Here's a good link describing the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound. Brilliant.
http://dozin.com/wallofsound/#

Can anyone speak intelligently as to how this system would compare to the VDOSC systems available today?

Cool link. Thanks!

There are a couple of threads around here that talk in some detail about the WOS.  I can remember the day I got the Deadhead newsletter in the mail (remember the mail?) that contained the drawings and info in your link.  I must have been about 19.  I sat for a whole afternoon with a friend drooling over the capabilities of that system (which I had seen and heard a couple times over the previous year or so).  
 
I wonder how that monster would really stack up (pardon pun) against today's state of the art?  At the time, it far, far outdistanced anything else we had heard.
 
(Message edited by bassman10096 on April 29, 2006)

I aways wondered what was in that. Thanks for that link.

Joe:
 
You always wondered what was in the Wall of Sound?  Having experienced it in action on numerous occasions, including the unofficial unveiling (Winterland, Feb. '74) and the official debut (The Sound Check at the Cow Palace, March '74), I can attest to the fact that the Wall was full of lots of money and lots of magic!
 
Bill, tgo

if i am not mistaken - the photo above is a smaller set up than the one they took for stadium shows
bill  
i have both those shows- best was when the pa went out on bobby when they went into playin in the band and jerry played the death march as bob explained. the other moment was when they had some issues and bob referred to them having a big cockaroach crawlin around somewhere.,,

OK, 2 questions . . .
 
What's a VDOSC system?
 
These WOS bins remind me of Bag End.  Was there some Alembic/Bag End connection back in those days?
 
J o e y

Joey,
I believe Mr. Wickersham is the patent-holder for the ELF processor, liscensed to Bag End. The WOS would have preceeded Bag End by some # of years, although the WOS didn't have bins per se. The biggest cabinets were single 15 drivers. Check the link in the first post above for a full list of drivers. We'll both have to ask CR nicely to explain VDOSC. Pretty please Charles??
Mike

Jeff:
 
I remember that they came out to start the second set with Bertha and, whoops, NO VOCALS!  They went on for a little bit as the band seemed to not know right away the the vocals weren't working.  Many in the audience were tripping pretty heavily at that point and also didn't realize there were no vocals.  The band then left the stage for an instant, only to run back out and start the second set all over again.  
 
Another memory from that show:  Phil holding his cable out at arm's length, pointing at it with his other hand and spinning in circles while laughing.  I suspect it was good stuff for the band that night.
 
Bill, tgo

Joey; I actually went and looked yesterday.  Here is what I found.

Wow.
 
Thanks, Dave.
 
J o e y

Thanks Dave,
 
Sorry guys, I haven't been paying close enough attention to this thread.  Apparently, V-DOSC systems allow you to have an identical mix anywhere in the room.  I'm not really sure how, and I haven't heard one yet, but my engineer friends tell me it's like having the band in your ear without being deafening; just incredible clarity and definition.  They are apparently becoming the new standard for some of the really big touring companies.