Tips on Sound Systems
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Speakers & Amps

It doesn't matter how wonderful your system is if you've got a poor amp and speakers then it is all a bit pointless. 

Much like normal hifi you should be spending roughly 1/3 of the core system cost on the speakers to get a rough budget. For example if buying a £1,800 complete system the rough speaker spend would be £600.

Wattage

How many watts do you have? Firstly it doesn't matter the number (we're not pimping cars) rather the ratio of watts to people. As a rough guide you'll need 2 watts per person. So a 200 people event could be sufficed by 400 watts. But you might get 600 watts so you've got some head room.

Remember to check the regular wattage rating, not the RMS rating which is the 'how high your speaker can go without destroying itself for a short burst' not the normal rating.

Combined or Separate Speakers?

If you don't need much power then combined is easier to deal with (one speaker to carry) and you can get large enough bass speakers (12 inches/ 30cm) to create the full range of bass.

The main reasons for separates is two-fold: 1) you need a lot of power, especially in the bass (for a band/club) and 2) you need to stack speakers together.

Shielding

Most speakers come with this by default, all it does is help to avoid distortion of the sound due to things like radio waves, mobile phones, etc.

One simple piece of advice is to not get an amp that can exceed your speakers normal wattage rating. The reason is that you then can't blow your speakers no matter how hard you crank your system.

Some amps have a 'bridge' option which takes a single input and splits it into the left and right amps rather than requiring a separate left and right feed.

Ok, there's not much to say, most amps will be strong across the whole frequency range, they're boring bits of kit but also heavy and need looking after.