Don't know what type of Stereo Equipment to buy for my Martini Lounge

November 23, 2008 on 6:13 am | In mybachcars.com |
Don't know what type of Stereo Equipment to buy for my Martini Lounge
  • I am starting my first Martini Lounge in an 1800sq/foot location. I am needing to know what type of sound system I need that would best fit my situation (DJ Quality Equipment...or just Home Stereo Equipment). I will be playing Techno and Trance music 90% of the time which will require a system that can produce great highs along with hard hitting bass. I will be running the music directly off of a Computer (Personal Computer) in .mp3 format. I don't want to have an elaborate DJ Setup with Mixers, turntables, etc.. Just want to be able to play my music LOUD, CLEAR, and have alot of bass. I don't know which would work best with hooking up directly to my computer, or even what components I need to make this happen. I know I will need the following: 4 Speakers that I can mount on a wall or suspend from a ceiling (nothing too big) 2 Subwoofers 1 Amplifier or Receiver I don't want to get anything that I don't need. Remember?I will be running the music from my computer. I know this will require hooking up an amplifier of some sort to be able to power the speakers and subwoofers. Just don?t know what all I need. I don?t want to buy something that when my lounge gets very crowded that you won?t be able to hear the music and feel the bass. This requires this system I must purchase to be very loud?yet clear and not sound like an amphitheater. Please let me know what I need to buy for this and what place is your best recommendation to go to purchase this equipment. I don't want to exceed $10,000 for everything. I hope This all made sense. It's hard to describe all this through typing it out. Thank you so much for your time.


  • If you can't do research to find out which would be best for my location, could you then at least provide company names and numbers that I can contact to have come out to my location and give me a bid? I would need companys and numbers for: Home Audio Distributors DJ Equipment Distributors Let me know what you can provide, becuase the answer you gave me was just a general "common sense answer" and not one that required research.


  • Hi Chris - I am going to take a chance on this considering how much you might save based on my suggestions. Audio is relatively low-tech by today's standards. Unfortunately the hype and sales pitches are not. I have done some restaurants and high-end homes very effectively without spending a lot. A few things to avoid are: Transformer distribution - used for school intercoms, frequency response is poor. Very large amplifiers and speakers - cannot be repaired to spec and cost too much. Gold or oxygen-free cables, etc. - read the "King's New Clothes" fable Ignore power specs that are not given in "rms". 40 watts rms is a lot but be sure the amp can handle it continuously. A few things that are cheap and work great: Mid-priced 12" drivers - look for large magnets Lots of $5.00 piezo tweeters #12 romex house wire for long/high-power speaker cabling Cat5 for tweeters, use a twisted pair for each. Several low-end consumer-grade receivers with aux input and/or home theater units. Try http://partsexpress.com/ and http://mcminone.com/ Do this if you can: Mount big drivers in walls and ceilings where you will get "infinite baffle" effect. A plus with interior walls is having a big speaker in two rooms using just one driver. Sounds as good coming of the back as the front. Screw 'em down tight to solid 2x4's, etc. Hang tweeters everywhere and hook up with cat5. With the small amplifiers, use one to hook to your computer and drive a couple small "monitor speakers" nearby. This will be the master volume/tone control console. From the monitor speakers, pick up the the signal with cat5 and go into the aux inputs of a few more amps that you can distribute where you want to have separate volume control capability. Be sure not to run the hot (red) side to the ground (outer ring) of the secondary amp. Hook these (secondary amps) to distributed drivers. Buy or scrounge some little fans to put behind the amps. As long as they're cool, you can run 'em pretty hard. If you blow one, they were cheap, remember? Make sure, however that these amps have a hot side and ground side for each output channel. You will be tying a lot of grounds together. Most automotive amps don't do this and won't work. There are 2 180-out-of-phase hot connections for each speaker to make up for the low supply voltage (12v). You can't ground either one. Try phasing the tweeters different ways with a reversed connections, straight across L and R red connectors (creates a spooky 3rd channel w/o the vocals). You can rig switches to flip phases while operation to create very dramatic effects. Check again for ground faults (above) and keep volume controls low when you test for 1st time. I'll bet you can do this for about $800. What do you think?


  • Thank you for the detailed answer! However, I am not wanting to do a custom install such as this with my location. I just want to buy speakers and mount them on corners up high near the ceiling. I don't want to create a whole new speaker out of scratch. I would like to buy everything to where all I have to do is hook the speakers and subwoofers to an amplifier and the amplifier to my computer if at all possible. That being said, I just don't know what type of equipment to buy. Home theater quality, or DJ quality. I don't even know how much watts I need out of each speaker to be able to get loud enough to be able to hear over a crowd in an 1800 sq/foot area. That is my question.


  • Hi chrls-ga - Sorry about the "common sense" answer. Where is this place located?


  • I did Google searches for: St.Louis, Missouri Home Audio Distributors AND St.Louis, Missouri DJ Equipment Distributors which yielded the following, which I abridged, based on your needs and budget. This is specialized stuff and you should have them do the complete installation. Your 1800 sq ft club is small enough to be served quite well with these "home audio" systems. They will likely visit a $10,000 jobsite. http://phonebook.superpages.com/yellowpages/C-Stereo+Equipment+Dealers/S-MO/T-St.+Louis/ Bose Showcase store Showcase Stores Bose Music Theater Saint Louis Galleria 1436 St Louis Galleria Richmond Heights, MO 63117 Tel: 314-726-5350 Audio and Video Cables High performance audio and video cables for Home Theater and Home Audio. Quality cables at affordable prices. Website av-cables.net Super Audio Video (800) 290-4909 (toll-free) Email: info@superaudiovideo.com Website http://www.superaudiovideo.com Audio Express 13662 Manchester Road, Saint Louis, MO 63131 (314) 909-4821 Audio Express 7766 North Lindbergh Boulevard, Hazelwood, MO 63042 (314) 838-0404 Audiostile 815 North Kirkwood Road, Saint Louis, MO 63122 (314) 477-4487 (314) 477-4487 (fax) Email: audiostile@aol.com Low Voltage Systems Contractors Bang & Olufsen 1471 Saint Louis Galleria, Saint Louis, MO 63117 (314) 727-6055 Best Sound CO 227 North Lindbergh Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63141 (314) 997-7644 (800) 222-7669 (toll-free) Website http://www.bestsoundco.com Custom Entertainment Technologies Inc Saint Louis, MO 63101 (314) 647-7535 Custom Sounds Mo, Saint Louis, MO 63129 (314) 892-1555


  • Thank you


  • From the listing you gave me from a single search, you might notice from looking that BOSE is something you put in a living room, not a Martini Lounge. Bang & Olufsen is a more expensive version of BOSE. Custom Sounds only deals with Car Audio, as well as Audio Express. There were only 2 numbers off your list that I can call and hope can help me. We're going in circles here, haha!