Speakers That Will Party Hard

In a large room and with the dancers obviously not sticking to the sweet spot, a loudspeaker's power response (summed omnidirectional response) is much much much more important than its on-axis response. All the moreso given that a dancehall's acoustics are likely very lively. Unfortunately, very few small speakers are designed to have good power response. The BBC-designed LS3/5a was among the few.

Any speaker not designed for corner placement will almost certainly have poor tonal balance when placed in a corner.

I agree that the Bose satellites are being asked to do something way beyond their capability.

What size/weight speakers are acceptable? How many will be used? What's the room size? What volume level is required? What's the available amplifier power? Budget?

Sorry to ask so many questions, but this is an unusual application. If I had to make a suggestion knowing only what's been posted so far, I'd suggest you look at the little Mirage omnidirectional speakers. At least they'll have a fairly smooth power response, which I believe is highly desirable in an application like this.

Duke

Cdc - The speakers will have to be passive as Ron already has an amp and is only agreeable to replacing speakers. I know JBLs have a rather well deserved rep as being on the "bright" side of things. However, the studio that uses four of them doesn't have that problem. For whatever reason, their music never sounds harsh or tense. I had forgotten about Genelec and that's a good idea. I know of a DJ service store not far from me.

Duke - The speakers have to be no large than what would hold a 6.5" woofer. Will have 2-4 ea. Room area to cover is 19ft x 39ft. Hard to say how loud is loud. We'll have to bring some speakers home and try them. Again, the music will not be played anywhere near as loud as a club would. His amp is 100wts for 2 channel which should be more than sufficient, however, it is a mass market Harmon Kardon so I'll check that with the speakers. Most of these type of amps are badly overrated. Not sure of budget as Ron is still bummed out about buying "the best speakers in the world", Bose, and getting such poor performance. I've tried explaining some basic physics as regards speaker size, construction, and ability to reproduce the electrical signal being input. Ron's face just glazes over.

I'd go looking for a pair of Soliloquy 5.0's and hang them. They are small and can go wicked loud while still sounding great.

R

There are lots of small speakers that will work in this situation if he uses a home theater receiver so you can use the bass management to choose a high crossover of 100hz or so. Onkyo avrs have an All stereo mode that works great for partying... sending full stereo signals to all speakers. With a good sub.... like hsu and 4 small speakers from paradigm or nht... etc... he will be able to rock the house, have good sound and not have huge speakers in every coner.

check out NHT 0's