Tops?

[Tina lynagh]

Hi is there much difference between rcf 715 and 745 A

[david.elsbury]

Not a lot, by the looks- except one is discontinued.

 

Did you compare spec sheets?

[mojo filters]

The 745 has a much bigger HF driver, with a 4" voice coil I believe. To get significantly more (usable) output they've also lowered the crossover frequency to just under 1000Hz, but despite that falling right in the middle of the vocal range, it sounds pretty good for the price. Unfortunately they've kept the awful fugly Art series box design, but I'd estimate it's probably now the best bang-for-the-buck plastic powered MI speaker right now.I've not had lots of gigs using it, but when I had the chance to try, I was able to push it and see how the sound held up when pushed to extreme volumes. It seemed pretty impressive in that respect, and is probably at least as loud as EV's ZX5A, which has always impressed me as the most capable of the common plastic powered MI speakers, and is good for difficult rooms with the 60* horn option. I'd also expect the 745 to get louder than the current darling of the powered MI speaker market - the Yamaha DSR, although I've not directly compared them.When I first used the 745s (for a gig normally served by an Art 525, 725 or similar), they were sent out by a local hire shop heavily invested in RCF speakers. The provider had just got them in stock, and was telling me they'd run some comparisons in the warehouse with a couple of more professional grade RCF boxes (I think from the HD and TT lines) with surprisingly impressive results. They seemed to think the large compression driver was the same as one used in some more expensive RCF speakers, though that might just have been due to the low crossover frequency spec'd - this was over a year ago, and my memory is not perfect.What I do remember clearly from the few times we've used the 745, was that it could go a lot louder than we needed, getting there gracefully. Unlike so many powered MI boxes, it sounded like the maximum usable volume probably gets closer to the ambitious and often absurd max SPL figures usually quoted for these products.