Vibe's Space Gate 38,800-watt bass tunnel

Staring into the negative space of the Vibe Space Gate, your sad, pathetic little human life flashes before your eyes. What will happen when you walk into the arch of 36 Space II subs on 16 amps? Will it suck all of the oxygen out of the room? Will your heart realign beats to match the thump of the track? Will your skin melt off? Most importantly, will this finally be enough bass to make our 2 Live Crew remasters sound the way they were truly intended? We just don't know, but something tells us stepping through it will take you StarGate-like into a new universe of hearing loss -- ready?

[Jo @ Mar 22nd 2007 11:36PM]

Actually, you can go deaf on bass alone. Assuming the db level is high enough, the force of the displaced air [sound] is enough to rupture your eardrums. The frequency might be low, but that doesn't mean it doesn't move any air.

[Juaquin @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:39AM]

Just because you can't hear it doesn't mean it can't hurt you. You can't see UV, or Gamma Rays, but they can really screw you up. It's all about decibel level (which has very little to do with what you can actually hear).

[Deezee @ Mar 22nd 2007 8:19PM]

Looks like the trunk in my old Cadillac.

[gxti @ Mar 22nd 2007 8:28PM]

DO WANT

[VBAjedi @ Mar 22nd 2007 8:31PM]

So if I, at 6 feet tall, stand in there while they crank a 189HZ tone (which has a 6 foot wavelength) through that little setup, will it levitate me like they recently did for that ant?

[GigermUnit @ Mar 22nd 2007 8:49PM]

Stand in that and enjoy your new fallout boy heart beat

[Das @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:22PM]

While I have no doubt that you could modify your heartbeat with that monster, I don't think you'd be in time with that Hawthorne Heights song you love so much. I think you'd be dead.

[James ferretti @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:26PM]

You guys should check out Valve Sound System, almost 100,000 watts. They tour round the UK all the time, the maddest Drum + Bass nights ever. Unlucky for you they haven't taken it to the US, although there are plans to get another system to live in the USA.

[rp @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:01PM]

@james ferretti

too bad dillinja's basslines are all so ridiculously distorted so as to make the awesomeness of the valve sound a moot point...

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:28PM]

Looks like 12 amps, player.

[Matt @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:34PM]

Wrong. I see 14 but there is 16. Look at the right side of the amp-wall you can see 2 amps so common sense says that there would be 2 more on the other side. So lets put that all together 14 + 2 + = 16.

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:53PM]

also, matt, those black rectangles on the right side might be amps, mounting brackets, or they might be your rectal vibrators. i'm not confident you'd be able to tell the difference.

[Lee Roy Brandon III @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:34PM]

Sorry to say, it's not about the watts. It's about efficiency. Here's how real men build bass...

http://www.royaldevice.com/custom.htm#THE%20REAL%20TOTAL%20HORN

[fanbrain @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:06PM]

...and this is how more men build more real bass... http://danleysoundlabs.com/matterhorn.htm

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:41PM]

yo matt, 3 x 4 = 12, and i don't care what's behind; it looks like 12 amps

[Eh @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:44PM]

10 bucks says MTV's Pimp My Ride straps one of these to a 95 Ford Taurus.

[Matt @ Mar 22nd 2007 9:58PM]

you do have a point but if you go to the read artical it also says 16.. maybe they are hidden or maybe those things on the side are them.. who knows.

[Lebeu @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:08PM]

JF, those 12 "amps" might be just painted cardboard boxes...your point?

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:23PM]

well, lebeu, let me spell this out for you. the article claims 36 speakers. the photo shows 12 rows of 3 speakers. it also claims 16 amps. the photo shows 12 amps. the entire jpeg might just be colored pixels...your point?

[alfonzo @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:43PM]

the point, jf, is that you obviously can't see the back of the structure, and since we can't see the entire picture we must base our knowledge off the article (the most reliable source of information), and so we assume that there are 4 more amps we can't see. not that hard...

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:57PM]

hey, alfonzo, they may have 57 amps under the floor and 12 in the arch. There may be hundreds of amps back in the truck. all I'm saying is that there are 12 in the photo. since I don't know you personally I'll assume you have 50 more IQ points that I can't perceive.

[Lebeu @ Mar 22nd 2007 10:44PM]

Well, JF, you should use your logic coherently: the picture shows 15-17 speakers(can't really say should I or should I not count those two top ones as speakers - after all they look more like a mess). :)

[JF @ Mar 22nd 2007 11:11PM]

i realize i've been too acidic here, and I apologize. my point is, why release a promotional photo claiming 16 of something and showing 12? it's like claiming your new top-end box has 4 drive bays and releasing a photo with 2.

[alfonzo @ Mar 22nd 2007 11:15PM]

fair point.

[Lebeu @ Mar 22nd 2007 11:24PM]

JF, no probs, tongue in cheek... :)
My additional two cents here is that they probably have located them somewhere else because they might use that stand as desk, so it can't be too high - hence they couldn't fit the 4 missing ones on the front...hmmm and they have only three columns there, wouldn't be symmetrical. Heh, maybe they just sucked at "engineering math"... :P

[Rick @ Mar 23rd 2007 8:53AM]

i'm pretty sure those are 2 amps mounted vertically on each side. the real problem here is how i am gonna fit this in my prius

[carl @ Mar 23rd 2007 12:28PM]

It doesn't make sense to have 16 amps hooked up to 36 speakers. If you want each speaker to receive the same amount of power (presumably their RMS handling value), there's not a way to do it with this configuration, as far as I can tell. 18 amps will work (each amp powering two subs), so will 12 (each amp wired to 3 subs in parallel). My guess is that if these amps are stable to 1-ohm mono, you could wire 3 subs in parallel for a 4/3 ohm load to each amp, and they'll hum happily along.

[mudzipper @ Mar 23rd 2007 12:58PM]

the bass will make everyone crap their pants

[carl @ Mar 23rd 2007 1:09PM]

The math:

Vibe's most powerful amp does 2800W max when connected to a 1-ohm mono load. If the system's total power is 38800, you need at least 14 amps to power it.

3 4-ohm speakers in parallel gives you a 1.33-ohm load at the amp. When connected to a 1.33 ohm load, 2800/1.33 ohms = 2156W per amp when connected to the three parallel speakers.

38,800W/(2156W per amp) = 18.0 amps

However, I looked on Vibe's website, and these are dual voice coil 4-ohm subs, which means that wiring three together for low impedance gives you either 2/3 ohms or 8/3 ohms to the amp, neither of which is optimal, and neither of which will get you anywhere near 38800W for 16 or 18 amps.

You could wire 2 subs with all voice coils in parallel for a 1-ohm load but you'd have too hook them up to 18 amps, and then you'd get at total system power of 2800W*18Amps: 50,400W.