Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. My only concern though is bass.. I haven’t done much with audio work or anything, but I feel like one active PA speaker may be lacking in bass once people fill a room up? Granted, the room isn’t huge, I just want all the bases covered!
“all basses covered” i see what you did there you sneaky you.
As for bass, I’ve never had a problem with it at a smaller gig. If i find that the room needs more bass i just crank up the bass knob on the back of the speaker a tad and that solves the problem.
You tried that speaker on the healthy channel? If you still don’t get any sound open the box and test speaker on the other driver just to make sure if they are fried or not.
We have regular gatherings of approx 20 people at our place and have two different sound setups:
The first is in the lounge (used during the winter) whereby I output the DJ booth into our home-cinema system which is a Logitech Z5500 setup. 5 small satellite speakers and a 10" sub. More than enough for this kind of setting and would easily come in under budget (if still available) and can also be used for more than just DJing. The beauty of this system is that when used for DJing you can change the setting from ‘surround sound’ to a simple Stereo 2x2 (+sub) or Stereo 4x4 (+sub) setting. It takes out the digital processing and just splits the sound across all 4 speakers (stationed in each corner of the room) & the sub, perfect for a large living room.
During the summer we move the DJ both into the kitchen as it backs onto a large outdoor area of decking. For this I just use a pair of KRK Rokit 5 G2s plugged directly into the mixer via XLR. Although lacking the bass of the other system, they deliver more than enough punch at volumes that are going to be acceptable in a residential setting.
Our rooms are on the large side (a large-ish 3 bed footprint with only two rooms- lounge & kitchen downstairs) and both of these setups are more than adequate. Powered monitors (like the Rokits) are ideal as they offer much better mobility and less wires, however if you have a decent home cinema system already wired in then providing it has a ‘bypass’ setting as mentioned, it arguably provides the most cost effective solution with the added benefit of a sub for more bass.
I’ve been using the Edifier S730 for the past three years and have been very pleased. Compared to other similar speakers like the Logitech Z5500, it offers the best value for your money in that price section. It might be a bit more than your budget would allow right now, but there are two cheaper 2.1 speaker sets, the S530 and the S330. They don’t sound as good as their big brother, but I can tell that at least you won’t pay for useless THX brands and the company’s extensive marketing.
IF you are only DJing and playing to a small crowd in your house KRKs are perfect! I have a pair of $400 Rockit 6’s G2 that are front ported (as all KRKs are) connected via XLR and they produce more than enough sound for a small house party. You can pick them up used very cheap now a days or if you can find the VXT’s even better. I know my local guitar center a couple weeks ago had a set of used VXT6’s for $300 for the pair! That is a very good price for what those speakers are. In fact, I have a set of JBL LSR4328’s which have 8" drivers and cost around 2k for the pair that I use only for producing. Obviously they are more in the Adam, Genelec, Focal range of higher end monitors but honestly require a much more precise placement and a treated environment to get them to sound “good”. AND they even have a RMC (room correction mode) feature that is exclusive to the professional JBL line. My point is, the KRK’s are more of a set up, point them at the crowd and go kind of monitor.