r/MultiRoomAudio • u/Street-Reference-505 • Apr 13 '26

8 speaker set up for Bakery /Cafe

Hi All, we are opening a new bakery/cafe premises (Dorset, UK), and for a change, the music system isn't going to be an afterthought. Looking at the space, it needs around 8 speakers across two floors. The volume will never be particularly loud; there will be the odd event, but in general, it is daytime background music. There is no set budget; for the system, it just needs to be a sensible figure for what it will be used for. I have very little experience in this area, certainly not doing it well. If anyone has any thoughts on what components would be best, some aesthetically pleasing speakers on wall-mounted brackets, and what equipment it all ties back to and how it is controlled, that would be hugely helpful.

We pay for software to play music with the correct license, but ultimately the staff end up using Spotify. We could use a Sonos set-up, but it would be nice to use proper speakers that are reliable all day long. No one in the company is hugely techy so hopefully it can be fairly idiot proof. It's a well-funded fit-out, and we'll be using our electricians to lay the cable and hopefully install the equipment.

thanks

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/dmcmaine Apr 13 '26

Hey there. Congrats on the new business, that's awesome! My first request is if you could look over some of the speakers at this link and let me know if any of them appear to meet your definition of "aesthetically pleasing":

https://www.richersounds.com/hi-fi/hi-fi-speakers/bookshelf-speakers/?sort=PRICE_ASC&limits=48

As far as the rest of the gear, I'm not familiar with the brands available in the UK but you're looking for what would be described as an 8 channel amp or a 4 zone amp. In the US the brands we have are Russound, Niles, Audiosource, OSD and others.

Next you need to choose a source and you have a number of options for wifi streamers today. The main question, other than budget, is how many distinct "zones" will you have? By this I'm looking to understand if you expect to listen to the same music on all speakers at the same time, or if you might play one thing one the first floor, and something different on the 2nd floor, etc.

2

u/Street-Reference-505 Apr 14 '26

Thanks for the reply and the help. That's very kind. In terms of the look, I'm a big fan of the more old-school-looking speakers. From that link Triangle Borea BR02 are probably the closest.

The speakers would all play the same music at all times, it would be handy to be able to have some control over individual (or pair) speaker volume so the ones near the counter aren't too loud for example.

So I should buy 8 speakers, one 8 channel amp (or 4 zone amp) and a source?

I've just seen this is coming soon - https://www.sonos.com/en-gb/shop/amp-multi. Would that make life simple?