Understanding that sound is the main motivator of any club, Photo City Music Hall looked to local power amp powerhouse Ashly Audio to provide a powerful, flexible solution to the venue’s needs. After an overwhelmingly positive response to the recent installation of Ashly Audio’s amplifiers, Photo City Music Hall is ready to host larger, and louder, shows.
What began as a small venue has grown to be a Rochester staple. Photo City Music Hall originally opened in 2016 with owner Daniel Nielsen living in the green room for the first year and a half while growing the space. In the beginning most of the shows were punk or metal bands as well as comedy and burlesque shows. However, during COVID, the venue rebranded and increased capacity to 500. This allowed them to focus more on music with 95% of shows being music related and EDM being a more popular genre. Most importantly, Photo City Music Hall is a community space that hosts benefit shows for organizations such as the local Leukemia Society as well as the LGBT community with their Pride Fest club pass.
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“From when I started working with Photo City, there was always a vision to have it grow to what it is today. I’ve always been a fan of the sound quality of Ashly Audio’s equipment, especially their compressor and limiter algorithm, so they were a clear choice for this project,” stated Justin Wyman, designer and installer, JWI Audio. ”The artists that play at Photo City need power—from punk and rock-n-roll to EDM, burlesque and metal—the equipment used needs to have amazing crystal-clear sound and pack a punch. Ashly’s amps can get beaten to the ground and without losing sound quality—they are tanks.”
For the installation, Wyman chose three different Ashly Audio products: the 3.6SP Protea DSP Loudspeaker System Processor, two KLR-2000 Stereo Power Amplifiers, and six KLR-3200 Stereo Power Amplifiers.
The 3.6SP Protea DSP Loudspeaker System Processor is a 3-input by 6-output system processor with a high-quality compressor and limiter algorithm. With active front panel controls, the 3.6SP’s are ideal for a dynamic, live music venue like Photo City Music Hall. The processor includes a 48-bit double-precision fixed-point DSP filtering with 24 bit, 48kHz, 128x oversampling delta-sigma A/D and D/A converters. Specific to the selection for this installation, digital processing on the 3.6SP includes gain, parametric EQ, shelving filters, time delay, crossover functions, compression, limiting, and matrix routing.
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“When you’re running a venue, people can overlook that part of the business is selling sound. Sound is the main motivator here and we knew that Ashly had the power to take our venue to the next level,” said Daniel Nielsen, owner, Photo City Music Hall. “From the very first night, there was an overwhelming response from the crowd regarding the system's clarity and sound. Honestly, it’s given me a new flame and desire to push bigger shows through the club.”
The KLR 2000 and 3200 provide reliable sonic perfection through their 2, 4, or 8-ohm loads. Each amplifier incorporates a switch mode power supply for flawless lows, punchy mids, and pristine highs—ideal for audio authenticity. The output topology of the KLR-2000 is Class-AB, while the KLR-3200 is a 2-step Class-H design. The KLR 2000 delivers a minimum power of 1,000 watts per channel into 2-ohm loads, 600 watts RMS per channel into 4-ohm loads (unless into bridged-mono mode in which case it can deliver 2,000 watts for the KLR2000 and 3,200 watts for the KLR 3200), or 350 watts RMS per channel into 8-ohm loads with both channels operating. When switching between mono and bridging mode, the amplifier’s back panel is available for ease of access. Another notable difference between the KLR 2000 and KLR 3200 is that the KLR3200’s signal-to-noise ratio is greater than 109dB at rated power into 8-ohms while the KLR2000’s is 108dB.
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“We love working with local venues to enrich the listening experience,” said Noel Larson, vice president of marketing and business development at Ashly Audio. “With a line-up like Photo City Music Hall’s, clarity, authenticity, and power are critical to delivering each artist’s sound. Dan and Justin knew exactly what they were looking for and we’re proud that from the very beginning, Ashly was on their mind.”
