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Most Basic Surround Sound Setup Help

J

Jensenfrench

New Member
Looking for some help setting up some speakers. It's just gonna be for our shop and the speakers are from the garbage. Only thing I want is bluetooth. Is all I have to do is get a bluetooth amplifier and hook the speakers up to it? Do I need to make sure I have a certain amplifier for the speakers or is it generic? Thanks for the help
 
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You can buy a perfectly usable digital amp with bluetooth for less than $50. All you have to do is hook up the speakers.

If you want surround sound, as in the title, you need a 5 to 7 channel AV receiver or amp and at least 5 speakers.
 
In the old days we would put up 4 speakers and connect the opposing corners speakers two the left channel for cross corner and the right channel to the other opposing pair. In other words an X pattern configuration. Being in corners gave more even coverage plus extending the bass and acoustically amplifying the bass. Use a sound level app to measure the back ground noise in the room. As long as the back ground stays below 35 db then you wont need efficient speakers or big power. 30 watts a channel should be plenty.
 
Look for one of the various TPA3116D2 (a TI chip) based amps available on Amazon. You should be able to get 50W/channel out of them, assuming the power supply is sufficient (24V @ 5A or 20V @ 6A should do it). Many times, the included power supplies are insufficient to supply the rated power.

As an example, this Fosi amp (currently on sale for $56 after coupon) is rated at 100 watts/channel (it uses dual TPA3116D2 chips), but the power supply maxes out at 24V @ 4.5A, which would only give you a total (i.e. both channels together) of 108W at 100% efficiency, which no device is (although these amps are probably pretty close to 95% efficient; they put out very little heat). Having said that, this amp might be a good plug-and-play solution anyway, and it certainly won't break the bank.

Of course, if your shop is very noisy and you want to be able to hear the music over the machinery, YMMV.
 
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