Speakers for Basement - what kind?

Silverunicorn

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Hi again and Happy New Year to all!


We are looking to add some speakers to the basement. Right now we have an old Sony tuner in the closet. It has a 5 disc CD changer, and 2 speakers that actually sound pretty good.

I wanted to lose those speakers in favor of nicer, wall mounted speakers, but I am afraid I will lose bass if I go to just smaller wall speakers. I don't really have anywhere to put a subwoofer, and this stereo would not drive it anyway.

Am I just SOL?

I was looking that the Bose 161 series, as I like the size of them. We got some Bose outdoor speakers last year for the deck and like tham alot. I know that they are not what they used to be, but does anyone have any opinions on what would give us decent sound without obtrusive speakers and breaking the bank?

Oh, I looked into ceiling mounted speakers, but we don't have enough depth above the ceiling grid to correctly mount those :(.

If it matters, the space is about 900 square feet and is basically seperated in the middle by the stairwell and heater closet.

Side 1 (where the pinballs are):

6614084019_c04dfe6477.jpg


Side 2 - Pool table and poker table area:

6614086985_62a51ff930.jpg



Thanks in advance!!!

Chris
 
Loving the new floor! Are you sure you cant ceiling mount them? Mine only
require about 3-4 inches above the ceiling. that would give the cleanest look and the best room filling sound IMHO.
 
Loving the new floor! Are you sure you cant ceiling mount them? Mine only
require about 3-4 inches above the ceiling. that would give the cleanest look and the best room filling sound IMHO.

Thanks Mike :)

I pushed a few tiles up to see what we had and most seemed to have about 2 - 2 1/2" above. Basically there is enough room to push the tiles up and that is it. We had the contractor do it that way on purpose to give us a higher ceiling height, since we only have 8' ceilings in the basement.

I will check some more spots because I do think they would look the nicest. Just trying to weigh options since that might not be feasable.

Chris
 
I see plenty of room for a small sub, especially under the pins. If your worried about power buy a powered sub.
 
I see plenty of room for a small sub, especially under the pins. If your worried about power buy a powered sub.

Well, I have room on the floor, but would really rather not keep something like that ont he floor for fear of moisture. It's not normally an issue, but if somethign were to happen, it would be one less thing I would need to replace :(

I will consider that though. I think that's the only way we'll get bass with small speakers. Problem is now, the receiver we have is not set up for a sub. It's really old. Maybe time for an upgrade :)

Chris
 
You'd be surprised what you can find on craigslist cheap! A few months back my buddy scored huge! All the stuff was about 8-10 yrs. old but retail on it all was upwards of 10 grand! He paid $225. Lady was moving and didn't have the room in her new place. The 2 B&W bookshelves were worth more....it's out there, buy used...and about the water comment, isn't that why you installed the floor? Lol.
 
Well, I have room on the floor, but would really rather not keep something like that ont he floor for fear of moisture.
I will consider that though. I think that's the only way we'll get bass with small speakers. Problem is now, the receiver we have is not set up for a sub. It's really old. Maybe time for an upgrade :)

Chris

Any amplifier will work with a subwoofer. The "full range" sound output goes into your subwoofer, and it has an internal crossover that is adjustable to whatever frequency you want it to be. The sounds below that level are internally amplified by the subwoofer's amplifier and is played by the woofer. All of the sounds above that frequency are then passed through to the outputs that you run to your satellites.

Small speakers a RARELY capable of accurately reproducing sounds below about 150 HZ. So you will find that you will typically set up the crossover somewhere between 85 to 120 HZ and all other frequencies will go to your small speakers. Putting the sub in the corner under a pinball machine is the appropriate location for it. Depending on the shape of the room, you would either point it down the wall under the other pinballs or straight out towards the front of the pinball that it is under. The only thing that MIGHT be an issue for you is the fact that you have to run two sets of wires (two going in, two going out) to the subwoofer. If your room is already finished, then you will have to deal with concealing them.

All subwoofers, even high dollar ones that people use with a dedicated low frequency output from a multi-channel A/V receiver have an adjustable crossover as described. And as for speakers, you might want to look into the Pioneer BS41's. They are HIGHLY regarded for the money. They are mostly sold on Amazon.com, and are mainly used as a small bookshelf speaker. But, if you can manage to wall mount them, I think you would be VERY happy...

Lee
 
Yeah, you've got plenty of space for a sub. A sub will be the single most noticeable difference in a sound system. Subs always come with little feet on them, so they won't be directly on your floor. Additionally, you must have dehumidifiers down there...that will also help ease your mind. Check CL and even eBay. I've put together a nice Definitive Technology system with factory refurbished speakers from eBay. I spent $300 on an $800 center channel speaker and $150 on a pair of fronts that cost $350 each. Something else to think about is that tiny speakers can only sound so big. My front channel speakers are probably 17" tall, 4" wide and 4" deep. Something like that can easily wall mount in the corners of your room.
 
I put up small satellite speakers (some DCMs that I got on the cheap--clearance at Best Buy) then a powered subwoofer for each of the two rooms. I would NOT bother putting up small speakers if you don't have a sub going too. It will sound like an old car stereo at best.

If the amplifier will be more than 20 feet from the subwoofer, I recommend you buy a subwoofer that has hi-level inputs (speakers, L & R) so you don't have to run a mile long RCA cable.

For the pool table room, I bought a powered subwoofer on Ebay (brand new) for $2 plus $9 shipping. Yes, eleven bucks for a brand new Phillips powered subwoofer with 6" speaker. The reason it was so cheap (the guy had about 15 of them) is that they were made to plug into a Phillips TV set thru a proprietary cable. A quick look inside and it was apparent that if I shorted the right two wires together it would work. Voila--it did. Two bucks for just enough bass for the room.

In the main arcade room, I went bigger. A lot bigger. That's the room with the Seeburg 100 Wall-O-Matic juke box controller. A guy in New Jersey (or somewhere on the Right Coast) makes a decoder for those that will run certain CD changers. I picked up a compatible one (again on Ebay). The wall box has songs on the leafs categorized by era (50's, 60's, etc...).

I did learn a lesson however. I bought a used DCM 12" powered sub on Ebay that sounded great and worked for a while. Until it fried itself internally while it was in "standby". Craigslist to the rescue! I found one really cheap... another DCM with an 8" driver. The amplifier section was the same (other than being a little lower in wattage). So I bought it and gave it a listen. It sucked. Horrible and boomy. So I swapped the amplifier unit over to the 12" speaker and box.

The rejuvenated sub works and sounds GREAT and has more than enough thumping power. I don't listen to music at ear bleed levels anyway. Plus, this is a party room and at parties, people want to yak.

Bottom line--between Ebay and Craigs list--and with possibly working thru a few issues, you can have a rockin' sound system that's very obtrusive.

In this You Tube link, you'll get a tour of my arcade room and pool table/bar room. You'll see the satellite speakers. The subwoofer is on the floor between Pole Position and Baseball Champ. At the end, you'll see the amplifier (receiver) and CD player that are operated off the Seeburg Wall-O-Matic.

 
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They make some great in-wall speakers. Yes, you will lose some bass response from small speakers. But, 2 things. In-wall speakers, assuming from the looks you have wooden stud walls, will allow the wall to carry some of the sound and therefore give you a lower response. Also, I agree, you can always add a sub woofer (~3.5" clearance). If you are concerned about water, they also make in-wall subs too. The 3rd pic is an in-wall 10" sub. Neat, clean, off the floor and the wires are hidden behind the wall. If you do decide to go w/ a floormount sub, because you have tile/concrete floors, you need to get a forward firing sub.
 

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+1 on the subwoofer. They make all the difference. Mine sits on four one inch spikes. That would alleviate some of your moisture fears.

If you are looking for an in-wall speaker with decent bass the Bose 191's are nice. They have their own enclosure that fits down inside the wall. Not a substitute for a good sub though.
 
I have never came across a good sounding ceiling speaker. They've always sounded a bit "muddy" or "washy" to me.

If you only want something basic to keep costs down, see what the ohm & watt rating is on your tuner. Then buy 2-4 speakers that have mid range drivers and a mounted tweeter in each speaker cabinet that match your ohm/watt range. You wont have BIG bass, but you'll have most of the other sounds (some bass/mid/high). The bigger the speaker, the more air it can push to make that bass sound, so try buying a larger mid range driver 8" to possibly 10". Any larger of a setup would require an amplifier in most cases.
 
Im in the same case...and I have a couple options..a set of jbl wall-mountable speakers but they're kinda big. I also have a couple tuners but honestly I'm considering just using an aiwa bookshelf system. For a cheap pos that doesn't use much juice, they sound pretty good, just don't count on the cd player working.
 
if you dont care much about your old sony speakers just lay them down under your pinball machines, or spend money and buy little speakers and a powered sub.

I use B&W speakers in my theater/arcade room, and a sunfire subwoofer. they sound awesome, but arnt really cheap.

go to monoprice.com if you need speaker stands, or wall mounts. they are really cheap there.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone!

I really appreciate the input. I will probably end up scrapping the receiver we have now since it's really old and an all in one deal with only 2 speaker outputs.

Chris
 
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