Gizmodo 
Enter your username and password.
Tip your editors:
tips@gizmodo.com
Editorial Director:
Brian Lam | Email | Twitter
Editor:
Jason Chen
Email | AIM | Twitter
Features Editor:
Wilson Rothman
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Jesus Diaz
Email | AIM | Twitter
Mark Wilson, Reviews
Email | AIM | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Matt Buchanan
Email | AIM | Twitter
Adam Frucci
Email | Twitter
Sean Fallon
Email | Twitter
Jack Loftus
Email | Twitter
John Herrman
Email | Twitter
Dan Nosowitz
Email
Chris Mascari
Email
Danny Allen
Email | Twitter
Columnist:
Brendan I. Koerner
Interns:
Don Nguyen
Email
Chris Jacob
Email
Comment Intern:
Nick Ellenoff | Email
Comment Account Questions:
Comments@gizmodo.com
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/02/09
That's not a wall of sound. Now this, this is a Wall of Sound. #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/02/09
26.400W of McIntosh power is nothing to sneeze at. #wallofsound
11/02/09
Er, think that might be 26,400W... Unless you are one of them foreign-types that seems to swaps "," and "." in numbers just to confuse me. #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/02/09
C'mon man, value mattered to Dead. Value as in the experience delivered to the fans that toured with them. You don't think it was the client that demanded that set up? #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/03/09
But you think it's "the world's dumbest sound system." If I understand right, you would have made it smaller and quieter because you think that is value. But then--correct me if I'm wrong--the Dead wouldn't have had the largest sound system ever built, would they? If I'm recalling correctly that SPLs drop off as d squared, your proposal to halve the power would mean that it would have good audio quality at only 150 feet (instead of 600) and acceptable quality at 330 feet (instead of 1/4 mi.)? That is "smarter" exactly how?
Bottom line, I can criticize a Shelby Cobra and say they could get at least half the speed with a four cylinder engine instead of a V8. But what is the point? It sure as heck doesn't make me better than Carroll Shelby as a car designer. The egotism of believing that your understanding of "value" should be universal is pretty appalling. #wallofsound
11/03/09
While you’re at it, you might want to avoid wikimath calcs, they don’t become you. In free-field radiation of energy (sound or otherwise), the inverse square law applies to the pressure, power or intensity in linear units. SPL is in dB so your math is completely wrong. If 600 ft was the cutoff radius for acceptable coverage level (which btw is a misinterpretation of the wiki article…see below) then cutting 3 dB would reduce it to about 426 ft, not 150.
But all of that is rather irrelevant to the idea of "good audio quality". Level is hardly the only aspect of "good audio quality" though you seem to interpret that as being 100% correlated to level. But certainly level is important, which is why no one designs nearly omni-directional sound systems like this one. You can make up for lost level by increasing directivity (and yes, horn-loaded drivers did exist 35 years ago). Yes there are tradeoffs to everything in audio, maybe the near-field fidelity would not have been as pure. But then again, how much do you think the fans cared about the fidelity when the tour was canceled due to the logistical nightmare of the WoS.
Finally, your comparison to cutting speed in half just further demonstrates your ignorance in relation to audio. My point was that cutting the system in half would not even come close to cutting the performance in half…and as I have further indicated, you could make up for the lost level with very common audio design principles. The WoS was indeed application of pure power ignoring other design principles. It is the "more cowbell" approach to audio which results in ridiculously large and overpriced systems which could be engineered to be just as effective at a fraction of the cost. But if you find my opinion too appalling to stomach, you can just go ahead and let this thread die, I doubt anyone else is reading at this point anyway.
11/04/09
It's always entertaining to see someone make a ridiculous stupid statement ("world's dumbest sound system") and then tie themselves in knots trying to justify it. #wallofsound
11/04/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
Really? #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/03/09
11/02/09
And for $4,500 it sure as hell better at least kill that bitch dog Fluffy McMuffinator across the street whose 80 year-old owner lets it crap on my doorstep every morning.
40 Hz? Who are you kidding? #wallofsound
11/02/09
The New iTouch Ziggurat: Every piece of music ever made in the history of mankind in your pocket.
Starting at $299 for 5YB and $399 for 10YB
11/02/09
@OMG! Ponies!: Trademark infringe on my name, you have done. Hear from Jedi lawyers, you will. Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things. Craves royalty checks, a Jedi does. #wallofsound
11/02/09
@GitEmSteveDave_SavingsTime: Nice try but YB stands for YANNIbyte, not YODAbyte. #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
@Shikestarr: #wallofsound
11/05/09
I did, however, find your illustration to be pretty damn funny. #wallofsound
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
11/02/09
Marty McFly: "You know, Doc, you left your equipment on all week."
Doc Brown: "My equipment... That reminds me, Marty. You better not hook up to the amplifier. There's a slight possibility of overload."
Marty: "Yeah, I'll... I'll uh.. keep that in mind." #wallofsound
10/28/09
10/28/09
So, I will go with: These look pretty interesting. #asspeakersconcept
10/27/09
#RosaRocks #asspeakersconcept