To those people who are satisfied with high-wattage
electronic
amplifiers, I have nothing to say. Nor even to those who
enthuse over the incorporation of cannon into the musical,
ah,
canon. These things are mere tinklings in the world of
serious sound. MaxCo. has been working, instead,
on some
serious sound systems, because we are, like, down width the
homies on da street innit?
The prototype four-stroke internal combustion speaker is, in
essence, a single-cylinder 500CC petrol engine. Rather than
piss about with crankshafts, however, MaxCo has simply
welded the bottom of the con-rod directly to the middle of a
2m disc of 1mm mild steel, the rim of which is clamped
securely in the housing.
Amplitude is fixed, at about 10cm, but the frequency can be
modulated via the accelerator, which in turn is equipped
with
a MIDI interface. Continuous output is about 85kW at A
above middle C. We are
working on a V8 version for surround-sound.
It turns out that the sound output comes to a sort of focus at
a
range of about 12m, directly in front of the speaker. This
precise point is exactly the worst place to stand to enjoy the
full-throated audio. On the plus side, the unit can also be
mounted on a gimbal and used to bring down birds or drones
flying through the focal point.
Fuel consumption:
0.8l/album (urban cycle)
1.2l/symphony (motorway)
1.35l/album (heavy
metal)