Mackie C300Z PA Speaker

MACKIE C300Z Details ^top

Are you looking for renowned Mackie sound quality in a portable, lightweight package but you've already invested beaucoups cash on pro-level power amps? Want to instantly upgrade the sound of your existing powered mixer or amplifier without breaking the bank?

Good news for you, because our C300z 2-Way Portable Passive Loudspeakers put the superior clarity, wide dispersion, and legendary ergonomics of the SRM Series within reach of any serious musician, DJ, or small club. These compact-yet-loud speakers can be pole-mounted for use as a small full-range PA system, combined with subwoofers as needed, and even employed as high-quality passive floor monitors.

PRECISION TUNED BY THE SPEAKER BRAINS AT EAW
The new C Series passive Loudspeakers represent Mackie's first lightweight passive speakers tuned exclusively by the EAW loudspeaker engineering team. We're talking about the same team with more than 25 years of high-output loudspeaker expertise, having created loudspeaker systems for critical applications as diverse as the Super Bowl, Iron Maiden, and the Pope. And although loudspeakers for these mega-systems cost exponentially more than the stalwart C300z, many of the same concepts applied, namely: designing custom 12" LF drivers with a frequency range from 50 Hz - 3000 Hz and a 3" voice coil that can take a pounding. And a 1.75" High-Frequency titanium Driver and Horn providing a wide, controlled dispersion pattern and precise reproduction of the critical 1000 Hz - 20,000 Hz upper mid-range and high frequencies.

CROSSOVERS TUNED TO PERFECTION
Tuning a crossover (i.e. voicing a system), involves dozens of critical decisions that many manufacturers overlook. In the end, it is all about balancing the design so that you get the best subjective results from the speaker while maintaining a good technical implementation. The crossover in the C Series is a unique Low Impedance Compensated Crossover (LICC) design with an asymmetrical slope. With EQ and crossover points meticulously chosen so that beamwidth patterns match in both drivers, C Series loudspeakers offer natural sound at all volume levels

ULTRA-WIDE DISPERSION
Ever been to a show where the music sounds great in front, but craps out once you get to the back or sides of the room? We have, and that's why we gave the C300z a multi-cell horn throat aperture. Sure, it's hard to say, but what it does is allow for much wider and more even dispersion of high and mid frequencies—so the wallflowers get the same great listening experience as those up front.Part of the inspiration for the C300z's horn design came from listening to big high-output studio monitors. They had smoother on-axis response and lower distortion because they used an exponential horn design that kept the air impedance constant and the sound smooth as silk. Today's widely used "constant directivity" horns control dispersion relatively well, but their straight walls generate reflections that cause distortion.
However, on big studio monitors, the off-axis pattern control wasn't great.

Pattern control can be loosely defined as "similar off-axis response at a wide range of frequencies." Lots of speakers claim "90° horizontal dispersion." But when you examine their polar patterns closely, you discover that they don't achieve 90° dispersion at all frequencies (drawing at left). In real world, as opposed to the laboratory, when you walk into a live venue, you spend most of your time standing off-axis to the speaker system. When a speaker has uneven dispersion (poor pattern control) at higher frequencies, full-range sound projects straight out like a beam. That's great for the listeners right in front of the speaker, but off-axis listeners get muddy, dull, uneven sound.

Poor pattern control (grey areas) is the result of uneven dispersion at various frequencies. The speaker may do ok at 1kHz but "beam" increasingly narrow patterns at higher frequencies.

So here was the problem: how to take advantage of an exponential horn's smooth response, but solve the problem of high frequency beaming.

The solution was a combination multi-cell aperture throat and exponential horn geometry to obtain the desired dispersion pattern and lower distortion.

Thanks to the efforts of a pair of the world's best acoustic scientists, we were able to retain the finned horn's dispersion advantages while reducing distortion problems. Our researchers provided the mathematical calculations and modeling that led us to create a two-piece vaned horn throat aperture and a separate exponential/conical horn. By placing the phase plug of the driver right next to the fins, we minimized reflection problems.

The design also resulted in a very large horn mouth that provides excellent power response at the crossover point. Stand up to 45 degrees off-axis and you still get wonderful, full-range performance.

BETTER THAN YOUR AVERAGE BOX
Anyone with a factory can build a box and stick some speakers in it (and that's just what many do). But low-frequency transducers in square boxes can create resonances that reflect off the rear wall and pass through the woofer cone out of phase, and ready to mess up your sound. The C300z enclosure is an asymmetrical monocoque design with no parallel surfaces, causing mid and high frequency resonance's to be reflected at angles into internal damping materials, instead of interfering with the woofer doing its thingHere at Mackie, we've always been sticklers for ease of use and ergonomics. The challenge was designing a molded enclosure that met his criteria for convenience and strength. The resulting extremely complex asymmetrical trapezoidal cabinet design totally nuked our development budget, drove the mold-makers crazy, and resulted in a $700,000 32-ton mold! But it was worth all the effort.
An asymmetrical, rounded enclosure has several advantages. First, it results in the stiffest, strongest, most durable cabinet in its class. Second, it can lie on its side in the perfect stage monitor position. Finally, the C Series acoustic signature also benefits because it suffer less from typical internal standing waves created by symmetrical designs.

The C Series enclosure has three handles — two located on the sides and one on top. The side handles are center weighted, and everything that impacts weight distribution of the enclosure is therefore balanced in relation to the handles. Pick up a competitor's box and you'll appreciate this attention to detail.

The C Series also has up to 10 integrated fly points making it easy to hang or fly in any position.

SUPERB FLOOR MONITOR
A good floor monitor plays loudly without generating feedback through vocal microphones. A poor floor monitor, on the other hand, will generate feedback just about the time you turn it up to a useable level. Floor monitor feedback is often caused by uneven frequency response and dispersion; some frequencies arrive at the microphone much louder than others. These "spikes" are what trigger feedback as the floor monitor volume is increased. The C300z has incredibly smooth, spike-free response and dispersion over a wide range of treble frequencies. So you can increase its volume without boosting those nasty, feedback-inducing spikes. Without extensive tuning, no passive speaker or specialized floor wedge in this class can even come close.

Mackie C300Z FEATURES

• Portable Precision Passive loudspeaker with 1.75" HF compression driver and 12" LF transducer
• HF compression driver mounted on a multi-celled aperture, with a constant directivity horn for room-wide 90° x 45° dispersion
• Precise reproduction of critical upper mid-range and high frequencies
• Tough, impact-resistant enclosure with sturdy handles, pole-mount, and integrated rigging points
• Designed for optimum performance with Mackie powered mixers and power amplifiers
• 750W peak power handling
• Three setup configurations: pole mount, flyable and wedge
• Passive version of the best-selling SRM450

COVERAGE PATTERN

ACOUSTIC PERFORMANCE

SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS::
• Frequency Response (–3 dB):
55Hz – 18kHz
• Frequency Range (–10 dB):
45Hz – 20kHz
• Maximum SPL Long-term @ 1m: 123dB
• Crossover Frequency: 1800 Hz
AUDIO: ::
• Input Type: Speakon®-style NL4 jack 1/4-inch TS phone jack
• Input Impedance: 8 ohms
• Power Handling: (RMS) 300 watts, (peak) 750 watts