Alto Professional is shipping its new Black Series, a complete line of “top-level” loudspeakers and subwoofers, powerful speakers with wireless capability, and immense built-in power.
Black loudspeakers are available in 10-inch, 12-inch, and 15-inch models (pictured, right), and feature a 1.75-inch high-frequency driver and Class D power.
Designed and tuned in the USA, each Black loudspeaker comes optimized with a 90° x 60° coverage field and a high-frequency waveguide. Black loudspeakers come equipped with wireless technology for remote control via the Live Drive speaker app for iPhone and iPad, which will be available (free) from the App Store next month.
“Wireless control is incredibly useful, especially when the speakers are suspended or hard to get to,” said Bernard Werner, Alto Professional’s Director of Engineering. “The Live Drive functionality lets you leave the normal mix-position to tweak and fine-tune speaker settings via DSP.”
Additional Black Series Features:
Loudspeakers: Each Black Series loudspeaker has steel-reinforced rubber feet, a powder-coated steel grille, and a heavy-duty plywood cabinet, which is covered in a rugged scratch-resistant finish and has custom-molded handles. Each loudspeaker has a built-in mixer with two Mic/Line combo inputs, volume controls, and balanced XLR mix output. Loudspeakers come with up to twelve M10 rigging points for overhead suspension, each one multi-angled, allowing for use as a wedge monitor.
Subwoofers. The Black Series has two subwoofers to choose from: the Black 18 Sub and Black 15 Sub. These 2400-watt powered subwoofers feature 18-inch and 15-inch long-excursion LF transducers, respectively, and adjustable level and polarity controls. Both Black Series subwoofers have stereo inputs: XLR-1/4″ combo on the left channel and XLR on the right channel. XLR outputs on both models feature a convenient built-in crossover, eliminating the need to purchase an external rack-mounted unit.
Pricing and Availability. Alto Professional’s Black Series loudspeakers are now available now with prices of $749 (for the Black 10), $849 (Black 12), and $949 (Black 15). Black Series subwoofers are also now available, priced at $1099 (for the Black 15 Sub, pictured, above), and $1199 (Black 18 Sub). For additional specifications, or for other information, check out the Alto Audio website.
Presonus has a similar line of products and I’m sure there are others.
Personally I find it a bit sad that cheap DSPs have made it possible for manufacturers to lower the design and build quality (I’m not talking about sturdiness, but acoustic properties) of speakers even further because they can compensate for it in software. This does of course make those speakers more flexible and you certainly get more bang for the buck.
It’s enormous that you are getting thoughts from this article as
well as from our discussion made here.
Wow, customer. You know what dsp Alto use? Respect. So please define cheap and tell me what dsp this are.
And have you heard the Alto’s? Its impressive what stupid engineers get out of this cheap dsp’s.
Maybe you are a bit disapointed while you paid twice the price for an equal sounding speaker from an major brand but thats your fault, not Alto’s. Go weeping.
BTW, Presonus is also a young brand. As many others. Do they use cheap dsp too?