Questions About a Potential Coffee Shop Setup

[Derrek Coleman]

Hey guys, I just joined the community after some time lurking. I want to thank you all for being so informative and friendly to A/V green thumbs like myself.

I'm helping a friend set up her new coffee shop. It's only one room, around the size of a Starbucks. Roughly speaking, she's willing to invest in a quality setup rather than skip corner at the expense of the experience (not that everything has to be top of the line, of course).

Here's my current understanding, and where I need the most feed back.

I (think) I'll need the following:
1. Sound source. (Pandora for commercial use)
2. An amplifier (What are your recommendations and why? Is something like this way off: Crown 135MA Commercial Mixer / Amplifier)
3. Speaker selector (is this strictly necessary? how important is impedance matching when we only have 1-3 pairs of identical speakers?)
4. Speakers (suggestions? how about these? HTD Q65 Outdoor Speakers)

Thanks in advance for all your help, guys.

 

[Scumfrog]

Welcome I am sure you will get plenty of good advice. Hopefully I can help you. First thing to consider is this: you are using it for background noise and not comparing arias. So listen for something pleasant sounding. For the sake of the customers and especially the staff who will be hearing the sound day in and day out, avoid anything overly bright. "Bright" can become "grating" OR "irritating" in no time. Also consider location. Are they indoors or out? Iif out, weatherproof is a must. Even if in, with the humidity-steam etc-from the products and their brewers, water/weather proof speaks are what I would lean toward. Crown make fine commercial amps. Does yours have a volume control? If so then you can control the volume from the amp or internet via smart phone, i-pad etc. If it is a power amp-no vol control etc, then you must use the previous internet options. Finally, a speaker selector should take care of any impedance issues. Use good quality cables and you are good to go! BTW-I love Rockustics and Sonace Mariners. Great speaks!
Great coffee
Great profits
Great listenig!
Mike