The old days, well 30 years ago

[dtel]

I remember about 30 years ago ( when I was single ) when we would go out to clubs I would always walk around and find the DJ just to look at all the amps and the setup that was pushing all the speakers in the club.

And 9 out of 10 times it was one brand, McIntosh, it was easy to spot with the meters and that famous McIntosh writing.

Back then, where we went was the French Quarter in New Orleans or what was called Fat City in Metaire La.

Was that the amp to have back then or was it just a good sales rep for the area ?

I Wonder what ever happened to all of those huge amps when they closed or changed to something else?

[DrWho]

hmmmm...I've never heard of McIntosh amps in the pro audio world, but

then again I don't consider DJ'ing part of pro audio either [][] I

also wasn't around 30 years ago [6]

But seriously, did McIntosh ever build PA equipment? I've never particularly cared for their amps, but it's interesting trivia.

[damonrpayne]

I, personally, would not own Mc amps, but they have a very long and respectable history in the audio world. I do not know about any pro audio they sold but I understand they were indeed the amp to have for a long time, and to many they still are the amp to have.

[colterphoto1]

Around here the bands used Peavy CS800 (yech), and DJ/PA installs were generally Crown, QSC on less expensive installs. But then Crown is made in Indiana, so maybe it was a natural connection. We had a lot of Carver amps in racks for a while- not nearly as rugged as the Crowns though.

Never never saw McIntosh in PA or DJ use- ever. And I got around a lot.

I used to run sound for a country band that had one of those HUGE Peavy PA boards with the 2" dia round Comm knobs for volume on each channel! Don't even think we had an eq on the mains at all!

M

[Daddy Dee]

That's interesting dtel. Sounds like some high end DJ's.

Never saw that kind of gear in Arkansas.

[dtel]

Well the person playing the music probably never had anything to do with the setup. The amps and whatever else they had for the most part was built in to the wall in a rack with just a couple of turntables in front of the DJ.

I would guess the clubs owned the equipment and just had someone DJ.

DJ's back then were a little different than many today, now it seems they just like to hear themselves talk.

The reason I thought of the amps was back then it was like , just add more speakers to get more sound. I recall one club called the Dungeon in the French Quarter that didn't open till around 2 am. It was small and had no sign, just a alley and steps in the rear up to the club. I had found out about it from a bartender, it was where most of the working people in the Quarter went they got off of work.

This place had the best sound of any club, it was about 30' wide and 40' long with a bar at each end and tons of speakers facing down from the ceiling.

Some of the places in Metaire were huge and had several large rooms and at least 15 or 20 speakers in each room , how did they get the sound right with so many speakers in one room?

I guess it was kind of like today, whatever place looks the best and has the best sound it where the crowd is. Back then ( or today )I did not know much about amps and thought McIntosh was more of a pro amp being they could drive so many speakers to such a volume.

These places were making a lot of money they could have used whatever they wanted.

I had met an owner of one of these clubs and he said he would build a new club about every 6 months with a different name and theme, and when the people got tired of one or something new and cool comes along the crowd would move to the new club. Then we go back and remodel the old one back to something different to keep up with the trend and get the crowd back. Smart man, and I'm sure very rich now.

[boom3]

Macintosh amps got their PA status from the Dead, whose sound contractor, Alembic, used them extensively. (maybe still do). When the Dead had the famous Wall of Sound in the early 70s, they had several racks of Macs glowing right behind the band. I saw them in Louisville in 1974 and it was very impressive. Got too cumbersome and costly to tote around with them, though.

[khorn51]

Woodstock was powered by Mac 275,s into Jbl cabs.

Around 1971 or maybe a bit earlier The PHASE LINEAR 700 was born. Almost over night it became the amp of choice for small to super large Pa companys to use. It was in pro use that it got it nick name FLAME LINEAR, as many were use at lower ohms and over heated.Clair bros the biggest pa around in the 70 and 80's used the 700b. In 1980 the dead played Umass amherst with Clair Brothers biggest sytem 88 phase linear 700'sb each powing it own cabinet The s4. cair brother today make some nice pro stuff check them out http://www.clair-audio.com/index.htm?products.htm~main

carver came along with ther light weight amps the 1.5 which pretty much did the heavy amps in in pro use.. today crown and Qcs seems to have the high end pro market locked up.

There were others like BGW,Yamaha (pro), SAE, and not to forget the old Crown d300 and the might PSA2.

[boom3]

I heard that Flame Linear stuff too. I thought it was because the design fed the power transistors rectified 120V (no power transformer) and when an output transistor failed you had 120 vdc into your speakers. A pal of mine was trying to fix one for a band in 1979, he couldn't get the transistors and finally gave up.

[colterphoto1]

Yes Khorn51, I recall those systems from my youth. My first concert was Yes Relayer tour in about 1974. Clair Brothers was a Yes staple at that point also and it was the s4bins in action at that show.

I remember being in awe as we took up our positions against the 'fence' on the front row, looking up and seeing racks and racks of the 700's flown right behind the speaker cabinets. The sound was tremendous.

Michael

[wuzzzer]

I remember about 30 years ago ( when I was single )

I was single too...I was 1!

[dtel]

I remember about 30 years ago ( when I was single )

I was single too...I was 1!

Hey that makes me feel better.[] Back to the retirement home now !

[Tom Adams]

dtel - Do you remember the Ground Pat'i restaurants from several years back and the audio systems they had??

For those not familiar with this restaurant, it was started in the New Orleans area and expanded to south Louisiana. Not sure they ever had stores beyond the Louisiana. Anyhow....they were a kinda Fudruckers type place long before the Fudruckers concept. You picked out what size hambuger patti you wanted grilled and how you wanted it cooked. They also had chicken breast. From memory - the burgers were simply awesome in flavor. Beer was served in cold pewter mugs. Ok - back to the audio thing.

What use to get me was that in their restaurants there would be this rack of either Mac or Crown equipment built into the wall along with a Teac reel-to-reel. Speakers?? Klipsch Heresy's. I asked the manager of one store if he ever cranked the system and with a big smile he said, "Oh hell yeah. After we close and while we're cleaning up, we let those Heresy's rock!"

Tom

[Duke Spinner]

does Chicken Breast ..

taste like **** ..??

[Duke Spinner]

stupid forum software ...

I wonder if it can be tricked into something .. embarassing..?

[WS65711]

Do you remember the Ground Pat'i restaurants from several years back and the audio systems they had??

We still have the Ground Pat'i restaurants. And they still have the great burgers & beer. But the open reel decks and the amps are long gone (along with the Heresy's). Some of the older locations still had the glass case built in to the wall where the audio equipment used to reside, now empty. I'm sure all of those will disappear with the post-K remodeling.

Dave

[dtel]

Do you remember the Ground Pat'i restaurants from several years back and the audio systems they had??

We still have the Ground Pat'i restaurants. And they still have the great burgers & beer. But the open reel decks and the amps are long gone (along with the Heresy's). Some of the older locations still had the glass case built in to the wall where the audio equipment used to reside, now empty. I'm sure all of those will disappear with the post-K remodeling.

Dave

Oh yea I remember Ground Pati restaurants but I don't remember the sound.

I ate ate at 3 different stores over a 2 year period and got very sick each time and never went back. The food was very good but something happened that was not good 3 times, may not even been them, could have been something else I had that day ?

[boom3]

When I worked in New Orleans East (83-86) there was a Ground Patt'i on either Read or Bullard...but I never went there. I had 30 min for lunch so I often went to either the Chinese around corner or the cafe at the Lake Forest Maison Blanche. Paul Prudhomme and his wife were there one day, flacking his cookbooks.

[dtel]

If you worked in New Orleans East, do remember Sound Trek Audio, they had a store across Read rd from the mall. They also had a store on the service road in Metairie. I loved those stores, you never knew what kind of stuff they were going to get, it always was changing and they had good prices.

I miss real audio stores that don't just stick with just a few brands and never change or try something new.

[Marvel]

The early country rock band, Mason Proffit, used Mac amps for their PA, at least early on. Original members Terry Talbot and John Michael Talbot wrote most of the music as I recall. Terry and John Michael, became Christians at one point, and the band split up. John Michael became a Catholic and started a small monastery, although music was still important to him, while his brother Terry toured in the evangelical camp. Terry has joined up with the other original members and is again performing as Mason Proffit. John Michael still performs and records his own flavor of contemporary Christian music. I imagine that they don't still use Mac equipment for their PA use.

Bruce