Monitor Speakers

[Doug Kitchen]

We have an extremely low budget sound system that has been accumulating over many years. We really need to redo the whole thing starting with new walls (currently, concrete walls), dropped ceilings (high, wooden arches now) and replace the pews with chairs. But we are not anywhere near being able to do sound right.

Our current problem is that we have two monitor speakers (probably more than 20 years old) - a small, wall mounted one near the piano which is not adjustable by the pianist. If the pianist thinks it is too loud they simply unplug it. The other speaker is on the floor and it is visually intrusive and not very helpful (usually audible though).

My thought is that we need two or three stand mounted monitor speakers each with individual controls on the speakers. My confusion is that I can often find $99 speakers that might work but I am a bit leary since the next step up is usually $250/speaker. Alternatively, if we replace the small speaker, we can then move it to replace the big ugly one.

So in searching around I spotted this deal at sweetwater: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/B205D/ The price seems very good.

This system has an avantage that we could use one as a portable system for occasional use in our fellowship hall.

We can only afford to make this purchase once, so I would like to ensure that whatever we buy is approximately correct. Any suggestions for models/brands that would suit some minimum needs?

Thanks for any suggestions or experience

Doug

[Gary Creely]

We have an extremely low budget sound system that has been accumulating over many years. We really need to redo the whole thing starting with new walls (currently, concrete walls), dropped ceilings (high, wooden arches now) and replace the pews with chairs. But we are not anywhere near being able to do sound right.

Our current problem is that we have two monitor speakers (probably more than 20 years old) - a small, wall mounted one near the piano which is not adjustable by the pianist. If the pianist thinks it is too loud they simply unplug it. The other speaker is on the floor and it is visually intrusive and not very helpful (usually audible though).

My thought is that we need two or three stand mounted monitor speakers each with individual controls on the speakers. My confusion is that I can often find $99 speakers that might work but I am a bit leary since the next step up is usually $250/speaker. Alternatively, if we replace the small speaker, we can then move it to replace the big ugly one.

So in searching around I spotted this deal at sweetwater: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/B205D/ The price seems very good.

This system has an avantage that we could use one as a portable system for occasional use in our fellowship hall.

We can only afford to make this purchase once, so I would like to ensure that whatever we buy is approximately correct. Any suggestions for models/brands that would suit some minimum needs?

Thanks for any suggestions or experience

Doug

Edited- I just noticed this was for monitors, not mains- oops.

For monitors those would be ok if you have a very basic worship team.

My 2 concerns would be-

1. The general quality of Behringer products

2. The ability of them to be clear because of the lack of an HF driver

However, for the money they are probably worth a gamble.


A word on mains-


He is a speaker price run down for churches (passive- non-powered)- Price for single speaker- usually requires at least 2

$99-$200- Very entry level, not a good choice for most churches- not recommended for installation

$200-$300- entry level, suitable for youth rooms- not recommended for installation

$300-$500- Still entry level, but if carefully chosen can work well for a smaller church 50-150

$500-$800- Average quality, good for small to medium churches doing moderate contemporary 100-500

$800-$1500- Premium for medium to large churches doing moderate contemporary 500-1000

$1500- $8000- Premium for large to very large churches 1000+

[Doug Kitchen]

Edited- I just noticed this was for monitors, not mains- oops.

For monitors those would be ok if you have a very basic worship team.

My 2 concerns would be-

1. The general quality of Behringer products

2. The ability of them to be clear because of the lack of an HF driver

However, for the money they are probably worth a gamble.


A word on mains-


He is a speaker price run down for churches (passive- non-powered)- Price for single speaker- usually requires at least 2

$99-$200- Very entry level, not a good choice for most churches- not recommended for installation

$200-$300- entry level, suitable for youth rooms- not recommended for installation

$300-$500- Still entry level, but if carefully chosen can work well for a smaller church 50-150

$500-$800- Average quality, good for small to medium churches doing moderate contemporary 100-500

$800-$1500- Premium for medium to large churches doing moderate contemporary 500-1000

$1500- $8000- Premium for large to very large churches 1000+

Excellent - thanks

I think our sanctuary is 100 feet long by about 75 feet wide ( I measured it once but never wrote it down). We have 2x13 pews on each side - we can fit 100 in the sanctuary. I can almost guarantee you have seen our setup somewhere in your travels though you have never been to our church. Classic 1960's design with the big wooden arches, wooden ceiling - possibly about 50 feet high at its peak. We have a very "lively" room.

We have an 8 channel mackey mixer board. We have some pretty good mics. The pianist uses one on occasion so it is on a boom. There are 3 of us vocalists on the worship team. We have an acoustic guitarist who also sings (we have the guitar plugged in and he uses a mic pretty frequently). Two channels go to the CD and now also the computer. We have a Djambii drum (sometimes 2), baby grand piano, bass, flute and harmonica - all these are acoustic/self-amped. I'd really like to pull the base straight into our system to raise its volume a bit. The instruments put a lot of volume into the room which then makes it difficult for the vocalists to hear the right parts of the sound. We could also use some repositioning of the instruments.

We do need to replace the house speakers at some point but the monitors seem most important now. For the pianist to hear the guitar and vocalists the monitor needs to be improved. From my side of the room, the vocalists need to hear each other better. The pianist often can't hear if the vocalist has started. The platform area that we sing from is just wide enough for 2 guitars + 3 singers.

Since I am not a trained professional in sound systems (and the available features seem to change all the time), your advice is really helpful. I was thinking of getting one of these powered systems and then one or two small monitors to get the monitors much closer to the pianist and vocalists. For us it seems that the adjustable speaker is key since the person controlling the monitor mix can't tell how loud the worship team needs the sound.

If we get 5 years for a total of $300-500, I think we would be in good shape since we might make larger changes during that time.

Doug

[Mike Schutz]

Gary - Sounds like you should take a road trip. It's only 4 hours from Macungie to Schenectady.