How much wattage do I need?

[Mr.Si]

May I just add my agreement to what Bobbsy and Simon have said.

I'd have also linked to the "3Times" article.

 

I've seen this happen in the church I attend. The people involved in buying equipment know that I am much more involved in the more "Professional" world of audio than them, but when it came to buying some stage monitors, I would've loved to give them my advice, but no, they bought a couple of powered monitors, all of a sudden, and the musicians don't particularly like them and to get a decent sound from them, the musicians have to play with the notch filter (I hate standard monitors with knobs on for musicians to fiddle with, it goes wrong).

 

When occasionally I take mine in (Wharfedale LiX12M - old school decent ones), they are a massive improvement, as they are a speaker which has been designed, as opposed to a couple of drivers (woofer and piezo horn) assembled into an angled box and a basic amp stage on. Yes, they're not as cheap in money terms, but they are a whole lot better and don't feedback as easily. They are basically better at the job. So like with most things, you get what you pay for.

 

The above is just a simple example and is just to do with the speakers for the few musicians.

When it comes to speakers aimed at a massively higher number of people, there are more people to please.

 

So yes, your system sounds like it needs to be designed for coverage, type(s) of speaker required, etc Get a consultant, and yes, a lot more money is going to be required (most likely)

 

Do let us know how you get on.

 

The difference is the amount of work required to make the sound reproduction sound like it should (or just nice).