Valve Sound System

The Valve Sound System is a touring sound system specifically designed for the playback of drum and bass music. Created by UK artists, Dillinja and Lemon D, the system has a total power output of 96kW. The system consists of 52 subwoofers (designed and built specifically for the system) as well as Mid-High cabs made by Funktion One. The full system is not used in smaller venues. It was designed exclusively for drum and bass acoustics and as such is the first of its kind.
The inspiration for the system came from the reggae sound systems which were popular in the 1970s and 1980s. Growing up in the 80s, Dillinja was turned on by the reggae sound through the systems of such artists as King Tubby of Jamaica and Jah Shaka of the UK. Later, as a DJ, producer, and music label boss, he came to be frustrated at the lack of quality at many of the club sound systems when DJing around the UK and abroad, particularly with respect to the deep bass sounds often present in drum and bass. Today, Dillinja refuses to play even ’standard’ club systems believing them to be inadequate to fully reproduce the bass frequencies to his levels.
The whole system has to be carried around in three 7.5 tonne lorries and is generally arrayed as 6 speaker stacks, each around 18 feet wide and 9 feet high.
Notable appearances
The Valve Sound System, which made its debute at London nightclub Fabric in 2001, has toured the UK extensively, completing a six-month residency at Brixton’s Mass in 2003. Given that the venue (the former St. Matthew’s Church) was not designed specifically as a nightclub, a crew of no less than fifteen was needed just to get it in and out of the building, those carrying equipment having to negotiate four flights of winding stairs.
Around this time the Guinness Book of Records showed an interest in the system and wanted to test it for the “Loudest Sound System in the World” category; this sparked additional public interest, even though, when asked about the Guinness Book of Records, Lemon D indicated his opinion that “it’s not about being the loudest, it’s about being the best.”
Dillinja and Lemon D were invited to bring the system onto Channel 4’s popular “The Big Breakfast” show, but when they discovered they would have to haul the sound system into the show’s garden at 4am, with inadequate protection from the weather, they politely declined.
The Valve Sound System provided the sound for the drum and bass tent at the huge annual Gatecrasher festival in June 2002. Months of hard work was put in to ensure the sound system was ready for this big event, but the British environmental health authorities stopped the system from being played at full power. Nevertheless, the tent was still the most popular at the festival.

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