Am I the only one here to have actually heard the Wall of Sound? I attended two of the 1974 concerts where it was used, at UCSB in the spring and at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer. I was seventeen. I had also attended two shows at Winterland in February, where apparently some the components of the Wall of Sound were used before the full system was rolled out the following month.
One should not, of course, trust fifty-year-old memories, especially about something so subjective as sound quality. But, for what it’s worth, my recollection of the Hollywood Bowl in particular is very positive—clear, solid sound with distinct separation of the instruments, while not so loud that my ears rang afterwards (as they did after other rock concerts I attended in those days, until I started wearing earplugs to protect my hearing).
One should not, of course, trust fifty-year-old memories, especially about something so subjective as sound quality. But, for what it’s worth, my recollection of the Hollywood Bowl in particular is very positive—clear, solid sound with distinct separation of the instruments, while not so loud that my ears rang afterwards (as they did after other rock concerts I attended in those days, until I started wearing earplugs to protect my hearing).