Megasound

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Megasound was the name of a movie theater sound system created by Warner Bros. in the early 1980s. It was used to enhance the premiere engagements of a handful of Warner features, including Altered States (1980), Outland, Wolfen and Superman II (all 1981).

Theaters equipped for Megasound had additional speakers mounted on the left, right and rear walls of the auditorium. 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.

The resulting experience was very similar to Universal's Sensurround and 20th Century-Fox's Sound 360 processes.