After using my USA made Mackie SRM450 speakers for 10 years, I thought it was time for an upgrade. I sold all 4 of my speakers on Craigslist for $1400 and went to Washington Music in Silver Spring MD to upgrade. I listened to QSC, EV, and RCF. I walked out with a pair of RCF ART 310a speakers and another pair of the RCF ART 312a speakers for bigger gigs. I only had to pay an additional $200 over the money I got for the Mackies. RCF just dropped the price of the 300 series because they downgraded the features on the back panel. It was also dropped to clear the $800 price point for the new 400 series.

Had: 4 Mackie SRM-450 (USA) - 10 years old - 55 lbs each (220 total lbs)
Got: 2 RCF ART 312a (Italy) - New Warranty - 41 lbs each
2 RCF ART 310a (Italy) - New Warranty - 28 lbs each
I dropped from 220 lbs to 138 total lbs for all 4 speakers!!! Nice!!!


I just got finished with a string of 3 gigs with my wife. I could carry both of the 310a speakers in one trip. What a difference in weight to the Mackie!! If needed, my wife can carry one of the 310a speakers.

First gig... Local areas Women's Club - Audience of 60 to 70
I put the 310a on poles... set behind us a bit to monitor and these little speakers did a wonderful job. Great quality of sound!

Second Gig... AIDS Benefit/Silent Auction - Audience of 150 to 200
It was a Broadway theme and it was in a HUGE room. We were set up on a stage and this time I used the 312a behind us on the floor of the stage as wedges. The sound carried well in the room but we wanted to make sure people could still carry on a conversation. Worked extremely well in that situation. Plus, 41 pounds are much lighter than the Mackies.

Gig last night... Church Fellowship night - Audience of 75
We used the 310a speakers behind us on the floor as wedges. Worked really well. I was so surprised on how big the bass sounded through the 10" speakers. They sounded full and I was hardly pushing them. No feedback issues and plenty of volume. Too much volume for one little lady at the table right in front of us.

In each of these cases, I used a Sonar VS-100 digital mixer with a balanced output to a BBE 882i to give a little more punch and clarity. I use a Shure Beta 58a and my wife uses a Shure Beta 57a for vocals. I run tracks from the SD Card player on the VS-100 and sequences from my Yamaha Motif ES.

Next time, I want to run the dbx Drive Rack PX to see the results. With the Mackies, I never used EQ to fix anything. I did engage the EQ boost on the back of the speaker and it gave me a great sound for many years. The RCF's sound different than the Mackies. They have a more pronounced mid range which, to my ears, make our vocals pop out of the mix better than before. For bigger gigs, I add an EV SbA760 15" Subwoofer... it adds a lot of clean bass and I think it will sound great with either of the RCF speakers on top!!

So far, I think the RCF was a steal of a deal!!!

Good luck with your new PA system.
Sounds like you could use a Rock-n-Roller Cart also....

http://www.rocknrollercart.com/

I am giging a lot with many RCF ART 310a + a HK SUB

It's sounding very efficient