District 36 Dance Club Relies on Powersoft to Deliver Sonic Excitement

District 36, Manhattan’s new dance club built around a super sound system, uses Powersoft amplifiers to drive the beat for a dizzying house and techno dance experience. Heralding from a 14,000 square-foot former clothing factory, the club’s mission is to provide a simple physical lay-out, combined with a killer sound system operated by top-level DJ talent. Gary Stewart Audio (GSA), in association with RLA, designed this mega-system and specified eleven K2 DSP+AESOP and four K6 DSP+AESOP Powersoft amplifiers controlled with Powersoft’s Armonía Pro Audio Suite software to deliver the hard hitting house beats. Beyond the sound, Powersoft also supplies a green factor through its engineered high efficiency and compact size.

“We needed to move into a new power amplifier for this system and we auditioned seven different brands covering 15 different models,” says Gary Stewart, owner of Gary Stewart Audio. “I was very discouraged until I heard the Powersoft amplifiers. The other amplifier brands had the power, but only offered a dry, uninspired sound, while the Powersoft K series amps had a warm, open sound with enormous power. We build our own custom speaker systems and Powersoft amps really make them sing like never before. The District 36 system offers high fidelity at extremely high sound pressure levels.”

District 36 brings with it mega-star DJ Victor Calderone and his EVOLVE experience, along with many other well respected, world renowned talents, so the demands on the sound system are great. GSA is responsible for creating systems for some of the hottest nightspots around the world including Zouk in Singapore, Sound Factory 2 in NYC, Vertigo in San Jose, and CR and LOVE in NYC. The legacy not only continues but reaches new heights with the District 36 installation offering four 12-feet tall by 8-foot wide GSA Ultima speaker stacks at each corner of the dance floor driven by Powersoft. Each stack includes twin 18-inch subwoofers, a quad 15-inch cabinet, twin acoustic lens HF/UHF mid range horn loaded with two coaxial neodymium compression drivers and four GSA custom bullet tweeter arrays flown over the dance floor.

“While our GSA Ultima speaker stacks have found new sonic sparkle with Powersoft, sound is not the only benefit to this installation,” continues Stewart. “When we were designing the system for District 36, the owner of the club explained that there was very little AC mains power available in the building to supply a sound system of this size. To bring in the extra power lines to supply a traditional amplifier package, it would have added cost in the $60K range. By using Powersoft, the mains power draw was considerably less than a traditional design with the added benefits of taking up less rack space and requiring less cooling in the amp room. This appealed to the club owners for both savings on energy and green sensibilities, so there was no question on any level of using anything but Powersoft. How often can one find an amplifier that delivers cost-saving efficiencies while producing noticeably better sound. District 36 is our first design and installation with Powersoft, but it will not be our last. What a great product.”