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Anyone hear the "wall of sound"?

It was before my time but the Grateful Dead experimented with a system 35 years ago comprised of nearly 650 loudspeakers powered by 89 300-watt Mcintosh MC2300 amplifiers and and three 350-watt McIntosh MC3500 tube amps. Unlike traditional left-right P.A. systems, this behemoth gave each instrument its own vertical array, and vocals emanated mostly from a center honeycomb cluster above the band.

Vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and piano each had its own channel and speaker array. Phil Lesh's bass guitar was piped through a quadraphonic encoder that sent a separate signal from each of the four strings to its own channel and set of speakers. Another channel amplified the bass drum, and two more channels carried the snares, tom-toms, and cymbals. Because each speaker carried just one instrument or vocalist, the sound was reportedly exceptionally clear and free of intermodulation distortion.

It projected high quality playback at six hundred feet with acceptable sound & projected for a quarter of a mile without degradation or delay speakers. Speakers sat behind the band so it was the monitors. It filled 4 semi trailers.

I find modern computerized eq and pa systems, for the most part, blow away the mostly muddy sound I remember from the late 70's and 80's (except for really good halls). I am too young to have heard the wall. Any A-goners remember the sound?
stearnsn

Showing 3 responses by mechans

mechans
3,048 posts
 
They used mostly 15" extended range F-130 speakers and used horn compression tweeters in an horizontal array. These were all made by JBL but sold as a Fender drivers.
The Wall was purchased by the Dave Mathews Band when he started to play large venues. It was not used for very long and broken up. The scattered remaining elements are unaccounted for. I read this however I can't recall the citation.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
They used mostly 15" extended range F-131 speakers and compression tweeters in an horizontal array. These were JBL but sold as a Fender driver. The Wall I read was purchased by the Dave Mathews Band. It was not used for very long and broken up and now scattered remaining elements are unaccounted for. I read this and can't recall the citation.
mechans
3,048 posts
 
Thank you for this explanation Slipknot. It sounds much more realistic than the DMB buying the famous "wall". Is there any reference article on the composition of the Wall and anything in particular regarding the Fender speakers. If it is true that they used them I would be curious to know which Fender labled drivers they used.
I don't know of any band using a big or in this case ginormous sound system made from home audio components. Professional sound systems vary but are largely not used by audiophiles not because of the size or even expense but because of many accounts reporting they just don't sound very good.
The touring gear must be portable and durable. I am not at all aware of why these requirement may be a true obstacle in designing equipment that sounds good. The studio is a less harsh enviroment. Several pieces of equipment are highly desirable and legendary I think a JBL monitor which is named by a number 24### is such a piece. I have noted that other "near field monitors" in particular, seem to cross over to the home audio market.
I don't know why we are not using the incedibly inexpensive 1000W + amps I see advertised in the pro music e mails I never asked for and don't play music on anything other than stereos> Why not have 4 or 5000 watts to get some truly dynamic sound out of the new standard size 6.5 inch woofer . I don't know if they need a high voltage power line so maybe it just can't be done without a dedicated mains panel or having to the outlet used by the dryer It is one hell of a weird plug and huge. Setting up a system close or in the same area you wash clothes in may be hard and room treatments will be needed.
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