Despacio – the mighty sound system created by James Murphy, Soulwax, and audio expert John Klett – is coming to Portola music festival this September.

The sound system is not like any other out there, and MusicTech went as far to call it the “world’s greatest” when we got to take a look inside the system itself back in 2019, prior to its appearance at Meltdown Festival.

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So, having awarded it such a grand title, it only makes sense that we refresh your mind on what you can expect from the system that Klett has called an “emotional transmission machine”.

What is Despacio?

Despacio is a high-end sound system created by James Murphy of the band LCD Soundsystem along with Soulwax’s David and Stephen Dewaele (aka 2manydjs), and designed with the expert input of audio engineer John Klett. The sound system made its debut in 2014 at the Manchester International Festival (MIF), but due to busy schedules and organisational factors, it doesn’t make an appearance all too commonly at events.

Despacio gets its name from the Spanish word for ‘slow’. The tracks played through it are often slowed down, with the intent of creating an antidote to hyper dance music and DJ sets where all the anticipation lies within waiting for drops. The three DJs behind it remain hidden away during use, “playing some of the wildest sounds out there, on strictly vinyl only”.

How does Despacio work?

Despacio is propelled by seven McIntosh-powered speaker stacks. McIntosh amplifiers made up part of the famous ‘Wall Of Sound’ The Grateful Dead created.

The concept for the stacks was based around forward-facing speakers with their acoustic centres aligned to the same vertical plane. Each stack has a five-way system with 21-inch drivers doing low bass, 15-inch drivers powering upper bass and 12-inch drivers doing low-midrange, as well as a large bi-radial horn behind upper midrange. They also each have 10KW available (10,000 Watts) per stack, but for the majority of an event, only 200 and 1,000 Watts per stack tend to be used.

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What to expect from Despacio at Portola 2025

Those heading to Portola will be in for a treat. In the words of McIntosh Laboratory president Charlie Randall, “you have to not only hear it, but experience it”: “When you get in the middle of those seven speaker stacks and James, David and Stephen start playing music at the slow speed, it’s truly amazing. It’s something each concert goer will probably remember for the rest of their life,” he told MusicTech back in 2019.

Klett also told us that Despacio “is supposed to move you”. He said, “You are not a scientific-measurement instrument… so tuning up is technical up to a point, then we just dial it in until we are all smiling.”

Head over to the Portola website to view its full lineup and find out more. You can read the full feature on Despacio right here on MusicTech.

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