Amsterdam’s Doka nightclub opts for Danley
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To meet that mission with something more nuanced than the conventional high-volume, high-distortion club PA, Doka hired pro audio distribution and integration company Firm4 to install the unconventional loudspeaker and subwoofer designs of acoustician Tom Danley. Four Danley SH50 full-range loudspeakers and two Danley TH118 subwoofers give Doka’s patrons an audio experience.
“The old system wasn’t meeting the high standards that Kerwin Groot, Doka’s chief sound engineer and Julian Chaptal, the club’s producer and programmer expected,” explained Robert Pigeaud, representative of Firm4. “Kerwin reached out to us because he had heard Danley systems at Oosterbar and Marktkantine and at regional festivals. He was impressed by the Danley fidelity and overall performance.
“As part of our due diligence, we gave them several other options and performed a demo at Doka. The demo consisted of a pair of Danley SM60F full-range loudspeakers and a Danley TH118 subwoofer up against other ‘A-list’ brands. Within five minutes, everybody involved was convinced that Danley was the way to go.”
The new system at Doka centres on four of Danley’s flagship SH50s. They are arranged two per side, close-packed. Two Danley TH118 subwoofers round out the low end.
One four-channel MC2 Audio Delta DSP 80 powers the Danley SH50s, and one four-channel MC2 Audio Delta DSP 100 powers the Danley TH118s. The Delta DSP 80 provides the modest front-end processing and loudspeaker conditioning required for the system.
The DJ booth boasts a hydraulically height-adjusted work surface. A Pioneer CDJ2000NXS2 digital media system joins a pair of Technics SL1210 mk2 turntables via an Alpha Recordings AR9000 DJ mixer. A vintage Roland effects unit and a pair of Avalon VT747 tube ‘channel strips’ give the front end an analogue soul worthy of the Danley loudspeakers and subwoofers.
“Danley builds products with sound quality,” Pigeaud said. “The Danley SH50 specifically provides great fidelity and pattern control that extends down to surprisingly low frequencies. Within the coverage angle, the magnitude and phase response are perfectly uniform. Really, the Danley boxes are like high-volume studio monitors, which is exactly what Doka was after. They love it! We even sold two new systems to people who visited Doka and were blown away by its Danley sound system.”
(Jim Evans)
