advice for a setup in a Pub!

[bobchiba]

My freinds are opening a pub and have given me a budget of around £500 to sort the music situation out. The pub has two, not massive ,rooms. An upstairs and a downstairs. Its not an old mans pub so to speak and weekends will see pretty loud volume levels and from time to time a dj will come to do a set.

This is what I have thought up, but could do with some advice with any potential issues:

An intergrated amp upstairs to drive a pair of JBL control 1's upstairs and another downstairs, with either being on/off at any time. I was thinking something at least 80w and happy to drive 4ohms with all 4 speakers on.

Arcam delta 290, Marantz pm 7000 series ( all around 100w i think) or maybe an old rotel or nad at similar spec.

2 pairs of the 8ohm control 1's as i said.

And was thinking of when the dj comes and certain 'loud' nights, a cheap 'dj' amp like Crown or Kam that can chuck out a couple hundred watts and some cheapish larger speakers with around 10" woofers.

I figure that cheapish dj setup with one of those type amps and some big speakers for downstairs whenever the dj is there will be a safe bet for nothing blowing etc if someone dicides to really crank it out for hours on end.

These amps usually only have a single xlr input, will an rca-xlr cable work if we wanted to plug a line level source into one of those dj amps, and could this source come from the intergrated amp upstairs in the form of a tape output etc, if we ever wanted to use it like that for whatever reason.

Thanks everyone for any thoughts!! any drastically different approaches are welcomed.

 

[Craig M.]

how much volume you will need depends on the size of the room, and how full of people it will be, when i worked in a pub the music could sound deafening when the pub was empty, but as it filled up you could barely hear the same volume. i'd look towards a pro amplifier like a behringer, 2 or 3 hundred should get something that puts out 500+ watts into a 4 ohm load.

 

[chebby]

Probably best to leave this to a specialist company. (For reasons of insurance if nothing else.)

DJs will bring their own kit. (If they don't have their own PA amps/speakers then don't hire them!)

 

[Craig M.]

chebby:
DJs will bring their own kit. (If they don't have their own PA amps/speakers then don't hire them!)

definitely! at the pub i was at dj's and bands could plug straight into our sound system if they wanted - they ALWAYS brought their own kit. which was a shame as it would've sounded much better going through the pubs system.

 

[bobchiba]

Well they've asked me as they can't afford to go to a specialist company, money is very tight, they/we're all young guys and they're taking a big jump to get the premise and get the buiness off the ground, they know im a bit of a hifi geek but never really had to think of systems/setups in this kind of environment. With regards to the dj's and equipment, the dj's wouldn't be bringing their own stuff, don't worry about the do's and don'ts of a proper dj, I know these people well and the bar they currently work at (don;t own) and I'm just planning for the maner in which they operate, run nights etc. Often the DJ is just a mate who can set up some cdj's and play a themed night of tunes while they can stay behind the bar and deal with customers.

Regarding volume, the rooms are quite small, in fact very small compared to most pubs, Id say upstairs is probably no bigger than a large domestic sitting room but more rectangular and downstairs is similar size but more available space. Its quite a tiney pub really but its sort of its 'thing'.

I basically want to know if a 80w amp like a arcam delta 290 or similar NAD/Marantz etc will power 2 pairs of JBL control 1's (4 ohms all together) to what would be described as very loud volumes or house party volumes, however you want to put it. If so this should work fine as its a good affordable solution.

Also for the odd dj night etc, I was thinking of something like this:

http://www.djstore.com/item/amplifiers/warda500.htm

I think its just a good shout to have something on hand with this type of power/price for when they pack the downstairs area out. with some larger, 'disco esq' xlr speakers...

 

[shooter]

Have a look on e-bay at "disco" amp and speaker bundles, not the best in sound quality but bags of power, cheap and built like tanks.
For a source, look at second hand CD spinners, anything will do as long as it works faultlessly but you'll need two working side by side, not for mixing just for queueing purposes.

 

[Anonymous]

It could be worth having a look at companies like Studiospares. For example they have their own range of active speakers, like these

http://www.studiospares.com/studio-monitors/studiospares-seiwin-powered-monitors-pair/invt/248030/

for 115 pounds (+ vat) you get 120 watts per channel including the speakers!