Designed to deliver stellar audio performance and versatility for intensive audio applications, the 15" RCF ART 915-AX is a highly flexible, easy to use, 2100W powered PA speaker with Bluetooth and a built-in 6-channel digital mixer for today's working musicians, singer/songwriters, mobile DJs, and other sound providers. The advanced user interface features a built-in touch panel and Bluetooth remote control, which allow you to set up and control the mix wirelessly using your favorite portable device.
The ART 915-AX employs True Resistive Waveguide technology, which incorporates several refinements of the transducers and the vented port design to create a resonance-free signal that reduces high-frequency distortion. The speaker also utilizes Bass Motion Control (BMC), which bypasses the need for a high-pass filter and instead uses an advanced woofer excursion management feature that can handle the lowest audible frequencies without affecting the woofer stability, with extended linearity and better sound integrity. The highly efficient 2100W Class-D bi-amplifier delivers 1400W to the 15" woofer and 700W to the 1.75" compression driver, which provide full-range audio (45 Hz to 20 kHz) with a sound pressure level powerful enough to ensure the entire audience can hear your performance. The ART 915-AX includes a power cord.
At a Glance
- Built-in 6-channel digital mixer
- Advanced user interface with touch panel and remote control
- 1.75" compression driver and 15" woofer
- Up to 131 dB sound pressure level
- 2100W Class-D bi-amplification
- Dual combo preamp with 48V Power and mini-jack stereo line input
- Bluetooth stereo audio input, with dual speaker pairing option
- True Resistive Waveguide, FiRPHASE, and Bass Motion Control
Top-Notch Solution for Portable Audio
Connect your instruments and microphones to the 48V powered preamps or the line inputs; an internal 6-channel digital mixer with Compressors, EQs, Reverb, and Ducker will help you get the job done. And if you run out of time, use the quick setup modes with step-by-step configuration options.
Powerful Wireless Bluetooth Speaker
The Class 1 Bluetooth connection can receive 2-channel audio streaming and provides a stereo or dual mono output for pairing with AX-featured RCF speakers. RCF tested over 328' free-field operability. Enjoy the convenience of Bluetooth connection when you have architectural constraints, pedestrian areas, or inaccessible signal connections.
Studio-Grade Preamplifiers
- Get the best microphone you have, because ART 9-AX provides you with the best preamp you can find in this segment.
- The microphone preamplifier circuit features the latest THAT Corporation technology to provide ultraclean and precise signal to the speaker.
Power that Moves
- With 2100W of power, the 2-channel ART 9 Class-D amplifier is 50% more powerful than previous models, able to manage extremely high sound pressure levels with an ultrafast attack, realistic transient response, and very low heat loss
- ART 9 is very energy efficient, so there is no need for a cooling fan—the amplifier is attached to a solid aluminum heat exchanger in the back of the unit—with no moving parts. Being physically connected with the internal frame, the amplifier is firm and solid within the cabinet. The input circuit features a new low-distortion design with an advanced safety limiter, maintaining the true character of the input signal at all levels
- All ART 9 amplifiers are designed according to EN62368-1 for maximum safety and present a Switch Mode Power Supply section joining high efficiency with minimum weight.
A Live Experience in Your Pocket
RCF LiveRemote App makes it easy to adjust ART 9-AX mixer, DSP, FX, routing, and Bluetooth settings. LiveRemote also allows full control of the internal ART 9-AX engine: recall and save presets, set your desired volume levels, adjust EQ, compressors, and FX, customize and tune your sound system and much more. Available for Android and iOS phones and tablets.
Advanced Features for Professional Users
The internal mixer disentangles all your routing needs, and an internal crossover helps you use the speaker with any subwoofer. An internal 5-band parametric EQ lets you manage boomy spaces or modal resonances, while the output delay keeps your sound always in time. Wireless pairing to another ART 9-AX is a handy tool when you have physical constraints and can't run signal cables.
M-Brace Cabinet Design
- The sleek cabinet uses a special polypropylene composite material with a radically new construction concept
- The grille cover is heavy-duty steel, protecting both transducers and vented ports
- The purpose-designed M-brace connects the four internal sides of the cabinet and amplifier, preventing any deformation for a completely inert body, with augmented acoustical damping, even at maximum volume settings
- It also performs as a reinforcement structure, for greater resistance to mechanical stress.
Bass Motion Control
- When searching for an extended bass with enhanced performance, RCF engineers found a way to remove the high-pass filter, replacing it with a forward-thinking approach. Introducing BMC (Bass Motion Control), the newly advanced woofer excursion management feature.
- ART 9 with BMC can handle the lowest audible frequencies without affecting the woofer stability, with extended linearity and better sound integrity.
- The BMC method works by creating a complete map of the dynamic behavior of the woofer, to generate a custom algorithm that only limits over-excursions. This gives total freedom of signal reproduction to the transducer.
- When high-pass filters normally protect the woofer motion from becoming destructive, but change the phase behavior, the BMC algorithm breaks conventional rule. In combination with FiRPHASE technology, ART 9 has a level of DSP audio performance never achieved in this range of speakers.
FiRPHASE
- The design of the FIR filter for this specific purpose starts from an accurate measurement of the loudspeaker phase.
- FiRPHASE algorithm uses this measurement and adapts the loudspeaker’s phase without touching the amplitude equalization. The heart of the advanced technique used by FiRPHASE is a recursive method (least-squares method) combined with a proprietary algorithm that calculates the best FIR filter coefficients set in according to amplitude and phase constraints
- The algorithm corrects phase and amplitude (if necessary) by considering the weak points of the transducers and the resonances or cancellations due to the cabinet of the loudspeaker.
- This technique allows a deep control of phase at the mid-low frequency with relatively small filters, reaching a higher resolution than that one as theory suggests.
True Resistive Waveguide
- The True Resistive Waveguide is the result of several refinements in both the transducers' and the vented ports' design with Finite Element Analysis and constant measurement in RCF anechoic chambers
- Thanks to FiRPHASE technology, the new shape, and the placement of the ports, the speaker now acts as a single ideal source for a perfect sound image
- Acoustically, the TRW waveguide mimics a resonance-free pure resistive load, reducing the high-frequency distortion of a classic horn. With its asymmetrical sound shaping, the coverage angle of the waveguide provides constant directivity to the entire listening area and improved stereo panorama.
Remarkable Transducers
- High frequencies: the 1.75" compression driver voice-coil design with Polyimide-Kapton dome features a new bonding technology and reinforced ribs, making it 10 times more durable than previous designs. The redesigned phase plug increases sound clarity, enhancing transient response and improving coupling with the low-frequency transducer
- Low frequencies: low-frequency transducer design gains more stability over higher currents, with less distortion, and is highly efficient in terms of heat dissipation. RCF quality control is very strict. The woofers are tested with a 200-hour continuous signal to stress the transducer at extreme levels.