$1000 and a tall order

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Originally Posted by toenail

...What kind of listening levels are you talking about here? Are you looking for the Disco/Club effect for aerobics and spinning or just reasonably loud background music?

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This is going to be for a weightroom, so background music. But we have a ventilation unit overhead that makes a lot of noise so we were hoping to drown that out a bit with the music.

I think this would work quite well for you - Onecall.com is offering a free pair of Infinity Primus (stereophile recommended) speakers with any purchase over $399. They have a ton of speakers to select from, and they have the Onkyo TXSR601 clearance for $328. As you will not need club-like loudness, a heavy duty 6ch receiver such as this should work well for you. This will give you video switching, dual zone speaker switching of sources (play tv source in one room & stereo in other simultaneous), and 6 + speaker outputs and a tuner. Why load up a 2ch receiver with 6 speakers and risk blowing it? Go with a 5 - 7 ch. receiver, most can run in stereo mode with all channels driven. Onkyo has a 2yr parts and service warranty, the Infinity speakers have a 5yr warranty. This would sound good and come in under budget (you have a lot of interconnect & speaker wire to buy). I have always been fond of Onkyo, and this one makes the HK receiver look rather toyish, IMO.

$328 Onkyo TXSR601 http://ww3.onecall.com/PID_19263.htm

$480 / 4 Infinity Primus 6.5in http://ww3.onecall.com/PID_23708.htm

Free 2 Infinity primus 5.5 inch http://ww3.onecall.com/Promotions.mp...040&MPActive=1

$808 + sh = Total price reciever & 6 speakers -

there are many other speakers there, you could go larger or maybe a few pair of towers and still be in budget, but the Onkyo + the free pair look very good there for a start....

Infinity Primus 150 Stereophile review: http://www.stereophile.com/loudspeak...s/404infinity/

We' decided to purchase the HK3480 receiver alone and see how it would handle to room. It can do 120W to four speakers natively, so that's were we'll get started. We just ordered the receiver and we will be having a testing session next weekend. I will be bringing a pair of Klipsch speakers and I've asked some other people to bring their own speakers: we will have Polk, Yamaha, and Pioneer speakers as well. If the HK is not adequate, then we will add a Crown or Behringer amp.

But honestly, I don't think any of these speakers are going to be adequate for this type of environment. Can anyone recommend a few smaller pro-audio speaker brands/models that would be able to overcome our environmental problems better? We only have 19" of room above the mirrors on the walls, so they can't be too big.

Generally when I have been in gyms, and I have been in quite a few, the volume level is close to "background music" levels, not dance club levels, not party levels, no where approaching even the level that I enjoy music when I have company and want to talk also. This way people can then easily talk and hear what is going on around them (for safety purposes). It needs to sound clear, not loud. You will be fine, IMO.

I have to agree with psonic, for background music in a weightroom, unless it's the size of an olympic indoor track or something, the H/K should be more than fine.
I've seen many,many gyms use H/K, Yamaha, Denon, Kenwood, Sony, etc. receivers for this.
Now, if you're blaring music at PA system volumes like at a basketball or football game, you're gonna need more muscle.