How much PA does your guest count actually need?
The most common question we get is not about brands or wattage. It is some version of: "There will be about 150 people — what do we need?" Here is the same math we run before every quote.
Start with three numbers: guest count, room volume, and program. A seated dinner for 200 needs less system than a dance floor for 80. Outdoors, with no walls to hold energy, add roughly a third more headroom. Humidity — and in Miami there is always humidity — eats high frequencies over distance, so throw matters as much as loudness.
The rule of thumb we actually use
A pair of quality 15-inch powered tops covers conversation-plus-music for about 150 guests indoors. The moment dancing is the point — not the background — subwoofers stop being optional. Bass is what a floor feels; tops alone just get shouty when pushed.
Those three rows are, not coincidentally, our $800, $1,700 and $2,000 packages. They exist because the same three rooms kept showing up: the daytime pop-up, the wedding with a serious dance floor, and the production that needs speech, dinner and party zones at once.
Where people overspend
Renting four tops for a room that needs two does not make it sound bigger — it makes it harder to tune. Spend the difference on a second 18-inch sub instead: perceived loudness lives in the low end, and a floor that feels full at a lower fader is a floor where people can still talk at the bar.
And one thing we will always say out loud: don't let subpar gear hold back your sound. A cheap top driven into its limiter all night is the most expensive thing at the party.