Healthclub audio set up-any suggestions

[sgonz71]

Opening a small healthclub/personal training facility and need multisource audio in at least 3 different rooms, with each room having about 4 pairs of speakers in each. its a new business so im trying not to break the bank and want to do by myself.

Any suggestions, 2 channel receivers with amps, bridging or not, speaker splitters....any help would be gladly appreciated.

 

[annunaki]

You could do it that way. It allows control from one central location and no chance of customer mucking things up. With 4 pairs of speakers in each room it could be tough to power (assuming 8 ohm speakers) at 2 ohms per channel in a stereo configuration. I would get three inexpensive pre-amplifers or receivers with a pre-out main in capability (Harman Kardon HK3380) and three Behringer EP1500's at $299.00 each. This will allow sufficient power to each zone at 175 watts or so available to each speaker. You can use "Y" adapters to split the signal from the source components (CD, Mp3, XM radio, etc.) into each of the receivers. Not to mention you can also use each tuner in each of the receivers independently if you went the receiver route.

You could also look into a 4 zone multi-source system from Russound (CAS44K) or Niles or someone else. I believe you can get into them for around $1,499 retail msrp. I am sure you can find better deals there as well.

This allows you to have one set of source components, distribute them to 4 zones with a single multi channel amplifier, and control the source components from each room with the supplied kepads. The only thing that you may have to do is purchase more amplification. 4 pairs of speakers in each room is a lot. How big are the rooms? You may want to even look into some 70-volt systems in that case.

With the type of power capable in the scenario you outlined, you will need to run at a MINIMUM 14ga. speaker wire.

 

[sgonz71]

Thanks

With a start-up facility, i'm hesitant to by anything too fancy. I rather pre-wire for future upgrade (ie the fancier keypads, etc). my inititial thoughts were to get 3 two-channel receivers accompanied by 3 amps for the speaker distribution. you mentioned the HK receiver, was that one of those plus the three amps, or three receivers and three amps. my fear is to have this venture go under and be stuck with a high-end system like the niles. i rather buy 3 receivers on the "insignia " brand scale and 3 audio source amps. am i anywhere near remotely on the right track

 

[annunaki]

With a start-up facility, i'm hesitant to by anything too fancy. I rather pre-wire for future upgrade (ie the fancier keypads, etc). my inititial thoughts were to get 3 two-channel receivers accompanied by 3 amps for the speaker distribution. you mentioned the HK receiver, was that one of those plus the three amps, or three receivers and three amps. my fear is to have this venture go under and be stuck with a high-end system like the niles. i rather buy 3 receivers on the "insignia " brand scale and 3 audio source amps. am i anywhere near remotely on the right track

You are close, but those receivers do not offer pre-out/main in capabilities which would be necessary to do what you are after. The audio source amplifiers are not capable of 2 ohm stereo operation either. You could wire differently for 4 ohm but it is not recommended.

I was suggesting 3 two channel receivers and three amplifers, essentially using the amplifiers as preamps with built in tuners.

If you are trying to keep the cost down, why 4 pairs of speakers per room? how large are the rooms? Are you trying to have ear splitting spls in there?

 

[Audioholics]

I'd simply get a SINGLE 3-zone AV receiver that handles discrete sources. I believe Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo and Pioneer all have these available. Then I would purchase additional amplification (Emotiva amp?) to handle the unpowered Zones (most receivers can power two zones.)

Impedance-matched volume controls will then take care of ganging speakers in those three rooms.

Your costs should be low and the installation pretty straigtforward if you do it this way. The downside is that you likely won't have very dynamic control over the zones but more of a "set it and forget it" system. A universal RF remote will help improve this but certainly won't be as sophisticated as a keypad-equipped system in each room as annunaki described.

Simple and inexpensive is the main advantage of this method.

 

[sgonz71]

Thanks. I think i can get away with 2 pair of speakers for the 3 big rooms (note 2 of those will play the same source, since one is a cardio room and the other strength training-the 3rd being a class room so it needs to have its own source capabilities). The other 2 rooms are spa like rooms which also would run from one source. they are smaller and would only need 1 pair per room. using best buy as a source i saw a sony STRDG510 for less than 200 (so 3 of these, it has pre-amp out). Then i would need 3 amps. so the cost of the 3 receivers is 600 lets say. if i could get the NuVo essentia package for 1300, would you recommend going that route (plus the amps) as opposed to the 3 receivers?

 

[InTheIndustry]

Former Nuvo dealer here....

Nuvo will be way too weak to power a gym of any size. You can turn it up, but the sound will be extremely harsh to the point of irritation. I'm not saying this from a "golden ear" perspective either.

I would recommend a Sonos Bundle Coupled with two Parasound Zamp amplifiers ($300 ea.). Cost is around $1600 retail which is cheaper than NUVO if you consider that you will need the tuner to make Nuvo work. It requires less wiring than the Nuvo (just home run your speaker wires) and next to ZERO programming compared to NUVO which can be irretating even if you have experience with it. You can stream internet radio off of it from any station world wide for free, OR sign up for Rhapsody online ($10 per month) and never buy another CD again.

Look into it. It's AMAZING! www.Sonos.com

 

[Phil Taylor]

Well - if you want a cheap "low-tech solution to a high-tech problem" you could get a few wireless rear speaker kits (like the Rocketfish $99 at BB) then connect them in parallel to the main R&L on your receiver of choice. Place the wireless receivers in your various rooms - as long as they are not over 100ft from the transmitter and you'd have multi-room 30 watts of CD quality audio distributed very cheaply. Of course it's not the best solution - but I think it would be the cheapest.