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Budget Friendly church sound systems 2023

Church sound systems

Best Budget church sound systems 2023 for small and any event.

Having great sound in your church for a friendly budget should not be that difficult, by the way, it is not as difficult as people could think if you have a sound technician with a little knowledge about church sound systems.

In this blog, I will give you an overview of the importance of a good sound system in a church setting.

Churches are meant to have great sound, even though most pastors do not really care about sound, but, the sound is very important.

If we think for one second about the almighty God That we serve, he created everything for his glory and he testifies that everything is good.

But, why do most churches have a crapy sound? is it because they don’t know the importance of God who created everything?

This is why the purpose of this blog is to help you get the best and budget-friendly sound system for your small church.

Believe I won’t disappoint you, I will make sure I guide you in the right direction.

Disclaimer: Links in this blog are typically affiliate links, I might get compensated when using my link to purchase something.

Budget church sound systems

I will refer you to some pieces of equipment, please use the link in this blog to purchase your sound equipment, this is the only way you can help me, and that way I can create more helpful content like this one.

1. Defining Your Budget

It is very important to set a budget for everything in your church, not only for the church sound systems but for everything that costs money.

When setting your budget, You won’t go over too much on your expenses.

Example: let’s say you have $10,000 for your church expense that is for all for a whole year, and if you don’t plan how you going to use that money, you might end up purchasing a sound system for all the money and after that, the pastor will lose some sleep.

This is why defining your budget will help you stay within the budget range set up for each department.

Tips for determining how to allocate for a sound system

Let’s say your church has less than 100 people, you don’t need a huge system, however, you will need enough sound to feed the room and everyone will satisfy.

You might need a pair of powered speakers, why I recommended powered speakers?

A powered speaker will take up less space in the build, it is almost plug-and-play, no need for a lot of knowledge in sound to set it up Versus a non-powered system where you will have to buy 1000 pieces and figure out how to make it work.

Below I will give more detail about the Powered system Vs the Non-powered system

Decide what sound system is best for your church

After defining your budget, now you have an idea of how much money you are willing to spend, but there’s a little problem.

What equipment do you really need?

In this section, I will talk about how to decide what you need to buy. Well I will give some recommendations but if my recommendation doesn’t make sense to you just ignore

  1. Key considerations when choosing a sound system
    • Speaker type and placement
    • Amplifiers and mixing consoles
    • Microphones
    • Cables and connectors
    • Other necessary equipment (e.g., stands, cases, etc.)

Let’s talk about the speakers, there are different types of speakers you can use depending on your budget. Powered and non-powered speaker.

Before I talk about the benefits, just a little advice. Most people look at the price per speaker, let’s say a non-powered speaker cost $300 and a powered speaker costs $599 trust me the powered system will be cheaper than a non-powered system.

Powered VS Non-powered

PoweredNon-powered
Light-weightHeavy-weight
Smaller, less spaceBigger, more space
It cleaner sound, no extra ampNeeds an amplifier
More expensiveLess expensive
easy to setupNot easy to set up

The powered speakers are smaller, lighter, and easy to set up as you can see in the table above.

And there’s a lot more benefit when using a powered system. In another blog, I will go over more detail about these speakers.

Budget-friendly recommendations for Powered speakers

  1. JBL EON715 Powered Loudspeaker
  2. Electro-Voice ZLX-15BT Powered Bluetooth Loudspeaker (1000 Watts, 1×15″)
  3. QSC K12.2 Powered Loudspeaker (2000 Watts, 1×12″)

Recommended Powered Subwoofers

  1. Mackie Thump18S Powered Subwoofer Speaker
  2. Alto Professional TS315S Powered Subwoofer
  3. Electro-Voice ELX200-18SP Powered Subwoofer Speaker (1200 Watts)

Budget friendly recomendation for Non-Powered speakers

  1. JBL JRX225 2-Way Passive, Unpowered PA Speaker
  2. Peavey PV215 Passive Unpowered PA Enclosure (2×15″)
  3. Electro-Voice ZLX-12 2-Way Passive, Unpowered Loudspeaker (1000 Watts, 1×12″)

Recommended unpowered Subwoofers

  1. Mackie DRM12AP Arrayable Passive, Unpowered Speaker

For convinient I recomment check this no credit check program for churches you can purchase as many gears you want and make monthly payments according to your budget. Click on the image below.

zZounds

Amplifiers and mixing consoles

A mixing console is what they called a “Mixer” the mixer is the apparel where you can plug all the instruments, microphones, etc.

They are 2 types of mixers “analog” and “digital” I will talk more about them in another blog stay tuned.

When using a powered system, you don’t need to buy amplifiers because all the speaker already has their amplifier inside the speaker, this is why they call them powered speakers.

Because the powered amps are built inside the speakers but are very powerful.

Microphones

Everyone knows how important are microphones, they are the small pieces of equipment that amplified the pastor’s or worshipper’s voice for other members can hear at distances with speaking very loud.

There are wireless mic and cord mic, again I don’t want this blog to be too long I will make another one talking about the differences.

It’s very important to have a good microphone in the church, especially the pastor’s mic, If not the pastor’s voice may sound annoying.

Depending on your budget, you can choose one of these

  1. Shure Microphone
  2. VocalPro Wireless set
  3. Shure Beta 58A Supercardioid Dynamic Microphone

Learn more about different microphones available in the blog best dynamic microphone.

Tips for installation and maintenance

For a powered system, it is very simple to set it up.

Just put your mixer at your desired location and make sure it is secure and locate the XLR output that says Main out, you will need 2 XLR cables one left and one right.

Plug the left side on the left speaker and the right on the right speaker.

Check on the back of your powered speaker, you will see an XLR input, plug the Microphone cable from the main output of the mixer to the input on the speaker. It’s very simple, you can’t miss it.

After that plug in a microphone or any instrument and adjust the fader according to your desire.

To make sure your system has a long life make sure to keep everything clean, and covered. No need to unplug anything if not moving from one place to another place.

Conclusion

In this blog, I talk about how to set up a budget-friendly sound system for your church. I you follow everything and all my recommendations, you will easily get the best sound for your church.

I encourage you to invest in equipment that is easy to use and that will last long. Also if one day you will need to upgrade it will be easy to trade your gears and upgrade.

Let’s make 2023 a better year for churches and people who truly serve God with all their hearts.