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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => LAB: The Classic Live Audio Board => Topic started by: Josh Hana on May 01, 2013, 09:49:48 AM

Title: ARCS as sidefills and "C-rig"
Post by: Josh Hana on May 01, 2013, 09:49:48 AM
We're an L'Acoustics house looking to buy somewhere around 8-12 ARCS boxes, mostly to replace our kf850 sidefills and also for use as a smaller corporate rig. I've read a lot of reviews about the ARCS, but haven't really heard anything regarding the new versions - ARCS 2.0, Wide, and Narrow. Since we're hoping to use these in a variety of applications, would it be best to stick with the 22.5* boxes? A used ARCS rig might be a good fit, but I'm wondering if jumping into the new 2.0 boxes is worth the cost.
Title: Re: ARCS as sidefills and "C-rig"
Post by: Greg_Cameron on May 01, 2013, 05:15:54 PM
We're an L'Acoustics house looking to buy somewhere around 8-12 ARCS boxes, mostly to replace our kf850 sidefills and also for use as a smaller corporate rig. I've read a lot of reviews about the ARCS, but haven't really heard anything regarding the new versions - ARCS 2.0, Wide, and Narrow. Since we're hoping to use these in a variety of applications, would it be best to stick with the 22.5* boxes? A used ARCS rig might be a good fit, but I'm wondering if jumping into the new 2.0 boxes is worth the cost.

The ARCS II have a noticeable increase in peak output over the original ARCS. As far as difference between the ARCS models, it's more than just the horizontal pattern. The vertical patterns are different. The Wide & Focus models are 90 degrees vertical when ground stacked or flown side by side and offer wider coverage when flown in a vertical arrays. And that 90 degree coverage is symmetrical. The ARCS/ARCS II are 60 degrees asymmetrical with 20/40 split, so they're better for ground stacks when placed above head height as far as getting the waveguide energy into the crowd. They can also be useful in vertical arrays where the asymmetrical pattern throws inward when you're hanging them further off to the sides of a stage compared to the other boxes where you'd have to angle the array inward more to keep the energy off the walls. The other thing to consider is that the 15s in the ARC IIs do a bit better job going down lower than the 12s in the Focus/Wide boxes.