Greenhouse with 5 pairs of Atrium 45

marcbrett

I am not an audio guy and can use your help. I have a greenhouse that is 150x150ft (22,500 sf). I play music for my customers with 2 speakers off a receiver. Works poorly.

So, now my poor plan:
I will upgrade the system with 5 Pairs of Atrium 45s which I have purchased. Then I found out that I will have to wire them in parallel/series to minimize my wiring and keep the ohms at 8 (also need to drop my speaker count down to 4 pair to make it work, see diagram). Next is getting an amplifier to drive them. I have looked at a used Crown XLS 402 with 300 wpc at 8-ohms that I can get for $100. I also want to attach my PC for mp3 music. I know I will need cable adapter to get everything connected.

After reading this forum I find that maybe I should not use a Crown amplifier but maybe a Adcom, Onkyo, or some other stereo amplifier. I should use 12 gauge wire and not 14 gauge. I should...

I am second guessing myself. I don't know what I am doing. So, please help me. Is parallel/series OK? Is 14 gauge wire OK? Is the Crown Amp OK? The Atruim 45 are rated a 10-80 watts. Do I need a 320 watt amplifier (4 speakers x 80 watts per channel)?



Thank you

dudeinaroom

I'd just grab a power house 2 ch receiver, and a speaker switch box with impedance matching and at least 5 speaker output. You might also be able to get away with running your PC directly into an amp then into a switch box. 14 ga. wire will work, but 12 would be a better choice.

marcbrett

dudeinaroom wrote: »

I'd just grab a power house 2 ch receiver, and a speaker switch box with impedance matching and at least 5 speaker output. You might also be able to get away with running your PC directly into an amp then into a switch box. 14 ga. wire will work, but 12 would be a better choice.

So I searched for power house receiver. I guess its not a brand but a category of receivers with high watts? Do you have a few recommendations? The few that I fine had 100-125 wpc. Is this enough to power 5 Atrium 45? Also with the switch box you are recommended to skip the parallel/series wiring and wire each speaker.

Thanks for the help.

curved

I would suggest 2 options:
1. Why don't you get a Adcom-555 with a GFS-6 (6 speaker selector).
or...
2. Get a 5-channel amp and run 2 speakers per channel (be about a 4 ohm load). Run your receiver in 5/7 channel stereo.

marcbrett

I have started to look into your option 2. I know little...but I have learned from this site that the Adcom-555 and the GFS-6 are will respected products and would be a great option. But is 200 wpc enough to drive 10 speaker?

My simple question now is how much watts do I need to drive the 10 Atrium 45s? I would guest 10 speakers x 10 watt at a minimum and 10 x 80 watts at the maximum. So, 200 watts seems lite. I am also just looking at high current amp. Why? I really don't know, but a lot of threads here seem to point me in that direction.

So, I had tried to find a larger amp like the Carver TFM-25, 35, or 45. And because the GFS-6 only handle 200 wpc I was considering the Niles HDL-6 which handles 250 wpc.

So, what watts rating for my Amp would be a good target to drive 10 Atrium 45s? Is a High Current Amps a good fit for my application?

Thanks

curved

Keep in mind, the 555 does 200wpc (2-channel amp) = 400watts RMS. It is also high current which is pretty much needed in this application.

It would be plenty of power for the 45's. However if you want the most out of them, get 2 5-channel amps and be done with it.

MillerLiteScott

I power 6 pairs of speakers off of an 80's Technics receiver and a speaker selector with out any problems usually all day every weekend. Look into a speaker selector.

Scott

Topper

why not a cheap 5-channel av receiver? just run it in multichannel stereo.

billbillw

Mega power is not needed. I assume that you will not be blasting your customers in the greenhouse with 90+dB of music. Those Atriums will play at pretty loud volumes with just a few watts RMS. I agree with others, look into a speaker selector and just power it with a decent receiver. You didn't really say what type of receiver you were already using, but it may be fine with the extra speakers and correct wiring. 80-100watts of RMS rated power should be more than enough, unless the greenhouse is a loud environment (which I can't see being the case).

marcbrett

WOW! Thank you for all the feedback.

At this moment I will likely go with curved's option 1: Adcom-555 with a GFS-6 speaker selector.

However, I like Toppers': 5-channel av receiver run in multichannel stereo mode. Sounds cheaper. Is this a 5.1 or 7.1 av that I can use the 5 or 7 channels for stereo channel? How? I did try to search to find what you mean, but no luck.

marcbrett

billbillw wrote: »

Mega power is not needed. I assume that you will not be blasting your customers in the greenhouse with 90+dB of music. Those Atriums will play at pretty loud volumes with just a few watts RMS. I agree with others, look into a speaker selector and just power it with a decent receiver. You didn't really say what type of receiver you were already using, but it may be fine with the extra speakers and correct wiring. 80-100watts of RMS rated power should be more than enough, unless the greenhouse is a loud environment (which I can't see being the case).

Your correct. The volume will be low enough so people can talk near the speakers. I assume more watts + high current + quality speakers will make the music sound nice at a low volume. You know the lows, highs, bass and stuff you guy talk about.

dudeinaroom

I'm not sure if the gfs-6 is impedance matching or not. Yes, wire all the speakers to a speaker selector, and the selector to the amp. marcbrett I imagine you are going to use this for background music, and not blaring. Most people do not use more than a few watts when listening to music, and for background purposes you would need more than around a watt per speaker. Most conversation is around 60 db, and the Atriums 45 will put out 89db with one watt, measured 1 meter away from the speaker. You do not need a lot of power, but a high current amplifier is recommended. The only time I could see you using more power would be in the middle of summer when fans are going, but still would not need a lot to get over the sound of the fans. Good luck, and keep asking questions until you have no more doubts, that's what this place is all about.

later,
dude

dudeinaroom

...double post...

marcbrett

Thanks dude.

I think others here have been trying to tell me the same thing... good receiver will work. I would still get a GFS-6. If I go the receiver route here are a few receivers that have 120 wpc and are also High Current:

Harman Kardon 3385, 3480, 3485, 3490.

Any other i should consider that are High Current?