This is a myth that has been passed around from band to band on the road for decades...

A tech crew had just finished setting up for a rock festival, that was commencing the next day.

Some of the roadies decide that it would be a good idea to start drinking their way through a case of whiskey, and consume some other substances. When one of their colleagues passed out drunk, they thought it would be funny to open the back of a sub woofer and put him inside it, so that he'd be rudely awoken the next day.

Unfortunately, they didn't let anyone else know about their prank, and when another member of the crew saw the opened speaker bin, they screwed it closed, sealing the roadie inside.

He was trapped in the speaker, which was operating at 130db (outside the speaker, inside it would have been much louder) for 10 hours.

When they opened the speaker at the end of the festival, they found the roadie, very dead. Some say that his flesh had been pulverized into mush. Others say that his brain had started leaking out of his nose and ears. And some even beleive that his bones had become brittle, and he was practically a pile of goo...

This isn't your run-of-the mill over the counter sub woofer either. This would have been a large, 4000+ watt, pro-audio speaker. The kind that require an amplifier so big that it needs 3 phase power.

Similar to this:

http://www.jblpro.com/catalog/...ly.aspx?FId=21&MID=4

Hmmm...

But what do you think? Was he killed by the loudness of the speaker or by the vibrations made by it?

I think that a person locked inside a sealed box would die by heat and/or by the CO2 that builds up by every breath a person takes.

BUT... i have heard about people havin trouble to breathe when close to some high power speaker and that is the only way i think a speaker could directly kill someone... and might not even be powerful enough to kill.

By the way, there are some actual weapons that use speakers to confuse people and im sure there way louder than 130db... Still they don't kill.

Well, on the suffocation theory, every good Sound Re-enforcement speaker, guitar amplifier, and anything pro-audio, has a 4 inch hole drilled in the front of the speaker bin, for two reasons:

1. So that any sound trapped inside the bin is projected out the front.

2. So that the speaker cone itself can move freely (ie: without creating a vacuum and getting torn).

There is constant airflow in and out of the speaker bin, so I doubt he would have suffocated.

The main difference between sonic weapons and the "sub woofer of death" is that the weapons only generate a pulse of sound for a comparatively limited amount of time.

This guy was trapped inside a speaker for 10 hours. I know occupational health and safety regulations state that being exposed to 110db for more than an hour is considered dangerous to your hearing, and anything of 120 db for more than an hour is considered a major health hazard.

I'd estimate (only out of experience with working with PA systems for almost a decade) that a speaker running at 130db outside, would probably be closer to 160-170 inside. I know 180db is the "do not ever make something go that loud" volume, because it causes instant death of hearing tissue. I also know that 150db is enough to cause physical pain after 5 minutes of exposure (in your joints, stomach, head).

According to the story, the guy was "mashed up" by sound.

I think after 10 hours of constant exposure to that amount of volume, it's totally plausible.

quote:

Originally posted by ScientistofROCK:
Well, on the suffocation theory, every good Sound Re-enforcement speaker, guitar amplifier, and anything pro-audio, has a 4 inch hole drilled in the front of the speaker bin, for two reasons:

Not all, some have two, three, or four, rectangular openings accross the bottom of the cabinet

quote:

1. So that any sound trapped inside the bin is projected out the front.

2. So that the speaker cone itself can move freely (ie: without creating a vacuum and getting torn).

A speaker system that is air tight is actually a better system. The air tight quality of the cabinet actualy helps dampen (control) the driver. The down side is that it take considerably more power to obtain the same decibles. That is because the same properties that dampen the speaker, make it harder to push or pull.

quote:

There is constant airflow in and out of the speaker bin, so I doubt he would have suffocated.

True on every concert speaker system I have seen, this is to take advantage of the efficancy in getting the huge decibles needed to fill a stadium, arena, etc.

quote:

He was trapped in the speaker, which was operating at 130db (outside the speaker, inside it would have been much louder) for 10 hours.

I can't really imagine the band playing for ten hours. I don't buy into the "the guy was mush part of the story for the very fact that the cabinet was vented. A vented cabinet would not build the constant pressure/vacuum/pressure/vacuum/pres... that a sealed cabinet would create. A vented cabinet would have a very limited peaks of pressure and vacuum. hardly enough to turn a man to mush. I can see bleeding from delicate ear drums, but that is about it. Dead, I have no idea if that would kill a man or not.

quote:

Originally posted by JeffBro:
I can't really imagine the band playing for ten hours. I don't buy into the "the guy was mush part of the story for the very fact that the cabinet was vented. A vented cabinet would not build the constant pressure/vacuum/pressure/vacuum/pres... that a sealed cabinet would create. A vented cabinet would have a very limited peaks of pressure and vacuum. hardly enough to turn a man to mush. I can see bleeding from delicate ear drums, but that is about it. Dead, I have no idea if that would kill a man or not.

Open air rock festival dude. Apparently he was trapped in there for everything; soundchecks, performances and the music in between. A colleague claims it was one of Australia's Big Day out festivals.

quote:

Originally posted by ScientistofROCK:

quote:

Originally posted by JeffBro:
I can't really imagine the band playing for ten hours. I don't buy into the "the guy was mush part of the story for the very fact that the cabinet was vented. A vented cabinet would not build the constant pressure/vacuum/pressure/vacuum/pres... that a sealed cabinet would create. A vented cabinet would have a very limited peaks of pressure and vacuum. hardly enough to turn a man to mush. I can see bleeding from delicate ear drums, but that is about it. Dead, I have no idea if that would kill a man or not.

Open air rock festival dude. Apparently he was trapped in there for everything; soundchecks, performances and the music in between. A colleague claims it was one of Australia's Big Day out festivals.

Well that does make sense, not just one band. Comments on the rest?