Nightclub speakers - what makes them sound like they do?

[Waxx]

These SKRAM's are serious beasts, this setup is as powerfull as a classic 4 reggae scoophorns setup, but also provides surprisingly clean bass to about 125Hz. But they use a very expensive B&C 21SW152 woofer and need about 4kW clean amp power for each bass cabinet to get there. But they also load the bass at 80dB (so much less than a watt) without issue. He keeps all ports open (so 29.5Hz tuning) as that is low enough. I did not measure it and saw no real clean measurments of this yet. But i don't think i heared a sub that goes effortless that loud and low, without a hint of distortion of compression. And that makes a big difference with most if not all hifi subwoofers that i heared (and most pro subs also). It needs some (dsp) eq to get there altough, but nothing extreme.

 

[Curvature]

40Hz is typically the loudest, with the bottom octave rarely being significant. Also, low distortion in the bass region and sane use of limiters is uncommon in my experience.

But when it's good and done right, signal chain treated carefully, balanced by someone who takes many measurements or at least listens from outside the control box, it's really, really good.

Spatial crossovers for these systems require a whole set of skills and deserve the highest respect when done well.

 

[geol]

Even without any equalization and with minimal filtering, the sound system adheres to basic principles of physics: large drivers for the bass (15 to 18 inches), smaller ones for the mid-high frequencies, with horns of various types to potentially control directivity. All are high-efficiency (95dB and above).
Unlike hi-fi systems, no size or price constraints.

 

[fpitas]

In the 1970's I lusted for a pair of Altec A7's. I don't think they "measure" that well and my memory from decades ago probably isn't that good but they were the best thing I'd heard at the time and they were super efficient going "easily loud" with a few watts. You can get a glimpse of a pair in Saturday Night Fever (along with a Shure column speaker on the floor it's side in front of the DJ).

You had to be far away for the horn to integrate well with the woofer, for one thing. Lots of vertical offset. And, the front plywood horn for the woofer kind of petered out around 60Hz, so you would want subwoofers these days. With those caveats, and if you want to pay outrageous vintage Altec prices, EQ is now cheap and easy...

 

[levimax]

I wouldnt call lr2 steep.

LR12 or 72 dB per octave not LR2

 

[HiMu]

It consist of a pair of JW Sound JMOD Multi entry horn and SKRAM (21" manifold band pass) bass cabinets all amped and dsp'd with Powersoft X range amps. This setup is now very popular in the electronic music scene and open source in design and goes very loud, but it seems also to work good on low power.

I built the Hinson MEH's, which the JMOD is based on, and those are very good sounding speakers for a diy build.

 

[WerT]

i too have built the Hinson MEH and would recommend! however be careful because they do go too loud and you can't really tell due to extreme low distortion levels.
i felt like i had been at a nightclub the day after i finished building these

 

[norman bates]

Or your tinnitus hits you with a vengeance later that night !!!!!!