What an excellent little wedge this is. And I mean ‘little’ in the nicest possible way. Acoustic Technologies’ SFMO7A is a self-powered foldback wedge that has been designed to be compact, light and easy to use, while still delivering the highest quality sound for professional applications. Based in Queensland, Acoustic Technologies is good at making small speakers that deliver quality live sound. With both design and manufacture done in Australia, I was very impressed with its AT FR21A 12-inch woofer and horn speaker I reviewed back in Issue 94. The SFM07A is part of the same family of speakers and it arrives as a little brother for the larger SFM09 powered wedge.

SIZE MATTERS

Its outstanding features are: size, profile, weight and simplicity. Width (462mm) and depth (350mm) are compact enough but the height of only 194mm makes these very low-profile wedges indeed, in fact they almost disappear on a stage. At 13kg a piece, they’re very easy to carry and position. The cabinet is a distinctive shape with the drivers mounted behind a rounded grille so they fire upwards at an angle of approximately 30° to the floor. The rear of the cabinet (that faces the audience) has an angled panel at the top but is otherwise unadorned — no ports, lights, logos or interesting shapes. On one end of the cabinet is a flush-mounted handle that can be accessed from either side of the hand grip. The other end has a recessed panel containing the power socket and XLRs for input and link. No EQ, no input options, no indicator lights… not even a power switch.

The physical design of the speaker may be understated but it looks both tough and professional. The cabinet is made from 12mm and 18mm birch ply with a shiny black textured finish, described by Acoustic Technologies as Acousticoate Black Elastomer. The texturing is quite pronounced and gives the surface a sparkly appearance in some lights. It feels like it would take a lot of punishment before chipping. The perforated steel grille is finished in black powdercoat paint and feels like it could survive being stood on by a performer in a rock band trying to look taller during the show (I hate the way they stand on wedges). The acoustic foam below the grille should protect against flying drinks…or Dirty Three spit.

DRIVING FORCE

Beneath the steel grille lurk two 6.5-inch drivers mounted on either side of a one-inch compression driver coupled to a proprietary waveguide. High frequency dispersion is quoted at 90° horizontal by 60° vertical. Power for the drivers is supplied by an built-in, single channel, 200W Class D switch-mode power supply amplifier. The drivers are passively crossed over at 1.6kHz. Acoustic Technologies has invested considerable time and expertise in the crossover and gives it credit for the speaker’s smooth response across the midrange. Also hidden inside the cabinet are protection circuits for excess heat, over current, HF input level and a limiter.

One of the very rare opportunities in my professional life arose recently when I received a pair of speakers to review that are actually designed and manufactured in Australia! Up north among the bananas and the pumpkin scones, Acoustic Technologies is pumping out products that easily match their international competitors. And I mean easily!

Acoustic Technologies largely established its reputation through venue sound reinforcement. In other words, it made speaker systems for dance clubs and similar venues that relied on loud music for their success. Acoustic Technologies was so good at this end of the market that the public never really understood that the company could service other markets as well, such as live sound reinforcement. Well, listen up people, they have a range to suit every requirement.

Getting straight to the point, I hereby declare the SS24 to be a serious thriller! It is beautifully made from void-free Finnish birch plywood, boasting a very rigid steel grille that doesn’t rattle and sounds big. Very big indeed, with a 12-inch woofer that can handle up to 1000W of program power and 530W RMS power. Such specifications can tend to annoy some end users, but they do make sense if you consider a few basic facts. Program power is directly related to continuous recorded music output and RMS is related more towards the real world – the world where people sing for a living and bands play ‘live’, in the same room as you; a world where transients can sneak up on you and other joys such as feedback arise to test endurance. Well, I double dare you to try and destroy the SS24.

I tried and I really did my very best to wreck them. I beat them over the head with 1000W bridged mono power pumping into each one in passive mode. They laughed at me! I rammed some ‘doof’ material into them and they quite happily dealt with it, even though the 12-inch woofer did complain a little bit. The top end (two-inch compression driver) is clear and the midrange presence is quite good.

At 25kg, the box is not light, but you can’t have everything when you’re constructing the cabinet out of timber and driving the sound with substantial magnets, unless you can somehow break all the laws of physics (and admittedly, other products in the SS24’s ‘class’ tend to be heavier still). You can run the SS24 in passive mode or flick the very resilient chrome switch on the rear panel and go ‘active’. Either way, you’re looking at a maximum SPL of 128dB, which is outstanding.

I had a chat to a respected retailer in Brisbane about its connection with the installation of 12 SS24s at the Eagle Farm racetrack. He was seriously impressed with the efficiency of the box – remarking that he could actually hear the ground announcer take a breath!

My old friend from the Rose Tattoo days, Greg Horrocks, was also very complimentary about the SS24. He’s the General Manager of E.L.S. at Burleigh Heads, just happens to own the Queensland (2005) horse of the year and has spent many enjoyable days at Eagle Farm. He also has 30 years experience with audio. He stated that the race calls were clear as a bell, regardless of the size of the crowd. The boxes exhibit very good ‘throw’ and no distortion.

The rigging system on the SS24 is absolutely superb as well. The fly-track rigging is available on the top, rear and bottom of each cabinet. And of course, there is also a pole-mount adaptor. I can only assume that any installation of these boxes would be very easy and very flexible.

HANG THE SPECIFICATIONS

I’m not one to have a high regard for specifications. I simply form my opinions by using my ears. The SS24 sounds bloody good to me! I used a pair at a recent rugby function and they were superb. With a sub-bass cabinet in tandem, the result was very impressive. I used them in a local pub with an acoustic duo and they shone very brightly. They also handled some ‘heavy’ hotel action with a local ‘metal’ band and didn’t burp once!

Acoustic Technologies provide very serious factory settings for using the SS24 with speaker management units. In fact, at $2495 I can’t think of a reason to avoid the SS24; it offers some of the best bang for your buck going around.