An Apple iPod is priced at less than $100 for a basic model. The “name brand table radio” that some are convinced provides provides concert hall sound quality is priced at $350 and up. A simple portable CD player with headphones is priced at $20 and up.

What do all of these have in common besides being mass-produced consumer audio devices. By and large, each is only used by one listener at a time.

Now, what if I quoted a price of $56,000 on a new sound system for an 800-seat church? “Yikes!” is perhaps the most likely reply, followed by “Oh my goodness, that’s triple the amount we have in the budget! It’s time to go down to the local music store and wee what we can get on the cheap, and/or shop around for equipment deals online, and, well, we can get together a crew of volunteers to install all of this on a Saturday…”

Sound familiar?

But what if I do some simple math showing that this price breaks down to just $70 per seat (listener)? It does—divide 800 into $56,000.

The issue that seems to come above most others when talking about a new sound system for a church: how much money will be needed to get the job done? We need to get our heads around this issue by understanding it in context.

Defining It

In any correctly executed sound system design, four key pillars are intertwined, and if any of these four are not evenly matched, the structure is fundamentally flawed and won’t stand the test of time.

The four key pillars:

• Function
• Coverage
• Level/Volume
• Cost

In the real world, we understand that the fourth pillar—cost will almost always take a leading position in the discussion, no matter what any of us say. This makes it imperative to investigate

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