McIntosh laboratory’s Despacio, the unique club-orientated sound system conceived by James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) and Belgian artists TooManyDJs, is set to tour in 2015. Personally designed by James Murphy and renowned recording engineer John Klett, with help from McIntosh Laboratory and Jordan Acoustics, this ground-breaking sound system is the only one of its kind in the world.
Destined for two London clubs and a festival in Ireland Despacio (‘slowly’ in Spanish) is a live vinyl-only event played using eight 11-foot McIntosh speaker/amplification towers. The sound system comprises eight McIntosh-powered ‘stacks’, each housing five amplifiers and a drive unit array in a custom cabinet.
With each stack providing an incredible 5,700 watts, the entire system totals 77,600 watts from its 48-amplifier complement, significantly eclipsing the famous McIntosh/Grateful Dead ‘Wall of Sound’ system of 1973. The amps are built into custom-made cabinets with a carefully chosen driver array. The unique system allows any crowd to become completely immersed in high-quality sound. McIntosh’s Despacio system is enhanced by the superior music selection of James Murphy and 2manydjs – recognised audio aficionados with encyclopaedic music history knowledge from the last 60 years. Watch the Despacio video here.
Despacio tour
The system will be appearing in a number of special live events this summer, following previous Despacio events around the world:
Citadel (London, 19th July); Lovebox (London 17th-18th July); Electric Picnic (Ireland, 4th- 6th September) with more to follow
Amplifier complement
32x MC1.2KW 1,200-watt monoblock amplifiers (four per stack)
8x MC452 two-channel 450-watt amplifiers (one per stack)
4x MC-303 three-channel 300-watt amplifiers (one per DJ monitor speaker)