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Interesting article on the Dead's "Wall of Sound"....


jimjimbo

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Audio classics had some of the amps.... From the wall of sound..

 

That was my first visit.. In the early 2000's..  

 

And if I remember correctly...

 

They also rebuilt a amp or 2 from the wall

Of sound ... For Phil Lesh

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To me, this is just another example that illustrates the need to have a complete and balanced set of system design requirements from the beginning. Once a good-enough set of design requirements are established as the basis for design, producing workable system designs usually takes only one try.  Subsequent system updates usually occur only to correct the deficiencies/omissions in the original set of requirements, I've found.

 

This particular example obviously didn't work very well. The designed system was:

  • too big (increasing venue costs and limiting where the band could play)
  • too expensive
  • took too long to set up and move (which significantly raised support labor costs)
  • wasn't reliable enough
  • required considerable expertise from those that operated it (which significantly raised support labor costs)

Noting that nothing is ever a complete waste--it can always serve as a negative example, in this case it showed how bad the state of the art in arena sound was at that time, and how much it could be improved to achieve reasonable sound quality. 

 

For me, the most important point was that serves to impress that modulation distortion is a real problem.  There are a lot of people, even today, that deny that modulation distortion is a problem.  PWK identified and maintained it as a home hi-fi system problem as early as the 1950s. 

 

Chris

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On 7/17/2018 at 7:21 AM, Chris A said:

For me, the most important point was that serves to impress that modulation distortion is a real problem.  There are a lot of people, even today, that deny that modulation distortion is a problem.  PWK identified and maintained it as a home hi-fi system problem as early as the 1950s. 

 

Stereophile got around to acknowledging that modulation distortion is a problem in the last three paragraphs of page three of this article, starting with, "The results were intriguing."  https://www.stereophile.com/content/red-shift-doppler-distortion-loudspeakers-page-3

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I really don't consider that article part of the professed "audiophile gestalt" of the core staff of Stereophile. 

 

That's Keith Howard writing...and that article to which you linked is somewhat famous--at least in my view.  It certainly is a favorite of mine.

 

Chris

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1 hour ago, garyrc said:

 

Stereophile got around to acknowledging that modulation distortion is a problem in the last three paragraphs of page three of this article, starting with, "The results were intriguing."  https://www.stereophile.com/content/red-shift-doppler-distortion-loudspeakers-page-3

Interesting! In the microwave domain, when red db's were identified versus the blue ones, the preferred or desireable reflected signal. Seems the red ones were non contributors, detracting from intended purpose.

 

34 minutes ago, Chris A said:

I really don't consider that article part of the professed "audiophile gestalt" of the core staff of Stereophile. 

 

That's Keith Howard writing...and that article to which you linked is somewhat famous--at least in my view.  It certainly is a favorite of mine.

 

Chris

Also interesting, the choice of the word gestalt. Like your choice , yet have only used it myself to define a method of instruction.

Thanks!

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I had the good fortune to hear the wall in Louisville in 1974. Freedom Hall was designed for basketball and was somewhat U-shaped. Yet the Wall overcame the lousy acoustics. It was loud enough but so clean that our ears didn't ring as they did after every other major rock act.

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On 7/19/2018 at 5:07 PM, billybob said:

Interesting! In the microwave domain, when red db's were identified versus the blue ones, the preferred or desireable reflected signal. Seems the red ones were non contributors, detracting from intended purpose.

 

Also interesting, the choice of the word gestalt. Like your choice , yet have only used it myself to define a method of instruction.

Thanks!

 

A frequent definition of Gestalt is an organized (or complex) whole that is different than (often greater than) the sum of its parts.  It is often perceptual.  @billybob, one of my favorite instances of the use of the word was when J. Gordon Holt, the founder of Stereophile, was talking about the letters he got from musicians who liked Klipschorns.  He said, "It triggers their musical Gestalt."

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