Museum speakers

[maosound]

Hi there guys,

I also posted this message in another area because I was not sure where it fits better, but please, if anyone here has some advice I'll appreciate it.

So the thing is:

I'm trying to figure out which kind of speakers would be the best choice for a sound instalation in a museum. The audio consists mainly in ambient sounds and music with some outdoor sounds as well, therefore very good fidelity and a large frequency range must be important factors to consider. The tricky things are: a) that the listening area is a circle (12 m. diameter x 5 m. height = 565 cubic meters aprox) in which the audience will be walking constantly or standing anywhere in the space; b) the audio signal will be stereo; c) the volume must be at a level good enough to fill up the space but not to loud to avoid disturbing the other museum instalations.

I thought of using two or four 3 way main monitors Genelec 1039 along with one or two Genelec 7071 subwoofers, but unfortunately this goes way beyond the budget, and I'm not sure if all that power is necessary as well. Any suggestions?

[jpw23]

ok....here's the cheap way out....we use sound tech stw3's and stw5's in most of our sound system installs......the speakers are affordable, they sound good and they are not all that visible....my partner and I use these in churches, schools, hospitals, ect, ect, because they will fill a room with sound and not become overbearing....the is a difference between sound reinforcement and a P.A.....later!

[Bops2000]

I think you could get by with JBL patio speakers
at a cost of about 20 USD per pair. Better yet Yamaha
yst-ms201 computer speakers with a sub woffer at 50 bucks a shot. Run the wires and add in parrellel.
Cheap Dumb Guy
Boppers

[chas]

Have you thought about some hi-fi ceiling speakers? You can get them at best buy, circuit city etc for prob $60/ea. How high fidelity do you *really* need? I've worked with a company that did installations (including museums) and though I wasn't part of the install area myself, it seemed like most of the speakers were more hifi sound quality (not studio) but rugged - weather-resistant, metal grills, hi-impact boxes, etc. Ceiling speakers would put the sound on your audience and make it less liable to spill, especially if they're aimed at carpet. Hmm, there were some we used for a while that had amazing dispersion and were made to look just like ceiling tiles. The "tile" part of it was paintable so you could make it indistinguishable from the other tiles. Might be worth tracking down if you have an acoustical tile ceiling.