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Product: Audio: Speaker
Million Watt Speakers   (+4, -1)  [vote for, against]
create the ultimate social distance concert

With the Glastonbury mud and discarded litter fest cancelled for another year along with numerous others, a very large gap has opened in the outdoor music concert market. This gap is so large that only something totally massive can fill it, and I have the solution to this opportunity.

People need to stay distant from each other during this period of easily transmittable covid, but they also need to attend and hear those concerts. The solution is obvious: milllion watt speakers. (see quick scribble in link showing a pair of these entertaining some "instantly deaf at the first note revellers")

Depicted here are the four cone versions, but I'm also working on the multi-directional 100 cone version. With these in place in a large open area, a huge crowd should be able to gather about a mile away and stay well spread out. Large stacks of containers will be able to deliver an even greater volume for a venue such as the Burning man.
-- xenzag, Jun 28 2021

Million Watt Speakers illustration https://sodabred.tu...inal-idea-by-xenzag
[xenzag, Jun 28 2021]

Disaster Area https://hitchhikers.../wiki/Disaster_Area
[bs0u0155, Jun 28 2021]

Shockwave calculator https://www.grc.nas...irplane/normal.html
[Voice, Jun 28 2021]

Compressible Aerodynamics Calculator http://www.dept.aoe...r/aoe3114/calc.html
[Voice, Jun 29 2021]

Decibel-milliwatt table lookup https://www.rapidta...m/electric/dBm.html
[Voice, Jun 29 2021]

Loudspeaker efficiency versus sensitivity http://www.sengpiel...ator-efficiency.htm
[Voice, Jun 29 2021]

Difference between blast, shock, pressure and sound waves? https://www.physics...20of%20temperature.
[Voice, Jun 29 2021]

The Who at 120,000W http://www.pro-musi...tml/09/e20604jb.htm
[bs0u0155, Jun 29 2021]

Loudest Sound known to NASA 204dB https://ntrs.nasa.g...tations/20120003777
[bs0u0155, Jun 29 2021]

Apollo 1st stage 191 gigawatts https://www.reddit....stage_produced_190/
[bs0u0155, Jun 29 2021]

Is this a new idea?

Very loud speakers are widely known to exist.

1w speakers are mass produced, I am sure it would not be hard to acquire 1 million of them.

Your drawing shows multiple driver cones and enclosures stacked together, this is widely known to exist.

Adding a ginormouse driver cone to the end of a shipping container is a great idea but it would be rather bass heavy. There are better bass drivers availabel than cones, e.g. fan based woofers.

[+][+] for very loud noises, [-] for lack of novelty or implementation details, net score [+]
-- pocmloc, Jun 28 2021


//Is this a new idea? // Unless you can show me pairs of 40ft shipping containers converted into speaker cabinets, I do not believe anyone has done this yet. I also recall Wem making speakers called Thunderbirds which featured a 36 inch speaker. One million one watt speakers would be a puny solution compared to my giant cabinets. Bow down in awe!!!!
-- xenzag, Jun 28 2021


The general concept was baked by Disaster Area in the Hitchhiker's Guide <link>. That's a band enjoyed from within large concrete bunkers 37 miles from the stage while the band themselves perform from orbit.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 28 2021


It's hardly the same thing as repurposing two shipping containers. Oh well. Only 20 more ideas to go.
-- xenzag, Jun 28 2021


[+] for making me do math
-- Voice, Jun 29 2021


Okay this is way too hard for my level of lazy, but the unprovable answer I've come up with is a speaker designed to turn a megawatt of electrical power into sound would actually be about as loud as a mid-size jet at takeoff if you're standing behind it. So at one meter you're jelly, at 50 meters you may survive, at 300 meters you're at "ow, that's really loud" with permanent ear damage, and at 400 meters you're basically at a rock concert.
-- Voice, Jun 29 2021


A million Watts isn't far away from what is actually used <link>. I suspect large outdoor festivals are approaching 1/2 million.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 29 2021


I which case an assembly of twenty units in two x ten container ship towers will make the volume 20 million watts. The main point here is that these could and should be built.
-- xenzag, Jun 29 2021


multiplying the sound power by 10 won't make much difference, it's a log scale. The loudest sound recorded by NASA was 204dB, <link> and that took 191 gigawatts <link>.

I assume various nuclear tests were louder.
-- bs0u0155, Jun 29 2021


There is something of a limit as to how far your eardrum will flex and register. Beyond that it's just a bigger percussion wave.
-- RayfordSteele, Jun 30 2021



random, halfbakery