The Compact Adaptive Installation System, as it is called by its full name, is noteworthy not only for its extraordinary flexibility and sonic performance, but also for the ruggedness of its components. For example, the German-made mid/high unit sports a housing made of polyamide resin, an especially durable, weatherproof space-age plastic. Since injection-molded polyamide resin also happens to be highly antiresonant, it lends itself quite well for the construction of loudspeaker enclosures.
The passive CAD 208 mid/high unit is loaded with two 8" midrange speakers, two 1" high-frequency drivers with a concentric double horn and a 2.5-way crossover network. Since the horns have a dispersion angle of 100° x 15°, it is possible to achieve an excellent horizontal and vertical coverage pattern with just a few units.
Sonically, the CAD 208 produces a high degree of speech intelligibility down to the last syllable, yet in spite of its compact size and low weight of barely 16.5 kg it can also be used as a full-range system for background music even without a subwoofer.
The system will be demonstrated at ProLight&Sound in Frankfurt next week.
(Jim Evans)
