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Ayone know the wattage used at a Rock concert?

I just attended a Dave Matthews concert last night at a large outdoor venue (very good show). The sound level was incredible, the bass was chest thumping. I'm wondering what type of amplification is used at something like this, ie, number of amps, type of amps, number of watts, that type of thing. Anyone have any experience with this stuff? I kinda like trivial knowlegde of this sort. Thanks.
mijknarf
bigkidz
1,784 posts
 
I think David Gilmore of Pink was using 1000 watts for his geetar a few years back at the big out door shows.

Happy Listening!!
ellery911
549 posts
 
This will provide some interesting reading...it is about the Grateful Dead's "Wall of Sound" setup...pretty cool.

http://www.dead.net/cavenweb/deadfile/newsletter19soundrap.html
ed_sawyer
588 posts
 
usually several thousand at least, esp. for a band like DMB. And, that's running high-efficiency pro (horn loaded, compression driver usually) speakers and subs.
swampwalker's avatar
swampwalker
5,132 posts
 
Ellery- That sounds more realistic (25K watts) for a modern stadium show. And the Dead sound quailty was often in another league compared to their peers!!
mbacinello
54 posts
 
Can't answer your question directly, but i remember reading somewhere that all the speakers used to broadcast the Molson Indy in Toronto a couple years ago were all run off a single crown amp...800watts i think, with a huge damping factor...
also the highest concert level ever recorded was at a Who concert, the speakers were run off a numer of Phase Linear amps.
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