This post documents the May 2025, Little Bass Heads Big Sound System – The LBH BSS.
The BSS is designed by Michael Hatt and Ulan McKnight. In 2013, Mike designed a sound system for Ulan to bring up to Burning Man. In 2015, Ulan experienced a Klipch system deployed by Smashwolf Production and tuned by Mike that was dubbed The Big Bad Wolf. Hearing that system convinced Ulan that he needed to work with Mike to create their own custom sound.
The May 2025 LBH BSS is based largely on the sound concepts from Richard Long who designed the system for the Paradise Garage. The Paradise Garage is where Ulan first heard the House music that would shape his life and where he fell in love with big sound systems. Mike has studied sound systems from around the world and has designed a system that performs exactly as we wish.
Our overarching desire in creating the BSS is to bring big sound to communities that traditionally do not have the resources to create systems like these. Normally, great sounding large systems run well over $100,000, are bought using high-priced consultants and require a great deal of knowledge to get them to sound good. Our approach is to build your own custom system for yourself using industry-standard equipment and we explain how to tune the system to get the sound that you are looking for. Additionally, we design each box to stand on its own so the entire system is modular allowing you to continue to fine-tune your system as your needs change.
Engineering is a study in trade-offs. Everything that is built involves making choices based on physics, availability of products, pricing and a host of other factors. The main design parameters for the LBH BSS are listed below.
1) All designs are Open Source
2) All purchased components should be standardized and readily available. If they are not available, suitable substitutes are offered.
3) No single box can weigh more than 100 pounds. A single person with a hand truck and some foresight can install the entire system.
4) All cabinets are made of plywood and designed to be cut using a 3-axis CNC router with no more than 3 router bits. The entire system can actually be cut with nothing more than a jig saw, a hand router and three router bits!
5) All cabinet designs are as simple as possible and can be assembled with nothing more than clamps, brad nails, palm sanders, jig saws and wood glue. No “special” tools are required.
The May 2025 LBH BSS is a 5-way system with each box responsible for reproducing a frequency ranged designed specifically for that box. The frequency ranges are listed below.
Ported Bass 18
22 – 65Hz
Dual 15 Kicks
55 – 200Hz
Mid 12″
200 – 1,200Hz
Tweeter 2”
1,200 – 20kHz
Flying 1”
7,000 – 20kHz
The starting configuration for the LBH BSS is a 4-point system where each stack of boxes is exactly the same and equally spaced around a square dance floor. The minimum spacing between each stack should be no less than 20 feet. One stack uses two Bass boxes on the bottom level, one Kick stacked on top of those, one Mid next and a single Tweeter that lives at the fourth level. Everything must be fastened together so that nothing moves. (We often use ratchet straps.) Depending on room acoustics, a single Flying cabinet may be all that is required but two are preferred. The Flying cabinets are designed to live 8 to 10 feet in the air and are located near the center of the dance floor, equidistant from the four stacks.
For larger rooms – or outside – stacks can be doubled up with 4 Bass boxes, two Kicks, two Mids and two Tweeters. If you wish to reproduce exceptional vocals adding additional Mid and Tweeters can greatly improve definition. If you want to produce lots of bass, adding a collection of 4 or more Bass boxes and positioning then between any two stacks can completely change the nature of the sound experience by adding a rumble that can be felt more than heard. To create a true sound bath, adding additional Bass boxes between each stack generates a warmth that is as relaxing as it is remarkable. (We take our name – Little Bass Heads – seriously.)
We have experimented extensively with the speaker wire connectors and have settled on using the Speakon NL4 connectors. As each cabinet carries a single amplified signal, we use 1+ and 1- for all cabling. Note: There is nothing wrong with using bare-wire connections. Running single speaker wire cable to each box is fine so long as you create a method to ensure that the right signal goes to the intended box. If you send bass to the tweeters, you will blow your tweeters. It is critical that you do not switch polarity by accident when running the wires.
We label the cables that run to our Bass cabinets with dark blue tape, our Kicks with bright green, the Mids with yellow, our Tweeters with white and the Flying with tape that has a cloud design on it.
Each cabinet will be described in detail in subsequent posts and all designs are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)