Recommend speakers for a restaurant sound system

Jkeniley,

I still don't get it. You want a high performance system for very low cost (8 speakers and subs etc etc. no less with audiophile quality but industrial ruggedness and all for mere 5 to 7K!!). It does not exist. Panels would be just plain silly. The reason I suggested the cheap robust and relatively good sounding JBL EON 510 - at 600 bucks a pop eight of these would cost you 5K leaving some money for wall mounts and a mixer and perhaps one EON 518S subwoofer (since these speakers all come with built in crown amps).

I think you may need to come down to earth - audiophile like quality in sound systems for commercial venues is actually extremely expensive. You could stick some audiophile speakers in your pub but unless you have complete control on your staff (probably students) I bet they will be blown after the first month. I could recommend some great systems such as what they have at Ronnie Scott's Jazz club in London but your are looking at mega-bucks.

Parasound is an excellent choice for your application for preamp and especially power amps. I recommend their new classic line to my pro customers. Also look at Mogami raw cable. They make a co-ax speaker cable that is very open sounding and inexpensive.

Gdoodle - you are correct that playing copyrighted music in a commercial setting will require a license from ASCAP/BMI to do so - but to clarify, it is the playing (the performance), not the ripping that is the issue. I would have the same issue if I decided to read aloud my copy of Harry Potter to the restaurant clientele as a regular event.

I also think that a nice sound system is generally wasted in a restaurant setting given the volumes.

Funny story - there is a a chain of sandwich/baked-goods restaurants in my area and I noticed that they had Bose mini-speakers located throughout one of the local stores. One day, I was sitting in the back corner of the restaurant on the end of a set of bar stools (where no one often sits unless it is very crowded). I kept hearing this thumping noise. It was sort of a one beat thump, very distorted and "one note". After I finished eating, I looked around and up in the corner mounted against the ceiling was the Bose subwoofer to accompany the mini-speakers positioned at the front of the restaurant. Hilarious.

If it were my business, I'd subscribe to XM radio service, which has fantastic variety and is available very inexpensively. ASCAP/RIAA are actually quite aggressive about collecting royalties for unauthorized commercial use of copyrighted music (I know a number of businesses which have been thus hassled).

Get the license from ASCAP/BMI, you'll have to pay fees to someone and this way you can do what you want, including having live music. (Very frustrating that original bands can't be booked into a place that doesn't pay ASCAP! They are Nazis and will harass you till you pay.)
As for music not making a difference, that seems like saying ambiance doesn't matter. Most people can't/won't articulate their opinion of sound quality but they DO notice. I've seen this for years in pro sound. Most bands don't put much into their sound system because they think the audience can't tell the difference. A perfect example of what really happens was when one band redid their sound using Daedalus speakers, everyone asked why they spent so much money when no one will really hear the difference live? Well they consistently sold TEN times the CD's at shows with the new sound system. People didn't articulate that they enjoyed the show more because of the higher quality sound but they did talk with their wallets!
So good on you for trying to do it right!
good luck,
Lou