Choosing Your First PA System for a Small Church or Event Space

The question we get asked most in-store is some version of "what size speaker do I need?" — and the honest answer is that wattage matters far less than most people think. A well-placed 400W powered speaker will out-perform a poorly positioned 1000W one every time.

Start with the room, not the spec sheet. For a space that seats under 150 people, a single powered 12-inch or 15-inch speaker on a stand, paired with a compact mixer like the Behringer Xenyx Q802USB, is usually enough for speech and light music. Add a second speaker only once you're covering a wider room or outdoor space.

Channel count on your mixer matters more than most people budget for. Count every microphone, every keyboard, every laptop input you'll ever plug in at once, then add two spare channels for growth — running out of inputs mid-service is a bad place to discover your mixer was undersized.

Finally, budget for a spare cable and a spare microphone before you budget for a second speaker. Equipment failure on a Sunday morning is far more common than needing more volume.