Wikipedia
Megasound was the name of a movie theater sound system created by Warner Bros. and was officially deployed during the early 1980s. Warner Bros. used it to provide deep-bass enhancement to premiere engagements to only a handful of their features, including:
- Altered States (1980)
- Outland (1981)
- Superman II (1981)
- Wolfen (1981)
Theaters equipped for Megasound had an additional battery of speakers, consisting subs and horns; usually all were placed on the stage, behind the screen. This system also came along with extra power-amps and specialized processing equipment. Megasound selected soundtrack events with lots of low-frequency content (thuds, crashes, explosions, etc.) were directed to these speakers at very high-volume, creating a visceral-effect intended to thrill the audience. Megasound has been best remembered for its infrasonic rumble capability.
Megasound was similar to MCA/Universal's Sensurround. However, unlike Sensurround, Warner Bros. never attempted to market Megasound to other studios as a high-fidelity, high-impact bass enhancement sound system.