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RC1 new active speakers

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Young Croc
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cookie-dj Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 December 2017 at 1:29am
great work on the sonic abilities of the cabs, i would expect second to non sound quality from RC1. As previously said, I bet these would outperform many big brands.

However i think the biggest thing about the look of the cabs is the grill... personally i think if someone is paying £3k per cab then i would be expecting something along the lines of a grill with solid metal edges, perforated/laser cut to a funky design in the middle with a laser cut/embossed logo.

something like this maybe?  still has the raw metal look but just looks way more polished and pro

For me personally, If I'm paying a premium, it has to tick all boxes with sound and aesthetics.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cravings Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 December 2017 at 1:24am
i've never heard your stuff, but the reputation you've gained is impressive. i'd love to hear the active stuff.. if you're planning to demo it again, i guess do it midweek.. all the operators your talking about worth your attention should be busy on friday and saturday nights.

best of luck with it. (i'd really love to hear it.)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RC1 Sound System Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 December 2017 at 1:02am
Dear Hemisphere,
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with us.
In return the least I can do is write back with my take on it.

I appreciate your points are valid, however I’ve given the market and our product’s possible place in it a lot of consideration.

I accept there are many reasons PA companies and rental houses pay premium prices for products, probably the most significant being that they want a name they feel they can trust and most importantly they want a name that they know their clients will want to work with as their existence depends on clients wanting to use their equipment. For example a friend of mine really doesn’t like F1, but he bought lots of it at vast cost because his clients all recognised it and would want to pay good money to rent it. In that regard I accept we’re not well known enough to tick the box for “rider friendly mainstream pa household name” yet.

However, through our RC1 Sound System we are now well established in certain circles. Not as a mainstream system, but as a specialist high performance system.   Tens of thousands of people in this country know and recognise the RC1 name and logo, and promoters that use us advertise this as a fundamental part of their event’s lineup as they know that if people know RC1 will be there then more people will come to their event. That in itself has commercial value. For example without the mention of a single dj or artist it was announced RC1 would do a soundclash against Void, and that on its own was sufficient to pretty much sell out a show. So, our sound system does have a premium commercial value, but not like L Acoustics or D&B because it is the same as others, but for the opposite reason because it is different.

In an age where everything is becoming standardised and music events are everywhere and becoming more “same-samey” promoters need to find ways of standing out from the other events in order to attract the crowd. An exceptional sound system is a great way of doing that, especially for an event where the crowd appreciates the difference, and RC1 has the name and reputation to be able to tick that box.

So why would someone pay a premium for our speakers as opposed to L Acoustics or D&B? It is for the opposite reason, not because they are the same and rider friendly, but because they are different. If you run a small PA hire in a city and all the top nights use a premium mainstream supplier, then using a rig that absolutely and stunning outperforms the mainstream rigs will soon develop a reputation with music lovers, and promoters will start asking for that instead because they know it will be a valuable attraction to help their events stand out from the mainstream. For a small PA company this could be a very good business plan, or for a larger one adding it to their mainstream kit could help broaden their client base.

Of course for this to work the product really must sound exceptional. That is why they are not cheap, because to achieve this the components must be exceptional too. And of course to be taken seriously in the first place the company making the product must have a reputation for reliability and exceptional speakers, and although not mainstream we do have a high profile and enviable reputation for that. And of course any prospective buyers would also want to know that people could immediately identify that they had bought an exciting and exceptional product, and there is no doubt that being from the same shed as the legendary RC1 immediately adds street cred to an otherwise at this stage unknown system.

So, I feel there is a good business argument to justify someone building a business plan around choosing and buying these speakers, but not for exactly the same reasons as why they might choose a premium mainstream system.

Regarding appearance, the boxes we have been demonstrating are actually the original prototypes and the finish on the final sale cabs is better, including handles recessed/routed in better, etc. They will be as good as a pro audio box.

I appreciate the stainless steel grills and orange logos don’t look typically “pro audio”, but if people are going to invest in these for the reason that they are exceptional and different then they really must look different as well. Perhaps the orange logo isn’t too elegant, but tens of thousands of people in the UK will recognise it and appreciate the affiliation to the RC1, which has commercial value to the buyers of the speakers. We have reduced the logo size from the RC1 to make it more subtle. From our point of view the logo doesn’t need to be there at all, so if a buyer didn’t like it we could do it in a more subtle colour, or not at all. That’s the advantage of small scale hand built manufacturing, you can easily customise to a buyer’s requirements.

That’s my thoughts on the subject. I don’t know how many we will or won’t sell, I’m not intending them to be a mainstream product, but I do know we’ve created something exceptional and any PA company that buys them will definitely shine out as different for all the right reasons whenever they use them. We’ll see!

Edited by RC1 Sound System - 29 December 2017 at 1:08am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gen0me Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 December 2017 at 12:08am
Originally posted by midas midas wrote:

it really makes absolutely no difference if you know the make of driver or not.

It will only give miss conceptions by biased views.


I thought this topic is giving missconceptions by biased views
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hemisphere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 11:04pm
I do see where you're coming from, and I have no doubt you've taken every care in the engineering and implementation of these boxes. I'd written out a very lengthy post but my computer crashed so you'll have to do with a summary: there are many complex reasons why people pay that sort of money for a speaker cabinet and they're approximately the same reasons why people pay 3 quid for Neurofen rather than 20p for supermarket own brand which is exactly the same chemical composition. It has little to do with the price of the components. Sizzle not steak as Rish mentioned. I'm not saying that's all it is with your product, it does sound like there's more to it, but a large part of the ticket price at this level is based on faith.

A desperate teenager on her period will demand their parents buy them Neurofen branded 'Period Pain Relief' as nothing else will do. The science confirms that if people believe it's better, it actually will be better. (It helps if there are some objective measures by which it actually is better but beyond a certain price point those are rare and don't last long unless legally protected. Aesthetics and branding can play a key role there).

Part of that experience will be complete capitulation to the demands of someone who should be the most important person in the world at that time. They need to know that somebody cares and that they care more about giving them what they 'need' than having an argument about why they might be better off with something else, and that all contributes to the positive end user experience.


Similar rationale puts the same system names on the riders of festivals, concerts etc over and over. In that case, the band (or stage manager/festival promoter) takes that 'most important person' position, and what they want is what they will get. Familiarity for the sound engineer is a huge part of it as well so that's a large barrier of entry unless you already have a substantial or emergent following among active sound techs who regularly secure major gigs.
(The audience may know nothing about the system, but if the band/DJ knows they're performing on the best they'll believe their performance will sound better than average and that'll all feed back into a better performance and better experience for everyone. So it's not that the gear isn't worth the money it's just the reason for the value is complex and very situation dependent.) As with the Neurofen period pain, the sensation of care is critical.

You've got 9,000 Facebook followers for your system, that's nearly 10% of Funktion One so what do I know? Maybe you have what it takes to charge that price and it certainly sounds like you've pulled out all the stops to be at the leading edge with the tech. Active cooling, torroidal amps? These aren't typical features even in high end active boxes, so more power to you.

If you can afford 4 grand for a speaker you can probably afford 6, and it doesn't get much more expensive than that for a box like this, so it'll really need to be the best of the best, and maybe it is, but in that case it certainly deserves to be dressed like it. Right now it looks like a prototype. The logo is particularly egregious I think that's a stock vector from the Photoshop 'Shape' tool.

Edit: Oops, that was supposed to be a summary but it turned into a full length post by mistake.





Edited by Hemisphere - 29 December 2017 at 12:19am
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RC1 Sound System Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 10:05pm
Originally posted by Hemisphere Hemisphere wrote:

So 4000 euros or near enough $5000 US for a 15" reflex + horn bin with off the shelf drivers which looks like a DIY cab?

I guess I'm not feeling the magic.


Firstly £3,000 is the list price and there is, as with any other product, always a margin for negotiation.

Secondly there are loads of cheaper options out there, but they won’t be hand made in England out of such top quality components and they won’t sound like these do. It just depends where your priorities are, you usually get what you pay for, and in this case I believe you’re getting better value for your money than with many other pro audio options. Good value and cheap are not the same thing. These are not supposed to be cheap.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jammin75 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 10:04pm
Originally posted by Hemisphere Hemisphere wrote:

Originally posted by jammin75 jammin75 wrote:



secret ingredient inside to make them loud and proud Big smile
"No need to add any other spices"

...

So no adding chilli? Right...


maybe a little scotch bonnet LOL
feel the vibes !!!   "Who Feels it Knows it"            Strong like Lion              
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RC1 Sound System Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 9:50pm
Originally posted by krazyneil krazyneil wrote:


£3600 for a box that looks like I made it in my garageConfused
I seriously think you need to make them look like a production speaker you would get from d&b, l acustics ,ohm ect  first before anybody in there right mind would pay that sort of money


The units we sell will be built and finished to the same standard as any pro audio box, I totally agree with your point that it is important. These speakers are not aimed at budget applications, they are meant to be a top end and exclusive product and of course they must look that way.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote krazyneil Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 9:17pm
£3600 for a box that looks like I made it in my garageConfused
I seriously think you need to make them look like a production speaker you would get from d&b, l acustics ,ohm ect  first before anybody in there right mind would pay that sort of money
GOD TOLD ME TO DO IT !!!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hemisphere Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 8:52pm
So 4000 euros or near enough $5000 US for a 15" reflex + horn bin with off the shelf drivers which looks like a DIY cab?


I guess I'm not feeling the magic.
Phase 1: Post on Speakerplans
Phase 2: ?????
Phase 3: Profit!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote nickyburnell Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 8:27pm
Originally posted by MarjanM MarjanM wrote:

Again, i have seen and heard too many bad sounding boxes full with BC, BMS, Faital... you name it.
I chose RCF in my example because to me most of the RCF boxes sound like crap, but their components shine in other manufacturers boxes.
If the box performs as advertised, that is the only thing that should mater.
What we use is no secret, i believe that most of the forum members know me very well since i am here for about 15 years now. Jon is also someone that is very well known to the people here and making a shit and unreliable product and sell it to anyone is basically a suicide. 
Give me a random Chinese components and ill make you a box that will sound better then 70% of the top European drivers inside boxes. So again, its not whats inside but how it is all done as a whole product.
Clap
Also agree on RCF. Old kit, Event era sounded lovely to my ears, but the modern stuff is a bit like cheap EV of today. Got a suspicion the manufacturing might not be in Italy too? 
It's everything, not everythink!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RC1 Sound System Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 28 December 2017 at 8:26pm
Quite a lot of people are inquiring about pricing. List price is £3,000 + vat per box.

That appears to be good value against other pro audio speakers, many of which these would significantly outperform, plus with these speakers the amps and processing are included as well.

The speakers, including all electronics, etc, are hand built out of top quality components in the UK, using no cheap imported parts from Asia. As a result they are expensive products to build, but you get what you pay for. They were designed to perform regardless of cost, and no compromises have been made there.

Of course they will come with a warranty, and I am aware my reputation fully depends on their reliability and our response should a problem ever develop. All the components will be kept in stock on the shelf at our workshops in Dorset, so there’s nothing that cannot be repaired promptly, plus we will keep some of the system in our hire stock too in order to assist our customers whenever needed.

If anyone is interested in a demo, or discussing the possibility of purchasing, then please drop me a message.
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