The RC4s has been running continuously for a bit over two weeks now. The first week, they were being breaking in with the Purist Audio Design break-in CD 24 hours a day, and the second week was a mixture of music/the PAD CD. Finally, I spent a good two days listening to them with CDs and playing a bunch of movie. For reference, the system consist of
Preamp: IRD LLC-P
Amp: a Modded pair of Audire Noble II rated at 200 watts/8ohms, 400 Watts/4ohms.
CD Player: APL modded Pioneer 563S
Room Size: 11 ft L x 10 ft W x 9 ft H located on second floor with hardwood flooring.
My pair of RC4 has the Hiquiphon OWI, Seas Excel W15, Dual Seas Excel W22, and a Peerless XLS 12” woofer power by the Keiga 5230 subwoofer amp.
As expected, the RC4 did not beat the Incredarray. However, the surprised was that they were much closer to the Incredarray than I anticipated. Compare to the Incredarray, the RC4s:
- Lacked a bit of detail in the upper end of the frequency. On a few CDs with string instrument at the beginning, I can clearly hear the tiny details of the string decayed with the Incredarray but with the RC4s these details were not as apparent.
- The midrange on the RC4 is almost as good as the Incredarray. There is a touch of sweetness to the sound that the Incredarray does not have. IMHO, this sweetness came from the OWI tweeter. This gets down to personal preference. I prefer the detail of the Fountek ribbon tweeter just a bit over the sweetness of the Hiquiphon OWI.
- The RC4s gave up just a hair to the Incredarray in the mid-bass. Both speakers have excellent mid-bass (the best I have heard to date).
- The Incredarray beat the RC4 in the low bass area and I fully expected this. The Incredarray has dual 12” Peerless XLS with 1000 Watts Keiga amp per side where as the RC4 only has one 12” Peerless XLS with 300 Watts version. In addition, the Incredarray is on tile floor versus the RC4 on wood floor. The bass on the RC4 is almost as deep as the Incredarray but not as tight. If I have not owned the Incredarray, I could easily say that the RC4 has the deepest bass of the speaker I have owned.
- Both speakers have pin point imaging. With my eyes close and at moderate listening volume, I could locate where every thing/every one is on the stage and not able to locate where the speakers are. I call this a tie. However, the Incredarray has taller image due the height of their line array.
- I cannot comment on the sound stage because the RC4s has no problem filling the small room with clean sound.
- Just like the Incredarray, I could not detect the crossover transition with the RC4. This part impressed me the most because no speaker I have heard so far was able to pull this off.
- Dynamic. I tried hard to over drive the RC4 but no matter what kind of music or movies I put on, they just delivered with no hint of compression. This was easy for me to understand because the tweeter, the 5” woofer, the dual 8” woofers and the 12” woofers were only being asked to play the frequency range where they are most linear. Just like the Incredarray, I see very little cone movement but yet I can hear and feel the impact of mid and low bass.
The question is how does the RC4 compare to other speakers that I have owned in the past?
The best speakers I owned prior to building the Incredarray were the VMPS RM40s. To me, the Incredarray is clearly superior to the RM40 in all categories, and the RC4s are much closer to the Incredarray than the RM40s or any other speakers I have heard/auditioned.
If I have to keep just one pair of speakers for the long haul, I might go with the RC4 with the JP3 tweeter instead of the Hiquiphon OWI. The reasons for possibly picking the RC4s over the Incredarray are:
- The RC4 works well in almost any room size. The fact that it sounded very good in an 11 ft L x 10 ft W x 9 ft H caught me by surprised. I have tried various tower speakers in this room and none sounded any where near as good as the RC4s.
- The Incredarray are clearly better but they need room to breath hence they are more appropriate in a dedicated listening room.
- The RC4 would be much easier to transport if I ever have to move.
On the other hand, the Incredarray would be my choice for reference sound. In my case, I have both so there no compromise
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Prior to picking the RC4 for the second audio room, I have considered other speaker brands and types. However, after I took every thing into consideration which I list below, I ended up building the RC4 with the Hiquiphon OWI tweeter.
a) The speakers have to be truly full range for both music and HT with out the help of separate power subwoofers. I have no room for separate subwoofers. This first requirement eliminated speakers from almost all speaker manufacturers at AC.
b) They have to work well in small room (11ft L x 10 ft W x 9 ft H) but at the same time have to be able to fill up medium to large size room. This second requirement eliminated line array because line array needs room to breath. As a matter of fact, I spent quite a bit of time pulling opinions of people I respect about the use of line array in small room and most of them agreed that a proper designed line array needs larger room to sound right.
c) Has to be sealed box design. I have owned a number of ported and sealed box designs and found out that I prefer the sound of the sealed box speakers.
d) Dynamic and without any hint of compression. I owned too many speakers in the past where they were either lack the dynamic for HT and/or their woofers bottomed out during movies with a lot of mid and low bass.
e) Since I all ready have the Incredarray, I do not want a similar sound of ribbon tweeter so a good dome tweeter is much prefer. The OWI caught my attention because it was used in a number of good design such as Ellis 1801 and in my opinion, a high quality ¾” dome tweeter is a good alternative to a ribbon.
f) The speakers have to look good so my significant other will NOT have any reason to nag on me for years to come
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Both the Incredarray and the RC4s meet my expectations in most area and exceed them in some areas. For the first time in awhile, I can say that I am pretty much done with speakers upgrading for the foreseeable future. I really hope this stays true for at least five years. This is a “sick” hobby and I don’t think there is a cure .
Disclaimer: I have no association with Selah Audio other than being one of their customers. The above are my “opinion” only so take them with a lot of “salt”.
