For those looking for some spicy ma po tofu with a side of karaoke, the stylish Won Fun/2Fun Sichuan Chinese restaurant/lounge complex in the West Loop district of Chicago is a great new place to spend a night. With the Won Fun restaurant downstairs and the 2Fun lounge upstairs—with DJs, karaoke, and light food—the overall space had special audio coverage considerations.
Tim Pickett of Encompass AV explains that Martin Audio CDD were the best bet for both spaces. “Won Fun is a narrow rectangular space with six CDD10s mounted on the ceiling above the hanging lights and two CSX 212 subs built into the booths. With six CDD10s, the system can handle anything from background music up to a high-energy lounge feel,” he said. “Upstairs, the 2Fun Lounge has a much larger system to accommodate the higher energy live music, with nine CDD15s flown in a U-shape around the bar, four on each side and one on the end-cap facing outward, that cover the room beautifully, and six CSX118s built into the booths.”
The real challenge in the space, he says, was getting the low end right. “We had to play with phase and timing and run each sub channel with its own DSP just because the subs are in the booth seats,” he said. “We had to flip some subs out of phase, add some delay to tighten the sound up, and play with crossover points. But when we got it set up, the room came alive like crazy. We got a tremendous amount of low end energy that hits real hard and obviously the CDD15s just sound better as they get louder.”
Pickett says the even coverage of the CDDs, even close to the cabinets, made them a good choice to cover the lounge. “We had nine of these to cover 3,000 square feet, which was more than enough. And because of the low ceiling and the short throw distance, you need that wide dispersion, and it worked out great.”
In the narrow restaurant space downstairs, he says the wide dispersion of the CDD10s work well. “People who are only two or three feet away from the speaker or off axis are still getting good coverage,” he said.
So far, the restaurant owner has been impressed. “I played some tracks to show what the system could do at higher volumes, and he was absolutely blown away,” Pickett said. “He just said, ‘Wow’ with a big smile on his face. The amount of sound we have in there is incredible for the space we have to cover. The owner was adamant about having a great quality sound system that, in his words, would ‘rage.’ And that’s exactly what we did.”
