The story of RCF's ART speakers is one of the audio industry's legendary moments, when in 1991 George Krampera took up a job at RCF in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and, together with Marcelo Vercelli, conceived the ART series of active speakers. When the company was later bought by Greg Mackie, Krampera left to join fellow Italian manufacturer B&C Speakers, while Vercelli continued to expand its work in portable active PA speakers for Mackie.
Now RCF is celebrating this 25-year history of ART speakers by introducing the ninth generation of the series. Now 50% more powerful than previous models, ART 9 manages extremely high sound pressure levels. The amplifier is energy-efficient so there is no need for a cooling fan. The circuit is attached to a solid aluminum heat exchanger in the back of the unit with no moving parts. And performance improvements are assured by new RCF transducers, featuring advanced materials such as Kapton, Titanium, and Neodymium.
A new 1.75-inch compression driver with Polyimide-Kapton dome features a new bonding technology and reinforced ribs that make it 10 times more durable than previous models. Newly designed woofers gain more stability over high currents, with less distortion. Every woofer design is tested with a 200-hour continuous signal to stress the transducer at extreme levels.
According to RCF, the innovative ART 9 electroacoustic design started with the new speaker structure, while the new True Resistive Waveguide (TRW) design is the result of several refinements in both the transducers' and the vented ports' design with Finite Element Analysis, and constant measurement in RCF's anechoic chambers. "TRW mimics a resonance-free pure resistive load reducing the high-frequency distortion of a classic horn. With its asymmetric acoustic radiation, the coverage angle of the waveguide provides constant directivity to the entire listening area with a balanced stereo panorama," the company explains.
These components work in harmony with two RCF exclusive DSP algorithms, one for phase linearization and crossover design, the other for woofer excursion management. FiRPHASE, a proprietary digital FiR technology, allows for a coherent distribution of sound without phase distortions, ensuring minimum latencies to the system. With FiRPHASE, the new structurally reinforced design, and the placement of the vented ports, the speaker acts as a single source at the highest power ratings.
Another innovation is Bass Motion Control, a woofer excursion management feature. RCF created a complete map of the dynamic behavior of the transducer, to generate a custom algorithm that only limits over-excursions. This improves the woofer's efficiency in sound reproduction, avoiding both high-pass filters and large-band limiters. The speaker is now allowed to reproduce the input signal at all volume levels for the entire audible spectrum, maintaining all nuances of the music with deep, detailed bass response.
The sleek black cabinet uses a special polypropylene composite material with a radically new construction concept. RCF's M-Brace internal reinforcement design connects four sides of the enclosure with the amplifier, preventing any deformation for a completely inert body, with augmented acoustical damping even at maximum volume settings. M-brace also performs exceptionally well for greater resistance to mechanical stress.
This design is easy to move and transport with ergonomic handles on both sides and the top. The bottom side includes a steel pole socket for mounting on a stand or subwoofer pole. Each model can also be flown, or be wall- or truss-mounted using multiple M10 rigging points and special accessories.
The ART 9 Series consists of six new speaker models, ranging from 10" to 15" woofers, all sharing the same 2100 Watts power amplifier. ART 945-A is the largest, most powerful model of the series delivering an impressive 135dB max SPL featuring a 4" titanium compression driver, and a neodymium woofer that goes down to 45Hz. The ART 935-A and ART 932-A can produce respectively 134dB max SPL and 133dB SPL, sharing the same 3” titanium compression driver. The exceptional clarity and minimal distortion of the new Kapton driver of the ART 915-A, ART 912-A and ART 910-A features remarkable SPL and power to weight ratio.
www.rcf.it/art9
