650 Subwoofer  (1979)
Meyer Sound

Meyer Sound 650 Subwoofer

From Meyer Sound website:
Francis Ford Coppola wanted his epic movie "Apocalypse Now" to have the most impressive, impactful sound ever heard in a movie. To that end, in its initial release, the film toured with a custom quadraphonic sound system. One of Coppola's concerns was that the napalm explosions in the "Ride of the Valkyries" helicopter attack scene be bone-rattlingly real. John Meyer's involvement began at a Berkeley demonstration of the ACD studio monitor, at which he was showing a subwoofer that had been designed to go with the ACD. Impressed by the demo,engineer Tom Scott from Coppola's Zoetrope studio approached Meyer and asked if he could create a subwoofer for Apolcaypse. Meyer created the 650 subwoofer, containing a single 18-inch driver in a sixth-order cabinet with low-distortion response down to 30 Hz, to satisfy Coppola's need.
After one tour of the 70 mm print, however, Apocalypse went to a 35 mm release, which did not seem to present as strong a demand for a subwoofer. Meyer then showed the 650 to bassist Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead, who immediately took an interest. Eventually, a second driver was added because the single driver had a high failure rate and the 650-R2 was born. The 650-R2 lasted until self-powering was added to make the 650-P. The 650 lineage is one of the most distinguished in the history of low-frequency reproduction.

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