Field Trip: L'Acoustics

Today, the grad students and I took a trip up to the L'Acoustics in Oxnard, northwest of LA. L'Acoustics is  one of the premiere loudspeaker manufacturers in the world, but most of us had not gotten a chance to take a good hard listen to their products. Scott Sugden was our contact, and he spent half a day with us, talking about science, theory, and lots of listening.

Our day started with a lecture/discussion about sound and physics. Scott talked about coaxial v. non-coaxial cabinets and how L'Acoustics applies those ideas into their smaller cabinets. From there, he shifted seamlessly into line array theory, including a clear illustration of how line arrays function differently than point-source boxes. Along the way, we listened to most of the product line, including a scrimmage shoot-out between a Kiva array and a Kara array (which both sound pretty damn amazing).

Line Array shootout. Be aware of bleeding ears.

I won't get too wonky here except to say that after taking Bob McCarthy's SIM class last month and Jamie Anderson's SMAART school last year, it was fascinating to hear yet another take on sound systems, measuring, design, and theory. The physics don't change, but focus of attention does.

Thanks to Scott and everyone at L'Acoustics who took care of us and made today happen!  We hope to see you again soon!

Josh, Mark, Kelsi, Matt, Scott, Matt, and Brian.  Thanks, Kelsi, for the branding!