The Things We Do...

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    I was going to write a piece taking the piss out of the cult of ultra car audio. This is a movement, comprising mostly young blokes and some questionable cars, that seeks to stuff the largest and loudest audio systems possible into road-going vehicles definitely not capable of hosting such sonic enormity. These things, after all are just macho waving of willies, was my line of thought, and will always anyway, sound like complete shit.
    But - wasn't that exactly what we did, albeit not involving automobiles? Thinking back to about 1969 and to me & Pete Burr stringing together some ludicrous concoction of old valve amplifiers and speakers in Jeff Smith's front room before playing Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe, Eugene at some stupid level and with so much distortion as to render it unlistenable - certainly in the same room. We were sat out in the street when the loud bit hit. That scream must have been audible half a mile away. I guess we were about fifteen or so - perfectly understandable and I think acceptable.
    Fast forward to the mid-nineties and our office in Bethesda. My stereo of choice; sorry, professional mixing and monitoring rig, consisted of a couple of JBL-loaded top-mid/upper-bass cabs and a 2x15" triple-chamber bandpass sub-bass cab the size of a wardrobe: 1000w/channel top & 1,500w in the bass, in a room about 12'x15'. I had a favourite test CD which had a track by someone I can no longer recall, that had two bass-drops. I used to play the track to someone uninitiated and tell them to listen for the drop. When the first one hit - impressive in itself - they would nod and smile in approval, at which point I would say that's not it - then the entire building would appear to lift, and all the windows in the three-storey building would try and escape. I was at that time in my forties.
    Should have known better? Nah - it was a laugh, one of many, many loud excursions in the wonderful world of, well - making a noise. Can't take the piss out of modern youth for doing exactly the same thing, can I? But they will end up with tinnitus - the price you pay, I guess. Whistle on...

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