The question of acoustics for both speech and music in the same space can be addressed by variable acoustics and/or ideal room acoustics for one use and electronic enhancement for the other. A large cathedral can have near‐ideal acoustics for liturgical music and satisfactory speech intelligibility by the use of conventional, historically proven architectural design, hard finish surfaces, and a carefully designed, installed, maintained, and operated sound amplification system. Holy Cross Cathedral, Boston, is one such situation. The sound system design, and evaluation of results using the Crown–Techron, L. G. Marshall early‐to‐late ratio (ELR) testing technique [J. Acoust. Soc. Am.96, 2251–2261 (1994)] are discussed.