Ambient Sound Equipment for DInner Parties

Creating the perfect sound for an ambient dinner party at home.

Choosing the right audio equipment for an event can be extremely difficult for those who are not experienced with sound technology. Each event has a mood and feel that the sound equipment needs to be matched to in order to create the perfect atmosphere. For instance an initmate gourmet dinner party at home with friends would require a completely different setup to a home studio or EDM rave.

Recently, I was asked by a friend to recommend a setup he could use at his new home for a pretty luxurious house warming dinner party he was hosting, I mean the guy went all out with no expense spared - wait staff, Two-hatted personal chef, degustation menu, fully equipped bar and me doing the music. Anyway, I thought I would walk you through some of the options I recommended to him for the sound system here today but before I do that I think I should list the factors I considered when developing the options.

Budget? - $5,000-$6,000
Room dynamics (is the party hosted in one large room, or multiple spaces within the one building?) Multiple spaces: kitchen, dining room, living room, patio
What is the size of the room? Main room - dining room: 5x6m
How many guests are to be attending the party? 15 guests
What future use would you require the system for? Home entertianment/parties

1. Option One

The first option I recommended was the Lifestyle® 535 Series III home entertainment system by Bose.

Price: $4,999.00 AUD

Product Style: Lifestyle Audio

Product Page: http://worldwide.bose.com/axa/en_au/web/lifestyle_v35/page.html

Retailers in Sydney: Yes

Overview:

The Lifestyle® 535 system delivers a warming surround sound through its five integrated speakers plus subwoofer in a 5.1 formation. Come with the capability to connect 6 high definition video/audio inputs allowing it to be a fully functional home entertainment system.

Pros:

- Delivers high quality surround sound, especially in smaller spaces.

- Integrates with all home electronic devices, eg Blu Ray player, PS3, XBox etc.

- Potential to have speakers across multiple rooms

- mix between high and low frequencies via dedicated mid/high and lows.

- no external amp/mixer required

- small/sleek

- relatively low cost given budget

Cons:

- most music to be played at the dinner party will be stereo sound (i.e 2.1 not 5.1)

- limted capacity to spread speakers through space without resorting to 1 speaker per room

2. Option Two

The second option recommended was a custom Krix solution comprising of 4 x on wall Phonix Speakers, and a Cyclonix subwoofer.

Price: $6,100.00 AUD (approx)

Product Style: Lifestyle Audio/Home Theatre

Product Pages: Phonix Cyclonix

Retailers in Sydney: Yes

Overview:

The customer Krix system that has been recommended would deliver a driving sound throughout the house when required with the ability to lower down the volume and still provide crisp but soft sound for an intimate setting. Running a 4.1 system that could be isolated to 2.1 as required with wall mounted speakers in living room and hallway to dining room/kitchen area. Aside from home and private use these custom systems are commonly used in commercial installations for instance, schools, dance studios, restaurants, function centres, corporate boardrooms etc.

Pros:

- Delivers high quality surround 2.1 sound - superior quality to the Bose system.

- Potential to have speakers across multiple rooms

- mix between high and low frequencies via dedicated mid/high and lows.

- matches stereo sound.

- higher output if required

Cons:

- requires wall mounts for speakers

- higher cost than Bose system

- Not able to connect with other devices without extra component

- physically larger system, less sleek

2. Option Three

Hire a soundsystem suitable for ambient sound and decide later on a more permanent system. This was the third option I recommended, and while I'm sure there are a bunch of you there thinking wow, what a cop out that is - it's not and here's why. A key part of the process I went through in forumulating my recommendations was understanding as best I could what my friend needed from his audio system. It turns out that he needed a diverse system that could operate for all occaission - knowing him rather well I know his uses in the future are likely to include quiet rawkus rave style parties and so didn't want him to be stuck with a system designed so specifically for a quieter setting.

Case Study: The Dinner Party - What actually went down...

To start of with I want to give you a better idea of what the actual party was like so that you can fully understand my friends choice in audio system for the event.

The aparment:

My friend has just moved into this awesome new pad in Bronte, Sydney. It's in a small block of units maybe 6-8 units in total but overall the unit block is quite large - these are fairly pimp apartments. There is a kitchen that is partially open to the dining room via a service bar. The dining room opens up on to a back timber deck which is also conjoined with the living room. So overall a lot of glass and a lot of open plan spaces.

The guest list:

This was an unusually important element for the decision as my friend had invited a diverse group of people for the meal/party. He invited the usual best friends etc, all in all there were 6 of us plus the plus ones and then he and his wife, and finally the boss and bosses wife. Basically a wide array of people with different modes of impressing them. The mates want a booming system, the wife doesn;t really care and the boss well he's an older gentleman and doesn't know everything about my mates personal life.

The food/catering:

8 course degustation menu cooked by a Bondi/Sydney based personal chef, I believe he had Two-Hats but boy was the food good! It might have even showed up the soundsystem and that's coming from me a self professed audio-phile! Anyway the caterer provided waitstaff, fully equiped bar with bar tenders and everything and a restaurant quality experience. It felt like I was at some posh wedding not my mates house for dinner.

The music:

The brief I'd beed given as far as the music was concerened was chilled out, house with a jazzy kind of feel. Maybe something similar to Mr' Scruff's "trouser Jazz" or Dj Mark Farina "mushroom jazz". The idea being all the mates love house while the boss was a bit further afield and seemed like he was more keen on the non offensive music genres. Also, given the five star degustation menu we were about to by served and fine china we were using it didn't seem appropriate to be cranking some bangin' techno. Although from speaking with the chef I'm sure he would have loved is for a change.

The decision:

When push came to shove, my mate went with option three. We decided this was best ultimately because we felt that the longer term uses of the system were not completely aligned with the short term use. Sure, we may have bowed to the "man" i.e. my mates boss and arguably we should have stuck it to him and gone for a booming QSC system or something of the sort but ultimately that didn't fit the mood or experience we were trying to create. It's not every day you're eating 10-courses cooked by your own private chef.

In the short term my mate wanted to create an initimate fine dining experience with himself, some close friends and his boss. That's why he went to the effort and bother of hiring the caterers. In the long term however what he was really after was a more functional system for entertaining but also for partying and the ability to have some really thumping sound when required. For this occaission ambient sound was on the menu not thumping techno and so we opted to go for two different systems, one for the short term purpose of the dinner party and the other for lifestyle.

Other alternatives he could have gone for....

As a final note here is a system that Bose has self reviewed that might suit your purposes if you're looking for a similar product but aren't happy with the choices recommeneded. Just click here to read it.