MOST FAMOUS AMP in Rock History! 300 Watts, McIntosh, Grateful Dead & The Wall of Sound

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My step dad was the blueprint designer and builder of this McIntosh. He has worked with the biggest most famous bands in history including the Grateful dead before Jerry passed away..he is currently retired now. He retired from Sea Gate electronics..that Amp is a monster for sure. However, he has built more powerful amps than that and used them at home. Couldn't stay in the house when he turned it up. He shattered 3 windows in our house one day all at the same time..nice to see that in your shop..

I got a chance to hear this wall of sound at a Dead concert in Cincinnati in the spring of 74 at a hockey arena. This arena that was notorious for really bad sound. Concrete floors and lots of reflective surfaces etc. The wall of sound was, for every seat in the arena, like going so someone's home listening to their super stereo with some Klipsch horns or some other premium speakers. They used sights on the horn tweeters to make sure every area of the arena was in direct line. Best amplified sound I have ever heard in any large venue.

Think about the roadies that had to setup and breakdown the wall of sound every show. Those guys earned their pay that’s for sure

I like hearing John Curl talk about his time with the band and the wall of sound.

The major reason the 2300 was selected was not only the ruggedness and sound, but the transformer matching output. This allowed many speakers to be run in parallel, but the main reason is you could not destroy the output by shorting. Crown and Phase Linear, although powerful, had many issues, primarily unsteady and blown transistors. I was the drum tech for Blood, Sweat and Tears in 1974-6 and we cringed everytime a sound company would use them (crown+Phase L) in their PA. Also, the 2300 was not used in Woodstock, since it wasn't available. Only the MC-3500 and MC240/275 tube units were there.

an amazing fact about wall of sound microphones was that on order to cut feedback in microphones in front of the speakers there were 2 microphones wired out of phase to each other so when there was no signal the two microphones cancelled each other out providing a signal only when the active microphone was being used. this was engineered by augustus stanley owsley a man of many talents including probably the most lsd produced by one man......

2300 is like no other, I use one in my Jerry rig! That’s awesome you mentioned Anthony he has done so much for our community!

The calculations for that center, radial horn array, in the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound were performed by Bear himself, when he was working with John Meyer across the street from me, here in Berkeley, CA. Another factoid: the original conceptive idea for 'the Wall' was born of Bear's synesthetic experience of 'seeing sound', while very high on his own acid, at the 'infamous; Muir Beach Acid test! So, now you know!

This was a big bad amplifier in the 70's and it would give a lot of the new amplifiers today's quality a real run for their money and this one is 50 years old! I love the 70's audio experience to this day! It's the real deal ! Great job Just Audio team

I was into sound from the time I knew what music was. I built my 35 watt per channel kit hi fi amp early on and also my speakers circa 1959 ish. Wonderful sounding system, especially for the time. I was about 14. Was aware of what the best amps and speakers were at the time but couldn't afford them. But we rock on to 1970. I started playing with a band named Kudzu out of Georgia. I think that was my 3rd serious band. We played mostly in the Southeastern US and we played a lot of southern blues among other things. I had worked in a couple of studios in Atlanta that used 1208 Altecs in the control room and I knew they were monsters. Around '72 we bought one of the first Mc 2300 and a Mc 2100 and biamped 8 1208's with them, 2300 on the bass speakers and 2100 on the horns. We didn't blow the horns because we split the signal to hi's and low's and no bass content was sent to the horns and vice versa. I can't even begin to tell you how good they sounded. The bass was phenomenal. Tight and solid. We could play to a few thousand people when called on to do so. I no longer have but two of the 1208's because when the band broke up we split up the speakers, but I do have both the 2300 and the 2100. Haven't fired them up in years but I bet they still work. To say they sound good is a gross understatement lol! I can't even imagine 40 or 50 of them. Fond memories. At 77 I no longer play live, but I now do music videos on my youtube music channel. When the music is in you, you never want to quit! Oh, and by the way, those Mc watts? They were RMS watts. That was the no BS way to rate wattage. Still is.

Typing from San Francisco - And surrrounded by a ton of Grateful Dead cover bands who play locally. Several still employ the 2300 as Power Amps - not for their PA but for their guitar rig - which was what Garcia did - using the front end of a modified Fender Twin with Outboard Hard-Trucker Cabinets. Jeff Matson of Darkstar Orchestra is a prime emulator of this assemblage.

I was at the Grateful Dead concert at Roosevelt Stadium in august of 1974 where they played with the Wall of Sound. INCREDIBLE SOUND!! It sounded like a huge Wurlitzer jukebox. Dead played for five hours!!Best concert of my life!! .

There is no room like headroom,,,we never heard the monitors we built with 12" JBL and a piezo in each til we hooked up an MC 2105. Suddenly there was clarity from all six. Just wow, eh? I also had an MX 110 FM receiver and an MC 240 at home, used it for nearly thirty years. McIntosh used to sponsor clinics where you would take you amps and a MC tech would test and rate the performance of each individual unit to ensure quality sound. They affixed a little sticker with a date, showing you passed. I met Gordon Gow at one clinic. What a gentleman.

Not a word about Bear?¿?¿...the wall of sound was his grand vision and greatest achievement other than his mastery in chemistry!

I know with new technology these amplifiers can be as small as the palm of your hand and as efficient as an LED light bulb or more but there is still something that's just magical about having this old school gear.

The reason it was difficult to move around is due to the removal of the side rails that allow you to stack and tilt on it's back The Dead amps start with 1Y in the serial number

I own one of these and it is a beast. If I want to drive my magnapans and make my ears bleed, I hook up to 2300. Somehow a few years ago something inside of it caught on fire and there was smoke coming out the top. Sent it back to McIntosh and they made it like new again. I have to admit that it is very hard to lift into position. Great video. If you own hard to drive speakers, this is your answer.

I've heard that there were actually 2 Wall of Sound systems. It would take an entire day to setup, a day for the concert, and a day to tear down. So the two systems would leapfrog each other to be at every other venue. The Grateful Dead with the Wall of Sound did for live music what The Beatles did for recorded music.

I was around during the big conversion from massive tube amps to solid state for Rock & Roll. The 2300 was the absolute boat anchor! Beautiful amp! The other Amps of the day were the Phase Liner 400's and 700's (Sometimes known as the "Flame Liner" for their reputation for blow-ups), and of course, the Crown DC300 (a) Which became the standard of the industry for many years. All these seem so small compared to the equipment that is on the road today, but back then, it was massive stuff!