How much room can a HTS fill?

[dwlam1]

I have this crazy idea of using a home theater system as a makeshift sound system for a reception hall music substitute. I'm not looking for a blow-your-mind sound system, but I'm hoping this project will sound better than just sticking a boom box on a table...

The room is probably about 600 sf, but the music would be required to fill mainly the dance floor area, about 200-400 sf.

Being on a budget, I was thinking of the following:
Entry-level ONKYO receiver at 65-75W/ch (high current)
a 5.1 speaker system sats at 86-88dB sensitivity, 100W
with a powered 8-10" sub (Polk Audio RM 6750)

WILL THIS WORK?

[markw]

You're better off getting five or six "full range" speakers to handle the tonal load instead of expecting a subwoofer to be able to fill the area.

What kind of budget are you looking at?

[dwlam1]

My budget is about $500.

I went towards the HTS because I figured that this set up would be more useful to me at home. I assume by full range speakers, you mean the larger floor standing units that have a large woofer, a midrange driver and a tweeter?
I'd have no place to put them afterwards.
Since I don't need surround effects as much in that setting,
I thought I would send a 2.1 signal through, and have a receiver that could
pump the sound through 4 (0r conceivably all five) satellites and subwoofer.


What do you think would happen to the sound if I used the HTS in a large room?
Would th sound simply drop off after about 20 ft?

[Grandpaw]

I would start off with checking your information and make sure it is accurate. The size room you have mentioned is the size of my den. Are you sure you have the correct square footage of the room? The size of the room will directly effect the question you are asking. Jeff

[kexodusc]

Your setup will be fine, I used a less generous system in a bingo hall, about 2000 sq feet, and it would play pretty loud, loud enough people had to raise their voice to talk, with just a sony receiver, and 4 PSB alpha bookshelf speakers.

You'd be surprised - doesn't sound the greatest, but it sounds good.

[dwlam1]

To be accurate, I really don't know the square footage.
My TRUE estimate is as follows:
The reception room is a long-wise with approx 30ft wide (front) tapering to 15ft (back).
The room is probably about 60 ft deep. I think this puts the room at about 1200-1800sf.
The ceiling is no more than 15ft high.

The dance floor will be 15x15 to be set up at the front, dinner tables in the back.
This is why I figured my "effective" room size is about 300-400sf.
Of course, I can only guess what the sound dropoff would be like
since the sound will not be isolated in a 300sf box,
but rather sent through the entire 1200-1500sf space.

Clearly, I'm not expecting a professional sound,
but i don't want it to seem pathetically poor either (ie. boom box in gym).
Back to the question: could I pull off decent dance environment with a HTS?
And if so, any suggestions on speaker system specs?

PS: I'm looking away from the HTIB except for something like ONKYO HTS790 which seems to have a hefty set of speakers combined with a decent entry-level receiver.