Great idea at the time... PA(?) Speaker set up help

[HappyHorris]

Hello,

I'm looking for your top tips and advice please.

I'm a bit of a stranger to setting up sound systems and have bitten off more than I should have!

I bought these from a bankrupt night club. I'm trying to work out how to connect them to my PC.

The speakers:

A pair of Dynaudio M1's
Dynaudio M1 - The first choice in 2-way near-field monitors
One Subwoofer EAW SB8zP
SB48zP - EAW: Eastern Acoustic Works

I am NOT going for an audiophile experience.

I would like to have three sets of out puts and be able to switch between or connect them.
1. A set of 2.1 speakers in my office. 3.5mm jack
2. The big speakers
3. Headphones

Is this connection order correct?

PC
DAC
Switch. This or a cheaper alternative?
(HIFI Lossless 1 Input 4 Output RCA HUB Audio Distributor Signal Selector Switcher Tone Volume For Amplifier Board home theater )

(Then to the big speakers)
Power Amp
Crossover
Speakers

I have to buy a power amp. And I'm guessing this type of crossover.
Behringer CX2310 Super X Pro V2
Behringer CX2310 Super X Pro V2 – Thomann UK

Is this the correct order? Am I heading in the right direction to get this working?

Thanks for taking your time to read this.

All the best

 

[conanski]

I would like to have three sets of out puts and be able to switch between or connect them.
1. A set of 2.1 speakers in my office. 3.5mm jack
2. The big speakers
3. Headphones

Ignoring the above for a second, you need 3 amplifier channels and a crossover to drive those speakers, that could be accomplished with a pair of power amps with built-in DSP, or separate components, or with a multi channel amp. More on that below.

Back to the above. The 2.1 speaker set is probably connected to the computer now... right? Is it using the 3.5mm output or USB? If they are using the analog output why not just leave them connected that way?
To drive the big speakers you want to use a digital stream.. hence the DAC.
You could buy a standalone DAC and some kind of switch box, but you could also buy a component with a DAC and power amplifiers built-in... like an AVR for example.

This would be the tidiest solution, everything connects to one component and you can control it all from your chair with a remote.

 

[HappyHorris]

Hi Conanski,

Thanks for taking the time to read and reply.

I don't have a 3.5mm on the computer and so all outputs have to come from the DAC via a USB.

Do amps come with only 3 channels? Are even numbers more common? Any recommendations on a budget? I think these speakers need a large amount of power... Maybe 500/1000W at 4 ohms. I'm looking at Behringer as they seems ok for my budget. Are they any good?

Thanks again!

 

[conanski]

Do amps come with only 3 channels? Are even numbers more common? Any recommendations on a budget? I think these speakers need a large amount of power... Maybe 500/1000W at 4 ohms. I'm looking at Behringer as they seems ok for my budget. Are they any good?

Thanks again!

Pro power amplifiers usually have only 2 or 4 channels but there are now some home audio versions that have 3, 5, or even more channels. I have seen install amplifiers with 8 channels.
Those Dynaudio speakers are studio monitors, they can absorb very high peak levels but otherwise they are closer to a home speakers than Pro sound speakers, so they really aren't designed for extended high power use. If you had 100w to give them they will do very well. At the entry level end of the pro audio market the amplifiers you find are not well suited to home audio use, they usually have fans that run full time and the background noise level(hiss) with no signal is rather high.
For your application you not only need amplifiers but a DAC and some switching capability, all this is available separately but this type of setup is common in home audio systems these days. For example I have a system downstairs that consists of a 5.1 home theater and a separate room with ceiling speakers that is all controlled from a single AVR. It can handle all types of inputs including optical and coax digital, HDMI, regular line level, it has 7 channels of amplification, and has an array of switching capability that includes playing different sources in the two output zones at the same time.

Now don't think I am against buying separate components, I had a very nice home audio stack that was stolen unfortunately otherwise I'd still have it. If you want to go that route then by all means but I predict you will spend a lot more money than you think once you get into it, the internet is full of people that will passionately explain how you need this or that $1000/$2000/$5000 component to do the speakers justice, it's a rabbit hole you can spend the rest of your life exploring.

So back to your speakers, those monitors can absorb a lot of power when run fulrange, but you have a sub so they won't see anything below about 80hz and as a result really don't need that much power. The sub is rated at 400w and everybody loves bass right so you need to get at least that much for it. A pair of 2-ch power amps could work here, the first one powers the monitors L and R and the second is bridged to form a single channel to power the sub. If you were buying new I'd suggest a pair of ART SLA2 amps and the CX311 crossover, they have a 4ch amp too but it's class D and I'm not sure it's any different than any other with respect to it's self noise, so I'm suggesting the conventional power amps they have which are known to be silent.

https://artproaudio.com/product/sla-2-200w-power-amplifier/https://artproaudio.com/product/cx311-2way-crossover-with-subwoofer-out/