Baseball Field Speaker/PA System...Please help

[jeffjohnson123]

I am hoping someone on here with more knowledge than me can please advise me. I am looking for a sound system for a high school baseball field and have a guy wanting to sell me the following; Rane 8 input preamp, Sampson 4 channel x 120 watt amp, and 8- JBL Control 25 speakers, all of this gently used for $1250 (may take less), he claims the retail is close to $6000. I was thinking of mounting a bank of 4 speakers each on the 1st and 3rd base side, with half angled to the field and half to the stands. The stands would require about 30 feet of sound travel, and about 200 feet of travel to the furthest reaches of the outfield. We would mostly play music with some P/A announcing as well. Would this set-up work and sound good, and is this a decent deal? I saw the speakers retail for around $270/pair. I need to have something installed in a week, please help!

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

I am hoping someone on here with more knowledge than me can please advise me. I am looking for a sound system for a high school baseball field and have a guy wanting to sell me the following; Rane 8 input preamp, Sampson 4 channel x 120 watt amp, and 8- JBL Control 25 speakers, all of this gently used for $1250 (may take less), he claims the retail is close to $6000. I was thinking of mounting a bank of 4 speakers each on the 1st and 3rd base side, with half angled to the field and half to the stands. The stands would require about 30 feet of sound travel, and about 200 feet of travel to the furthest reaches of the outfield. We would mostly play music with some P/A announcing as well. Would this set-up work and sound good, and is this a decent deal? I saw the speakers retail for around $270/pair. I need to have something installed in a week, please help!

The JBL speakers are not outdoor speakers, and lack the sensitivity and dispersion pattern to really cover any ground outdoors. They also do not have enough "throw" to make it 30ft without a pretty severe drop in output and high frequency response. 200ft is out of the question for sure. These are outdoor speakers, but they were designed for smaller spaces like a patio, recreation area, but not a ball field.

What you need is something with a larger horn, higher sensitivity, and much longer throw than these speakers have. This will require a larger horn, and woofer(it can be a two way). The amp is okay and so it the pre-amp, your speakers are the weak point here.

I think a week to get this installed is a little ambitious. You cannot just throw up a sound system for a baseball field willy nilly or you will have some hot spots, and dead spots. You need to experiment with speaker positioning to make sure you get the proper coverage you are looking for. Mounting four speakers down the baselines will work for the stands, but not for the field. The coverage pattern is only 90x90, and you need something on the order of 120x60 or 120x90, hence a larger horn.

I would get the rest of the equipment, but I would keep looking for speakers to fit this installation. Rushing this will only cause you to make many mistakes.

[Tabubaseball]

Hi, i have a very similar challenge as JeffJohnson above. I'm wondering what the outcome was? Looking to install a new sound system for a High School Baseball Field. Currently we have 2 Speakers mounted approximately 20' high on the backstop facing the stands. The music is distorted even at low levels. The amp, mixer, pre amp are all mounted in a rolling cart that is rolled out of the dugout to the PA "table" for games then rolled back into the dugout for security after. The 2 speakers are wired down to the PA "table" and has a "round" connector that connects into the amp during the games. Equipment is probably 10+ years old so we're thinking of replacing the entire system. We'd like to install 4 speakers, all attached to the upper backstop. 2 facing the field and 2 facing the stands. The speakers are between 20'-50' from where the equipment will plug in (i.e. PA Table). We would need different volume controls for each pair so we don't blast out the fans when we turn up the volume on the speakers facing the field. The speakers will be mounted outside on the backstop so need to be weather proof. There will be some minor PA announcing of players names but mainly used for music (national anthem, walk up music etc....). Have a budget of around $1,500. Any recommendations?

[bfalls]

If you are getting distortion at low volume you may either be over-driving your input level, your preamp/amps are defective, or the speakers are blown. Minor troubleshooting should be able to determine which is the culprit.

Normally for large open areas what you see are multi-cellul horns and bass bins mounted high and angled toward the area, but as SirT mentioned, not 90x90, but wider dispersion horns. Just horns are OK for commentary and announcements, but if you also want to play music and sound half-way decent, a folded-horn bass bin would help round things out.

When I want to play music outside I have two Voice of the Theater speakers which had been in a local movie theater. It has a large multi-cell horn and a 15" bass driver in folded horn bins. They're about 30yrs old, but still do a great job. Very nice dispersion. Just ask my neighbors.

[Tabubaseball]

Thanks for the reply. If we wanted to replace the entire system including amp/pre-amp, 4 speakers etc is there a recommendation for reasonably priced hardware? Again, looking at a ~$1,500 budget so major league quality system is not expected. Main use will be for music with a little commentary.