Music and Recording Features

DJ Club Sound Systems of Brooklyn Peter Matson's Jupiter Disco LP playlist

Sidebar: Peter Matson's Jupiter Disco LP playlist:

1.) Harvey Sutherland: "Priestess"
2.) Funkadelic: "Aint That Kinda Funkin' Hard on You?"
3.) Fingers Inc.: "Mystery of Love (Mystery of Dub) "
4.) MFSB: "Love is the Message (Mr. K Edit) "
5.) Herbie Hancock: "Ready or Not"
6.) Stardust: "Music Sounds Better With You"
7.) Mr. Fingers: "Washing Machine"
8.) Metro Area: "Atmosphrique"
9.) Theo Parrish: "Nefarious Stranger"
10.) Prince: "Chelsea Rogers"
11.) Fela KutiL "My Lady Frustration"

COMMENTS
crenca's picture
Submitted by crenca on April 9, 2018 - 8:31am

Unsurprising speakers with (way) above average sensitivity are used to get the SPL high without kilowatt amps. I assume this is still true of movie theatres today as well, I know it was in the past...

foxhall's picture
Submitted by foxhall on April 9, 2018 - 11:49am

These field articles are really interesting. We need to be reminded how most people enjoy music.

DougM's picture
Submitted by DougM on April 10, 2018 - 2:46pm

It's great to see such iconic lines as Klipsch, McIntosh (love that blue glow) and Crown being used today. K-Horns and La Scalas have always been my favorite speakers. There's something about high sensitivity speakers dynamic capabilities that makes them sound more realistic to me. I know that Art Dudley feels the same way, although he seems to prefer Altecs. I wonder how he feels about Klipsch.

Anton's picture
Submitted by Anton on April 11, 2018 - 11:28am

I agree with you, wholeheartedly!

stasis05's picture
Submitted by stasis05 on April 11, 2018 - 7:09am

I loved reading this article--I think it would be great to see a series based on great sound systems out in the field. I know much has been written about Spiritland in London and their Living Voice system (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/31/arts/music/london-listening-clubs-spiritland.html) but I'm sure we have plenty of underappreciated locations here stateside too.

watermad's picture
Submitted by watermad on April 12, 2018 - 7:16am

Unfortunately Spiritland is all looks and no sonics. On paper they have a great system, however you can barely hear it over the din of the diners who are right in the sweet spot, but would be happy having a boom box for background music. I once asked staff on a quiet Saturday afternoon if they could turn up the volume, and they looked at me as some kind of mad man, and made excuses about the neighbours and the few diners present.

yale's picture
Submitted by yale on April 11, 2018 - 3:41pm

There is so much going on regarding this subject of vintage sound systems in millennial clubs, you have barely scratched the surface and that so disappoints me. As a new subscriber to Stereophile, (and I am way past millennial myself), I was excited to see coverage that was broader then what I expected. But this tertiary look so let me down. Please go further and cover a wider range of subjects that you might not have considered the purview of a magazine such as this. Though maybe a lot of your readers might like reading about crazily priced, unaffordable components, I find that so boring. Thank you for taking this step though.

Golden Ears's picture
Submitted by Golden Ears on April 12, 2018 - 4:57pm

Good club sound was hard to come by. I had a mobile DJ company in the 1980s " Catered Sound" featuring a dedicated audiophile front end with Modded JBLs AlNiCo magnets, sweet twin loaded 18"s JBL K-121 subwoofers in twin loaded scoops , 15" JBL SUBS 12" lower mid compression midrange and bullet tweeted Bryston 4bs ran it. Some Bose 901s ran at a much lower volume for distant rear fill so they would not pollute the sound. With custom crossover components we did achieve hi-fidelity sound at very high SPL. .a good amount of EQ careful,placement and sound absorption was required in some areas, custom crossovers made a huge difference, and crossed properly with enough driver response overlap or underlap helped with EQ.

TO audiophiles this might seem impossible ..but my reference were my Infinity Reference Standards RS-1 at home , Lenny the current owner of Lyric Hi-fi NYC was my dealer so,it was possible. Outdoor sound was amazing too.

Why would an audiophile bother with DJ'ing?
I dj'ed the All girls colleges in the Boston area.

RLA sound systems often featured Bozak or Urei mixers and Metro in Boston in Landsdown street had a good,sound system . Unfortunately rumor was the AIDS epidemic wiped out so many of the good sound guys, it's a pity millennials couldn't ever hear a system like that. RLA got all the math right at Metro, subsequent revamping after they were gone ruined the sound.

Most club systems were Klipsch and by comparison weren't very impressive. Now club owners are more sold by watts and loundness than sound quality QSC (harsh sounding Class d ) is everywhere with mobile DJS using Jbl Eon powered speakers Which aren't very good either.

Back then sound guys ENGINEERED THE SYSTEMS to FEEL GOOD EMOTIONALLY, not just play loud. Happy people that feel great buy more drinks and stay longer than deaf bored customers.

So much of the time I see systems with a bunch of tiny lower quality speakers splattered everywhere causing a ton of timing problems and reflections and racks of amps . , instead of a few quality larger speakers played at lower volumes works so much better . Also current fire codes have made dance spaces not have much sound absorption (no more heavy velvet drapes) so they are highly reflective. For these newer clubs dispersion is bad, so,I see why Klipsch figure in more in these " retro" clubs.

Here in Laguna Beach all Vinyl nights outdoors (fixes the hard surface reflection issue) with wine are becoming popular. Full album sides... I guess we have come full circle .

I have wanted to,do a night club / dinner club with emotionally happy sound at reasonable volumes for years

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