt]

It’s possible the speakers are 70-volt, which is the standard for commercial background music systems. If they are, they require a special amplifier, not the kind typically used for “regular” applications. Seventy-volt ceiling speakers will have a transformer mounted on the speaker frame.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[annunaki]

My guess is they are 70 volt. Pull a speaker and see what taps where used on the transformers. A 70 volt receiver/amplifier is fairly reasonable.

 

[jinjuku]

Good advice all around. Another tidbit is that I would hire an A/V firm that deals with 70v installed sound. They may be able to knock it out in a few hours.

 

[highfigh]

Look for the amplifier- it may be in a closet, back room....follow the speaker wires (they're probably gray). If it's gone, see if you can contact the building owner to get the model number- you don't want to replace the amplifier with something that's under-powered. There's a bit of confusion about 70V systems not involving any concern with power and that's not true.

If you can't find the amp or info about it, someone will have to check each speaker, to see which power tap has been used. Once this is done, add up the total and add at least 20% to this as a way to safely choose a replacement. The 20% is for headroom and preventing damage from overheating.

Some good/common brands are TOA, Atlas, Bogen and Crown but many others are out there. If you want to read more about this kind of system, look for 'Constant voltage audio system' when you search- you'll be able to read about why these use 25, 50, 70 or 100V transformers.

DO NOT connect 8 Ohm speakers to a 70V amp without using transformers and DO NOT connect an amp that needs 8 Ohm speakers to 70V speakers.

These amps can come with as few as only a couple of inputs or they can have many- some, like TOA, have interchangeable input modules for the channels that could have mono or stereo unbalanced, mono or stereo balanced low impedance (usually with a green connector that has three terminals), etc.

Here's a link with a couple of their amplifiers and modules-

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/141-3230042-1894050?url=search-alias=electronics&field-keywords=TOA+input+modules