Firstly, I totally hear you, no pun intended, on the 120dB thing. Again, I'm not very in touch with the AV world, and a quick google of dB reference levels showed a chart which said 120dB was the sound of a concert/live symphony or something. So that's where the 120dB came from...it was prob way off. If 110dB is the average "live club rock loud" ..well yeah, awesome, appreciate the info on that. That's what we want.
For reference on your volume; I will give you one mix engineers opinion.
Personally earplugs go in at about 96dB. When I am mixing rock music I am typically running things at about 90-94dbA Slow Peak/101-105 dBC Slow Peak.
That volume feels pretty loud to me; granted the "SPL preservation society" would probably state that is quiet...
Last few large concerts I attended (not mixing) things were right about 100dBA.
How deep are the pockets....well, I don't know exactly, budgeting so many things to get this space going.
Question? What kind of speakers are we talking then? Like type/brand/model, that makes more sense than PA speakers?
And yeah, certainly figured I might be talking to a company for this.
To the point online reviews probably won't help you out for a few reasons:
1. The space matters: What speaker or type of speaker is really dependent on your space. Even with a high quality product what is a great solution for one room, might be a horrid solution for another.
For an example play some music with your cell phone speaker: how does it sound in free space? vs cupped in your hand? vs against a table? 2. Dealer: Most higher end products/solutions (what you are looking for) are not sold at Guitar Center; as the manufacturer wants to make sure they are properly deployed/processed.
3. Price (Part 1): Most higher end products/solutions (what you are looking for) probably don't have a readily available public list price.
3. Price (Part 2): Speakers are the "sexy" part of installation; cost wise they can be the tip of the iceberg; there are a lot of things that cost money, but are in the background of the system. For example if you want some nice touch screen wall plates to control things those don't come cheap. Against how big that iceberg is below the surface is dependent on the complexity of the install and your needs.
A non-exhaustive list of some brands a company might recommend would be:
D&B
Danley Sound Labs
Fulcrum
JBL (note they have many product lines; some are rubbish, and some are great)
Martin
Meyer Sound
Nexo
L'Acoustics
A better brand will have a range of products/options for your needed SPL requirements. To explain there should be some product parity:
Example: The large speaker (for your main area) and the small fill speaker(s) (closer to your audience) will provide the same tonality, and SPL level at the listener plane.
An installer will sell certain brands; there are many good solutions.
For this install you will probably stay with a single speaker brand or two. Within that brand you will probably stay within a product line; and the specific space should dictate speaker model.
