Pro Acoustics Tech Talk Episode 1: Comparison of the Pure Resonance Audio SD4 and VCA8 Commercial Drop-tile Ceiling Speakers
Check out the inaugural episode of Pro Acoustics Tech Talk. In this episode, our audio engineers, Nathan and Coltin, are discussing some of the awesome features of the Pure Resonance Audio SD4 and VCA8 commercial drop-tile ceiling speaker arrays. The 8 ohm/70 volt SD4 and the 8 ohm VCA8 are ideal for classrooms, office spaces, conference rooms, teleconferencing, churches, retail stores, restaurants, universities, and sound masking systems. Enjoy!
Okay. Hey guys,
I'm Nathan and I'm Coltin. And we're here with the inaugural episode of Pro Acoustics Tech Talk. This is a segment where Coltin and myself talk about products we like, products we'd like to geek out on that we think you guys might find some use out of. And basically, share a little bit of information with you, hopefully, make your lives a little bit easier when it comes to selecting audio products.
So, Coltin, what do we have here today?
All right. We have an SD4 from the manufacturer Pure Resonance Audio. They are the manufacturing brand of Pro Acoustics. And basically what we want to go over is the ends and outs of this guy. Who is this meant for? And if you’re ever on the fence about the details of this guy, we really want to, you know, make those clear for you to make this a smooth, easy process for you.
So, kind of go over with me who the ideal customer is and you know, where are we seeing these guys? Yeah, sure, absolutely. So, this is what we call a two by two lay in speaker array. Basically, it's two feet by two feet in each direction. It has four 6 1/2-inch woofers, full range speakers. So that's four 6 1/2-inch woofers, with aluminum cones plus four aluminum dome tweeters. So makes it a two-way cabinet all inside of this one array. All ported through the front, all inside of one metal back box on the back here. So, what's really nice about this is one of these arrays replaces a two by two drop tile acoustic ceiling panel, and then covers your space with a nice full range sound.
So, this one panel here can cover depending on your ceiling heights, approximately a 25 by 25-foot area up to around a 30 by 30. Get back in touch with us if you have anything lower or higher and we can talk about it a little bit more with you on what you really need. But this is a great solution. With time saving in mind, this one array replaces the two by two tile. So, you're not cutting four individual holes in your ceiling. You're not making a big mess, you're not getting dust all over yourself and you're not running the saw, that kind of deal. So basically, pop out your tile. If you have a two by four tile, cut your tile in half, cross brace your ceiling. Pop this guy in there connected to your speaker wire and away you go. It does come with the i-hooks on the cabinet itself for attaching your safety cable.
Safety cable is included. Then you also, you've got your terminal here for attaching your positive and negative wire. Then you also have your transformer setting. There is an included 70-volt transformer on the speaker, taps from four watts up to 64 watts, not a lot of speakers on the market with 64 wire taps at 72. Then you also have your 8-ohm bypass. Basically, just click the setting in place for whatever your application calls for. If you've got questions about what kind of amplifier you have, you can once again contact us with that.
Man. All I can think about is this - is how great this speaker is for contractors in general, you know, like how easy is it for them just to pop out a ceiling tile grid, pop in SD4 and then away you go. I mean, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, dealing with our contractors, it's, you know, what's the story they've been giving us with these?
Yeah, I mean the name of the game is speed on being able to install a quality product that's going to work well for you. That also covers a wide area. At the end of the day, nobody wants to be paying for a guy to go up and down on a ladder, cutting a bunch of holes, and running wire all over the place. When one wire, one speaker can take care of it. The SD4, is a great two-way option. Weighs about 25 pounds or so.
If you do find for any reason that, you might have a little bit lower budget or want to look at another option, we do also have the SD4’s little brother, the VCA8 that I believe Coltin has over there. So literally see, as you can see, it doesn't weight much. One guy going up a ladder can easily pop this into the ceiling.
All right, so VCA8, differences that we're talking about here. No back box on the back - a lot lighter. See, get my reps in. And we also have three 6 ½-inch drivers here instead of four. So, uh, but, still a full range speaker. You still have woofers and tweeters. You have a little bit more premium speaker inside of the SD4, but with these three speakers together, you're still covering approximately the same space. The angle of these is a little bit different. So you're not just missing this whole chunk here - they're actually positioned in a little bit different space wise, but you still get approximately the same coverage. Major difference is it's a little bit lighter, a little bit lower price point, no back box. So the bass response is not quite as deep.
Typically, we say if you're going for premium music, look at the SD4, but if you're looking at a little bit more economical, primarily speech, the VCA8 is the way to go.
Just to go over this, we once again have the i-hooks available. But you'll notice no 70-volt transformer here, no dial. Um, that's fine. This is only an 8-ohm, low impedance speaker, so you can connect your wires right there at the bottom. Don't worry about setting any dial on the back, connect to your low impedance amplifier and away you go.
If you do happen to have any questions about pairing an amplifier with a VCA8 or an SD4, Coltin, where can they reach us? They can reach us at proacousticsusa.com or you can reach us at our sales email directly and that's going to be sales@proacoustics.com. And you can give us a shout at the mainline and we'll be more than happy to guide you through this process and make life a little bit easier. Just as a reminder, what's that number that they can reach us? It is 888- 256-4112. Again. 888-256-4112. I am Nathan. I'm Coltin. And what we're signing off from Pro Acoustics Tech Talk.