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[Mike Caldwell]

Toss is that the ART series is not RCF's top end (or even close to it).  If you want to stay RCF I'd suggest the HD12A as a starting point.

The ART line is good not RCF top shelf but really good in the molded plastic speaker world. The 300 series is the lower end of the series, the 700's do sound really good, I have a pair of 732 Mk4.

Back to the problem at hand.
Just to double check, you are only sending one channel's output left or right to the speaker with no combing, mixing, Y cables ect.

As for the headphone jack it is a completely different output than a balanced line 1/4 inch TRS jack. Nothing to do with impedance, the headphone is tip left, ring right, sleeve ground. A balanced line 1/4 inch jack is tip +, ring -, sleeve ground. The two are not interchangeable just because the plug fits in to either one.

At Tim eluded to earlier maybe it's the tracks and your hearing them in new light!

[Alec Spence]

The 312 sounds really nice, even if better speakers exists.

What happens if you take an iphone and connect it directly to the speaker(s) with a 1/8”—>dual TS cable, just to eliminate potential issues with your other gear?

#
Completely agree on both points.

While you're very confident about the quality of your tracks and the interface you're using, I'd always want to eliminate all of that and go from a dedicated playback device, using a commercial track that you're very familiar with.

If you have problems then there's most likely a fault (non-original drivers?) with the speakers as, in normal operation, they're pretty good!  Alternatively, maybe you've become so accustomed to "flattering" speakers that these fairly flat response speakers don't do it for you.  If that's the case, then you'll need to recalibrate the software that you have installed between your ears.

[John Patrick]

Hi everyone, and thank you for commenting.
I have finished my testing, the tunes I play are very close to what they
sound like on other speakers, and even through headphones on my computer.
It was a matter of finding the offending frequencies, this is just something I
never had to do before for pre recorded and eq 'd material, the RCF speakers in
question are tailored well for a different audience, the clarity is not there, they
are stable and loud enough, but not clear enough.
I will be looking at other speakers, the dxr 's  or maybe another from the RCF range, as mentioned by a poster in this thread.

Thanks to all who posted

[Bob Faulkner]

Hi everyone, and thank you for commenting.
I have finished my testing, the tunes I play are very close to what they
sound like on other speakers, and even through headphones on my computer.
It was a matter of finding the offending frequencies, this is just something I
never had to do before for pre recorded and eq 'd material, the RCF speakers in
question are tailored well for a different audience, the clarity is not there, they
are stable and loud enough, but not clear enough.
I will be looking at other speakers, the dxr 's  or maybe another from the RCF range, as mentioned by a poster in this thread.

Thanks to all who posted

Before you look at something else, there may be someone here, on this forum, that lives near you that could come out and help you assess what the issue is, and possibly find a solution.  Many of us post our locations... which has helped when working with other forum members.

[Don T. Williams]

Before you sell off the RCF's and buy something else, find a similar speaker (with the same kind of inputs) from another manufacturer and listen to your recordings on it.  There are a lot out there but Alto, JBL, QSC and Yamaha active speakers would all be good choices.  I'm of the opinion that its not the speaker but how they are being interfaced.  I could be wrong and you may have speakers that are "bad" or had been damaged.  As has been stated, I also see a lot of problems with stereo signals on TRS 1/4" plugs being plugged into balanced inputs.  Just this Monday I had a church complain that the sound from their computer was always bad.  This time they were using an 3.5 mm TS (mono) plug from the computer out to a TS 1/4" mono into the console.  They had been missing 1/2 of the stereo signal for years, and on some recordings it really sounded odd.

[John Patrick]

Before you sell off the RCF's and buy something else, find a similar speaker (with the same kind of inputs) from another manufacturer and listen to your recordings on it.  There are a lot out there but Alto, JBL, QSC and Yamaha active speakers would all be good choices.  I'm of the opinion that its not the speaker but how they are being interfaced.  I could be wrong and you may have speakers that are "bad" or had been damaged.  As has been stated, I also see a lot of problems with stereo signals on TRS 1/4" plugs being plugged into balanced inputs.  Just this Monday I had a church complain that the sound from their computer was always bad.  This time they were using an 3.5 mm TS (mono) plug from the computer out to a TS 1/4" mono into the console.  They had been missing 1/2 of the stereo signal for years, and on some recordings it really sounded odd.

Hi Don and Bob above.
I have zoned in on the lets say hyped bottom and top, and am able to get very close
representations of what is going in to the speakers coming back out, my cables are good,
I used them on my Monitors and they sound better, but a near field monitor should, thats
the idea behind them, show up every flaw. I know the Yamaha would be a little better and
clearer, for there are lots of them about, and even over youtube this comes across. I could
not find any good clips showing the RCA 312 A Mk4 's actually reproducing the kind of audio
and music we use, they were always in a DJ setup, which should have alerted me, the speakers I use are flat, and this is what I like, so I can add flavor, the RCF are definitely not flat in response. In any event I listened to them again for an hour, deliberately looking to see if this amount of time would fatigue my ears, and no, they sounded the same all the way through, I looped the same tunes so I got them twice over time, and no changes that I could detect. Am taking one of them off to a very capable musician and have him play guitar, piano and fiddle through them, if he can get them to sound good then they stay, otherwise I will be looking at something else.

Thanks for posting

[John Patrick]

#
Completely agree on both points.

While you're very confident about the quality of your tracks and the interface you're using, I'd always want to eliminate all of that and go from a dedicated playback device, using a commercial track that you're very familiar with.

If you have problems then there's most likely a fault (non-original drivers?) with the speakers as, in normal operation, they're pretty good!  Alternatively, maybe you've become so accustomed to "flattering" speakers that these fairly flat response speakers don't do it for you.  If that's the case, then you'll need to recalibrate the software that you have installed between your ears.

Hi Alec
I am not so sure what you mean by a dual TS cable, are you referring to a cable with a 1/8 trs male connector that fits into the phone, and this cable is then split into a Y, which has a TS on each fork, if so, the Y would need to be a big one if the Two forked TS males were to be inserted one into each Speaker, There is only One TRS input on each speaker so in other words split the 1/8 into Two mono feeds, and supply one mono feed to each speaker via TS.
If the above is what you mean, then do I end up with a stereo image between the two speakers, a right and a left, or do I end up with a mono feed to each speaker, which is fine with me, as I want people to hear the same from each speaker.

Thanks for posting

[Mike Christy]

Steve said: "Is it possible that you are sending left and right stereo signals to a balanced input and are listening to the difference rather than the sum?"

I agree.

[Mike Caldwell]

Post a picture or two of your set up as it is now and a couple close ups of the plugs.

That may save a 1000 words!

[Les Kanekuni]

Hi everyone, it my first post.

I have issues with a pair of Mk4 rcf 312 active speakers.
We play recorded music through our PA, as well as using it for
youth work, acoustic guitar, vocals, digital piano and sometimes
a bass guitar player chimes in.
We have not tried the speakers for the live music yet, mainly because
they do not fulfill our needs in regard to playing professional / commercialy
recorded music from out computer via a Steinberg UR22.

We have played the same music and songs for years, and through every other speaker
we used there was no need to adjust after set up, just create a play list and leave it be.
But with these 312 's, we need to eq nearly every song, what ever is going on with
the DSP on these is beyond description, sure the songs vary, but the old speakers
we used had no issues, they were actually only active monitors, roland cube cm30's,
we also played through a panasonic hi fi with an auX in and had no adjustments to do, we use a bose bluetoorh speaker, dont even know the model but it plays back fine,
we played through SX200 speakers and no issues at all, just cant understand how these rcf 312's are so difficult, there is no way one would be expected to eq every song on a cd  playing back through a speaker, but this is the only way to make them half decent.

They are set flat, no boost, and only at a third 9 o clock on the dial of the rcf, vocals are harsh, clarity is questionable, anything with a t in it one never hears the t too well, me thinking DSP is to blame, if so, then changing the woofer wont help much, and the tweeter in them seems propriety, and I only see this tweeter in the rcf 310 and 312, so getting a different one won't be happening.

I am very confused as to how this rcf behaves so different regarding playback of music
and songs that all my other speakers have no problem with, the speaker seems inconsistent, not able to put out whats put in.

Anyone have any suggestions, or have you came across similar issues with this model.

Either way, thanks for looking in

What is the input switch set on?  Mic or Line?  Should be Line.

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