Review: Acoustic Technologies FR21A Self-Powered Speaker
Acoustic Technologies’ Australian-designed and manufactured FR21A speaker blows away the plastic fantastics without blowing the budget.
By Mark Woods
22 April 2013
Acoustic Technologies Audio Systems is an Australian company making world-class audio products. Based in Queensland, Acoustic Technologies designs and manufactures in Australia. That it can compete with the flood of readily available cheap and cheerful imports, as well as established high-end brands, speaks volumes about the integrity of its designs and the quality of its products. Specialising in equipment that comes after the mixing desk, its range includes several series of speakers, amplifiers, processors and processing software.
… THEN THERE ARE SPEAKERS
The AT FR21A is a new release and provides a reminder that there are speakers… and there are speakers. These are not in the same category as the multitude of plastic powered speakers that are cheap to buy, easy to carry and include lots of connection options via mini-mixers on the rear panel. These have fewer features but they’re much better made, they sound much better, and they’re designed for professional applications including production supply companies, nightclubs, corporate presentations, installations or other venues that need high-quality, powerful sound reinforcement.
The Acoustic Technologies FR21A is a self-powered full-range speaker with a 12-inch neodymium woofer and a one-inch neodymium compression driver on a proprietary wave guide. Acoustic Technologies has invested considerable time and expertise in the crossover and gives it credit for the speaker’s smooth response across the mid-range. It’s a passive design and crosses over at 1.3kHz. The physical design of the speaker is understated but it looks both tough and professional. The cabinet is made from 12mm and 18mm birch ply with a shiny black textured finish. The perforated steel grille is finished in black powder coat paint over acoustic foam and looks like it could take a lot of flying drinks without anything getting through. The sides have recessed handles that facilitate a balanced lift when it comes time to carry them, and that’s good because at more than 24kg they are heavier than many powered speakers, especially the plastic fantastics, and a fair lift for one person. Still, it can be done safely and there’s a pole mount socket on the bottom of the speaker for putting them on sticks. For more solid mounting or installations there are integrated rigging tracks top and bottom.
The rear panel has only the bare essentials; a power switch, XLR input and XLR link sockets, and a Powercon AC mains inlet. Most of the rear panel is taken up with a large heat sink to provide cooling for the integrated Class D amplifier that delivers a maximum of 1175W into the speaker’s 8Ω load. There are only two indicator lights on the panel, one for power, the other for limiting, but internally the amp has protection circuits for heat, over current, and HF input level, as well as an output limiter.
NEED TO KNOW
ACCURATE CHARACTER ASSESSMENT
I started off testing with vocal mics and straight away I could hear the speaker was cohesive and loud. The horn has an extended high frequency response and the overall sound is quite bright and sparkly up high. Up close with a Shure Beta 58 the horn bites a bit around 2.5kHz but that’s more to do with the mic’s response than the speaker. Tested with a Neumann KSM9 the sound sat just right without any EQ. Using a range of vocal mics I was pleased with the way the speaker brought out each mic’s individual characteristics — it’s a good indicator of a speaker’s accuracy.
Resistance to feedback up close at high levels was good, a further testament to their even frequency response, and even moving quite a way from the speaker the voice stayed crisp and clear with excellent intelligibility. Moving around the front of the speaker revealed a wide and even horizontal dispersion. Acoustic Technologies quotes the high frequency dispersion at 100 degrees horizontal by 40 degrees vertical. Moving around the sides the sound faded smoothly with commendably little sound coming from the sides or behind. The frequency response is quoted at ±3dB between 90Hz and 21kHz and while they don’t go down to the lowest depths, there is good body between 100Hz and 200Hz, so they’d only need subs for bass-heavy applications.
FILLING IN FOR THE MAIN ACT
Off to the Theatre Royal with these. I’d planned to use them as side fills for Justin Townes Earle. He’s one of my favourite performers, he’s been to Castlemaine before and it was a sold out show. I set them up and they made excellent side fills; they threw easily to the middle of the stage with a noticeable clarity to the mid-range and plenty of volume in hand, even though I was using an Audio-Technica AE5400 LDC vocal mic, which sounds great but is by no means the tightest pick-up pattern around. If I kept turning them up they eventually tried to feedback around 10kHz (the mic is hot there) but they’re very stable unless provoked. These are powerful, focused speakers and I could have spun them around towards the audience and they would have done a commendable job as the front-of-house PA.
Anyway, Townes Earle arrived for the soundcheck and he’d changed since last time… he wasn’t drinking and he was using in-ear monitors. So he didn’t need side fills. His touring sound mixer Gareth Lindsay suggested we use them as in-fill for the people up the front. It was a good call and they ended up being run at a level just under the main PA and covered the front centre of the room very well. Any EQ was more to do with taste, the room and mic choice, rather than compensating for any speaker non-linearity. It was a great show and Gareth thought they sounded terrific.
SWEET SPOT
The FR21A sits beneath the same-sized but DSP-equipped, bi-amped, networkable SS24A in Acoustic Technologies’s range of speakers and its RRP of $2995 seems like good value to me. I imagine these would be especially appealing for production supply companies. One of these and a sub each side would make a compact but powerful PA and having several of these would make it easy to configure systems to suit various situations. There are any number of cheaper speakers available but there’s some high-end design and technology gone into these and they compete against the best, and most expensive speakers around. Acoustic Technologies offers a five-year warranty on the components and I’m sure they will still be going strong long after the plastic fantastics have gone to the tip. All speakers should be of this quality.
What’s the cost of these speakers each ?