An intimate live room seating only 40 guests, The Velvet Note in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia, has become a regular stop for some of the world’s top jazz artists since it opened four years ago.

Designed by George Seldon to support music with well-balanced acoustics, Downbeat named it as one of the best jazz clubs in the US: ‘We take a lot of pride in the sound of our room,’ says venue owner, Tamara Fuller. ‘We call it ‘the acoustic living room,’ and we’ve done everything we can to make it the very best way to experience live music.’

Food is served on paper plates to prevent the clinking of forks on plates from competing with the music…

‘Until recently, the only thing that wasn’t five stars about The Velvet Note was the PA system,’ says Bob Bakert, an Atlanta-based guitarist, vocalist, composer, and pro-audio veteran who regularly graces the venue’s stage. ‘I had heard Danley Sound Labs systems before, and I knew Danley’s fantastic phase-coherence and fidelity could elevate The Velvet Note’s PA system to the level of everything else in the venue.’

After consulting with Danley owner Mike Hedden, Bakert helped install two Danley SM-100 loudspeakers in a stereo configuration with a THmini subwoofer for low-end. The room is only about 20ft wide, so the stereo soundstage created by the SM-100s is more akin to a control room than a live venue. The THmini subwoofer is tucked behind the piano, and Bakert configured the system so that the it would not provide unnaturally loud bass. Rather, it forms a balanced, low-end extension to the full-range boxes.

‘I’m impressed that the THmini subwoofer is so musical all the way down,’ Bakert reports. ‘It doesn’t have the resonances of a conventional sub, so you don’t lose pitch or continuity across different bass notes.’ Danley DSLA7500 amplifiers with onboard DSP amply power the SM-100 and the THmini.

‘From the start, I designed The Velvet Note’s sound reinforcement and acoustics to be unobtrusive,’ Fuller says. ‘I want to give my guests the real deal – organic, real sound. The new Danley system has taken things further in that direction. It’s capable of conveying such subtleties; the granular specificity of each note and each instrument is so clear and beautiful. It’s like the difference between talking to someone on the phone and talking to them in person. There’s an intimacy of sound that makes it feel like there’s nothing between you and the music – like the music is reaching its arms around you for an embrace. Of course, I personally benefit the most since I’m there almost every single night.’

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