Hi - I'm looking for advice and opinions on a new amplifier and speaker system for our theatre group. We put on 3-4 productions per year in the village hall which has recently been rebuilt and enlarged, so our old 40W per channel system is looking/sounding a bit weedy. The new hall is around 25 metres long, 12 metres wide and has a pitched roof which is 8 metres high at its highest point. Max audience is 120 people on raked seating. We are in the fortunate position of having the opportunity to renew our lighting and sound gear using a grant from a local charitable trust so I have a "now-or-never" to spend around ?600 on the amp and speakers. My current favourites are Yamaha AX15 speakers (?150 each, 15" drivers, 200 watts noise, 400watts prgramme) plus a Yamaha P3500S power amp (?320, 350watts per channel). The speakers will be pole mounted or put on the stage apron and will only be installed during performances.

I'd be interested in any comments and would also like to know what sort of amplifier power that people are using in similar sized venues.

Yup that should be more than enough power..

I've used the Yamaha STAGEPAS 300 in a hall
roughly the same and the speakers were only
150w each, with their own mixer/amp.

Cost, including speaker stands was 400 quid roughly.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/fl...product_id/5646
(Speakers/amp/mixer only 299...)

What I'd think more about is mics...

What are you using?

I use two of these to pick up on stage... Floating
central above the actors..

http://www.dv247.com/invt/28143/

It really depends on whether you are looking for PA, music or simple sound reinforcement, plus also the type of thing you are putting on. I like Yamaha gear, but have also used just about every other make out their including some home build cabinets. The power should be more than adequate for sound reinforcement but will possibly be inadequate if you want to pump out rock music, or even a powerful classical piece where the transient range can be huge.

I'm not sure that two channels is sufficient if your are doing anything out of the ordinary. Do you need rear speakers or boosters to get the sound to extremities of width etc? These would need to be on a separate amp to get the levels correct but you ight be able to use the old rig for that. You may also need to consider stage monitors. Again these need some form of individual control.

Personally I would spend a higher proportion on the cabinets as they take the bulk of the punishment, need to be physically and electronically tough. I'd be cautious about having an rig where the amp could so readily damage the cones in the hands of anyone who was not aware of the limitations of the speakers. BTW the amp is rated at nearer 390W RMS into 8ohms but its your choice as to how to balance the spend.

Don't forget you'll also need to spend money on decent interconnects else you might as well buy a Ferrari and stick 95 octane in the tank!

Lucky chap.

Thanks for the quick reply George
I did wonder whether I might be over doing the power a little but since this will probably be THE upgrade for the next 10 years, I thought I would over- rather than under-spec.

Re the mics - we don't normally use them for actors onstage. We have a fairly - ahem - mature group of actors who have learnt to project properly over the years!

David, you should also have an amp and speakers that can be under run so they do not hit their limits. Have a look at Wharfedale EVP15s They are ver good value for money. We have them in our hall and I have a pair in hire stock

Thanks rderriman, good points.

We will normally using the system for announcements, fx and incidental recorded music, so nothing too demanding - we can always rent extra capacity if we need it for a specific performance.

I wanted to have some amp power in reserve to guard against clipping; fortunately the gear will only be used by two people who know what they are doing, but your point is well made that we also need to guard against someone wandering into the box and trying to be "helpful".

We will be retaining the existing system for use as on-stage monitors and we could also use that for rear speakers if we needed to.

I'm hoping that this will give us enough to cover the majority of productions, whilst not unnecessarily using money that could otherwise be usefully spent elsewhere. It's certainly a very enjoyable challenge to have!

A lot depends on the acoustics of your hall. Speaker positioning is almost more important than speaker quality. Some spaces can be well covered by a single pair at the front. In other spaces this is a recipe for deafening the fromt row while excluding the rear. As you won't (presumably) be providing PA for rock bands, you'll probably find quite moderately powered speakers sufficient. There could be enough in your budget for rear speakers plus the necessary delay line. Are your present speakers and amp completely knackered?

Sound delays for village hall sound a bit OTT to me! Never used them in any venue I have worked!That is up to 500 capacity or so

Technology drips downwards. It's not that long ago we were overjoyed to walk into a village hall and find four Furse wire-wound dimmers and a row of tumbler switches :-)

A digital delay is cheap. Home-recordists who have moved to all-computer systems may have one gathering dust. The "old" amp and speakers are often there in a cupboard.

There are 600-seaters where you can work without amplification. There are village halls where you just can't hear (live OR amplified) at the back. Often through excessive reverb. So you need speakers softer, and closer.

In a less than perfect acoustic, a couple of speakers at the back of the room, fed through a delay, allow you to turn down the front speakers while increasing intelligibility at the back, and not mess up the perceived sound location. On a bigger musical show, a short delay on the stage monitors can make the difference be tween being able to provde vocal foldback and not.

Sound is an area where we CAN do a great deal better job than we could only a few years ago, at moderate cost.

Interesting point about the hall acoustics being a major issue; our new hall was extremely reverberant when it was first built, requiring a major retrofit of acoustic tiles on the roof and back wall. Fortunately, that has calmed everything down so we can get by with a single set of FoH speakers for the majority of shows.

We have decided to go with the Yamaha amp and speakers and will keep the existing set-up for use on-stage or at the rear of the auditorium when necessary.

Many thanks for all the helpful comments.