Your writer Bob Delbridge is certainly not alone in his critical comments of Baycourt's over amplification of shows. I too have been forced to walk out of a show, when the sound levels being blasted out of Baycourt's loudspeakers were just too painful to endure.

Sir Miles Warren, whose company designed the Baycourt complex, told me during an interview that the acoustics were such that anyone sitting in the audience would enjoy perfect clarity from the stage, without the need of a microphone. The opening night's performance by the NZSO in 1983 was a sheer delight, with not a microphone in sight, yet each instrument could be heard in any of the seats.

If Baycourt continues to treat their audience in this fashion, they will soon find more empty seats for their shows.

G W Stewart, Tauranga.