On the drawing board for over six years, the X3 was finally brought to life at the behest of Show Atelier, EM Acoustics' Russian distributor, who saw X3 as an ideal product for their market. The system comprises a horn-loaded 15" LF drive unit, a horn-loaded 8" MF drive unit and six 1" compression drivers on a bespoke waveguide, creating a horizontal line source which allows X3 enclosures to be tight-packed together to form arrays.
The result, they claim, is a system that offers predictable horizontal coverage in any application, particularly those where high SPL is required. "The difference between X3 and other point source systems currently available on the market is the SPL capacity and system headroom, as well as the tightly controlled dispersion," the company says.
Each X3 can be thought of as a 20° "building block" which simply attach together to make up the desired coverage angle: 60° = 3 boxes and so on. Due to the HF manifold, each box adds seamlessly to the next, effectively creating a line array in the horizontal plane.
EM Acoustics claims that in terms of system headroom, "no other comparable system on the market today can offer the sheer amount of useable power generated by X3. Each element is capable of delivering frequencies far in excess of the actual operating band, to ensure smooth crossovers between drive units. The low/mid horn, for example, has no parallel walls anywhere along its path - that, combined with the phase device loaded in front of the driver means it has a flat response to well over 500Hz - almost an octave higher than any competing products with folded horn LF systems."
Finally, EM Acoustics has incorporated a drive unit test system into the X3. A simple button-push on the rear of the box, powered by an integral 9V battery, gives a clear visual indication of a malfunction in any of the eight drive units. As R&D director Ed Kinsella points out, "It's not intended to replace a proper kit prep measurement, but as a quick on-the-job fault-finder it's invaluable."
A simple, robust rigging and flying system with a minimum of extra parts completes the package.
(Lee Baldock)
