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A:
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The original market for small packaged speaker systems grew from the sound system band and rental market, where it was important that the systems be easily transportable, reliable, and could make music sound nice for the client. The systems were typically used in more reverberant spaces where the reverberant field in the room would "fill in" the response variations. This works well for bands and DJ’s music playback, but does not work for speech reinforcement.
An ideal speech reinforcement system should be invisible to the listeners, the voice should sound completely natural and not sound amplified, it should just be louder to effectively move the talker and listener closer together. An ideal system would also preserve or improve the direct-to-reverberant ratio of the reinforced sound, but that's another issue. The marketing departments have convinced many consultants, clients and contractors that these small systems are a panacea, a universal problem solver for sound systems. There are many examples of installations using this type of speaker system for speech reinforcement, and yet when you listen to a voice through the final result, the deficiencies are often very apparent. Somewhere in all of this marketing push, people have quit listening to what the finished systems sound like.
Don't be fooled. Many of these small rock and roll speaker rigs sound very impressive when demonstrated with a CD of pre-recorded music. Most listeners are much more forgiving of response variations when listening to music. If you're listening to a system intended for speech reinforcement, insist that it be demonstrated with a live microphone in the room. Have someone you know speak into the microphone while you walk around. Does their voice sound the same in all the seats? Does it sound like the natural voice of the person talking or does it sound different? A proper speech reinforcement system should sound perfectly natural, not bright or sibilant and not boomy or bassy. Make sure that it doesn't sound "better" than the person speaking, as that gets tired pretty quickly and it won't work for all voices. Is there reasonable gain before feedback? If the speaker system is hung above the microphone, are there bass lobes aimed at the microphone position that will induce feedback? Above all else, is the system intelligible in all the seats? It is important to ask the right questions during a demonstration of a speech reinforcement system, this is not the same as buying a stereo system. When you're buying a speech reinforcement system, listen for how well it delivers the speech intelligibility your audience needs and don't get fooled by marketing and music.
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