Powersoft M-Force and Rat Sounds SuperSub Take Low Frequency to New Levels at Coachella 2018 posted: 08/05/2018
New Subwoofer Design, Powered by M-Force, Leads to Promising New Era of Festival Sound Design
At Coachella 2018, the sheer engineering expertise of Powersoft Audio was manifest amidst an unprecedented display of super-low frequency soundwave propagation for thousands of excited music fans. In the Sahara Tent, perhaps the biggest stage in the world for EDM music once per year, festival organisers pushed the boundaries of what is possible in sound design with an array of Rat Sounds SuperSub cabinets - each driven by Powersofts groundbreaking M-Force moving magnet linear motor.
Coachella Valley, CA - 3rd May 2018 - At Coachella 2018, the sheer engineering expertise of Powersoft Audio was manifest amidst an unprecedented display of super-low frequency soundwave propagation for thousands of excited music fans. In the Sahara Tent, perhaps the biggest stage in the world for EDM music once per year, festival organisers pushed the boundaries of what is possible in sound design with an array of Rat Sounds SuperSub cabinets - each driven by Powersofts groundbreaking M-Force moving magnet linear motor.
We are thrilled that our M-Force technology is once again at the cutting edge of sound design at Coachella, this time playing an integral role in the way that tens of thousands of fans are able to engage and interact in a major festival sound experience, commented Francesco Fanicchi, Brand and Communication Director of Powersoft. It is especially validating to our engineering team to know that we are able to bring such a massive sound experience to new heights through our innovation and design.
Dave Rat of Rat Sound Systems Inc., who has played an integral role in Coachellas sound systems for 19 consecutive years, designed and deployed the SuperSub SDS30 subwoofers, which delivered massive and consistent low-end frequencies for the many thousands of music fans attending the Sahara Tent.
Festival in motion
As Coachella itself has grown and changed over nearly two decades, Rat has seen its sound needs evolve as well. Coachella has grown quite a bit over the years, and it's probably one of the more challenging events in the world from a sound perspective, he says. The challenge is the massive coverage areas, minimising offsite sound and the need for premium quality and consistency. These unparalleled demands have made it a proving ground for the boundary-pushing audio technologies. That inspired Rat to harness the power of Powersoft's M-Force via his SuperSub subwoofer, setting a new standard in low-end performance in the process.
Bring less, get louder
Rat put together systems for seven of Coachellas stages that utilised premium L-Acoustics loudspeakers including K1 and K2 mains and L-Acoustics KS28 subwoofers. The Sahara Stage alone featured a system totaling 252 speakers. He knew he needed an extra something in the aforementioned tent to give festival attendees a truly unique and memorable experience. I think for any live sound reinforcement venue or situation, low frequency is the key for connecting the artist with the audience physically, he says. For full emersion in music you have got to be able to feel the sound.
Enter the SuperSub SDS30. At 32 x 32 x 42 , the SuperSub is less than 25% percent larger than the popular world class double 18 , but provides significantly more output down to much lower frequencies. The SuperSub is as loud as two to three very high quality double 18 s but takes up nearly the same truck space as one, Rat says. This not only allows Rat to put out tremendous bass from a deceptively small package, but also save a significant amount on trucking. You multiple that power ratio out, and since they are self-powered including amp racks, we see about a 50 percent truck space savings. So, we're using less real estate under the stage and less in the truck, which is a tremendous advantage. Bring less-get louder!
Inspired design
My inspiration for designing the SuperSub came from seeing Powersoft's M-Force moving motor product, Rat recalls. M-Force, an innovative transducer based on a patented moving magnet linear motor structure that differs from a traditional moving coil, leverages its unique design to deliver remarkable power handling, electromagnetic conversion, reliability and maximum SPL. I had been working for quite some time with the use of metal tubes and wooden tubes in loudspeaker design, and seeing the M-Force product and some of the other enclosure designs that had been built out of that product, I felt that I could do something special with this.
Rat explains how his unique enclosure design also maximised the performance of the M-Force: If you look at a high pressure gas line or high pressure water line, they are all in tubes because a tube won't expand or contract. You can take rectangular enclosure constructed with 2 thick plywood, mount a powerful enough speaker in it, and the walls will flex and vibrate. But if you mount that same high power speaker in a metal tube, the amount of expansion and contraction of the tube will be fractions of a millimetre instead of half an inch or a centimetre. So by putting the M-Force motor in the tube and the tube in a square box, and making the ports the corners, I can get really long ports in a very rigid high Q enclosure. This rigidity, lack of box resonance, long port length and bandpass enclosure design, all combine to create an attractive subwoofer with amazing low frequency response, very high output and clear and defined output in the upper bandwidth.
Unforgettable and ultra-reliable low-end
With eighteen SuperSubs positioned front and centre and complementing the massive L-Acoustics system, Rat was able to deliver the a unique and powerful low-end r
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
Powersoft M-Force and Rat Sounds SuperSub Take Low Frequency to New Levels at Coachella 2018 posted: 08/05/2018 
