Speakers for house party

Studio speakers: no
PA System: provided right size, yes

If you don’t own now, go rent. Tell the rental company what you need.

General rule of thumb: 5-10W (more on the 10W side for House) RMS per person. In this case between 300 & 400W should be sufficient.

It’s always a good idea to consider a combination with one subwoofer and two (smaller) top end speakers if you want some good low end. But for a house party with 30-40 people this is probably overkill.

Hi,

I can only make a PERSONAL statement and I know there will be people who disagree with me, but I’d stay away from Behringer. My personal experience with these kinds of things is a less than happy one. Again, just my personal experience. The Fender I don’t know personally (the brand I do = good, this gear I don’t = no comment).

On a general note, both these units claim something they are not. The Behringer claims it’s 300Watt, but it’s actually only 260Watt RMS. And while the difference is only 40Watt, it’s not what they said it is. The Fender doesn’t even say how much RMS power it is. So I am guessing the 375Watt is peak power, putting the RMS somewhere around the 250Watt mark too.

If you take the above calculation, that would put you in the max 25 people in a not too large room level. Having said that, there is a catch. These speakers utilize small drivers (8″ in both cases) that are physically unable to produce any serious bass sound. While this isn’t a problem for speeches and such or background music or even a sing-a-song writer with a guitar and a microphone, it won’t hold up for party work. Finally you are paying for some unneeded stuff as well, like a full mixer and FX section. Since in PA it’s very true that “you get what you pay for”, a part of your dollars is not going towards better and/or louder sound but towards needless stuff.

Is there no hope then? Well yes there is. You could consider the LD Systems Dave-series (10″ or 12″ subwoofer with two smaller satellites). Read the review over on the blog. Although not self-contained, I think a set of straps and one of those trolleys will make this into a somewhat portable unit. You can also get a wheelboard for the sub, use that, tie the tops on top and roll away. Budget wise it shouldn’t be to for off from the Fender either.

Slightly more expensive but also a good very portable system for serious sound (also check the review on the blog) is the HK Audio Lucas Nano series. I’d safe up for the 600s and be done with it for years to come. The 300s will work also and they do pack a lot of punch into a small package. As for portability:

http://www.thomann.de/thumb/bdbmagic/pics/bdb/301009/6300604_800.jpg

So, hope that helps some.