Vol 4. Number 1, Winter 2009, Raleigh, NC

Introducing Major New Innovations for 2009

Higher Powered, Convertible Combos… and the World's Lightest Two-Ten Combo and Cab!

Coda+   TenTwoEX

Ground breaking additions to the AI lineup: The new Coda+™ and Corus+™ convertible combos and the incredible Ten2™ combo (prototype). The Ten2EX extension cab will also be available.

It took a ton of design work over the past 12 months, but 2009 is the year for the launch of four new and important products from Acoustic Image: higher-powered, fuller-featured “convertible” Coda+ and Corus+ combos, providing the ultimate in gigging flexibility… and the Ten2 combo and extension cab, the world’s smallest and lightest dual-tens and the only ones to offer transparent 360-degree AI sound.

Full details on both products are at www.acousticimg.com, but here are the highlights:

Cabrio Docking System™: configuring to the occasion

Remove and re-insert heads in seconds. And the Cabrio Docking System is designed and built to last.

The new 800W Coda+ and Corus+ combos, using our proprietary Cabrio Docking System, give you whatever you need… whenever you need it. Use the head alone for recording or with another cab, use the cab by itself with another head, or put the complete combo to work. Whatever the job calls for, you’re there.

What’s more, the Cabrio Docking System is solidly engineered and easy to use , so you can remove and re-insert the head easily (for what we call “separation without anxiety”). The combos are every bit as robust as its non-convertible AI brethren. In short, you can carry them anywhere.

Plus, you can have the Cabrio Docking System (but not the added power and headroom of 800W) retrofitted to your existing Series III Corus or Coda R. Visit our website for information.

Ten2™. Our gutsiest combo/cab ever. For when you need more sound.

With new, twin special design 10-inch woofers (one downfiring, one frontfiring) and a silky smooth, attenuated tweeter in a 14-inch-high, 23-lb. enclosure (EX), or a 17 inch high, 28 lb. combo, Ten2 offers the best of all worlds: coverage all over the bandstand, more volume than other AI combos and cabs with a stronger upfront presence and the ability to move a lot more air when needed.

In fact, the Ten2 also offers significantly more midrange presence compared with other AI enclosures, without the typical “hump” served up by traditional cabs. This is, in part, thanks to a new crossover which also corrects for phase differences between downfiring and frontfiring drivers. In addition, we have added our proprietary Room Coupling Control™ to help tame boomy acoustic settings.

Thanks to its frequency range and frontfiring woofer, the Ten2 is well suited to bass, guitar, piano, and vocals—in fact, to any musical application calling for a more forward presentation of the time-honored AI sound.

The Ten2 combo also incorporates an 800W Clarus+ head and the Cabrio Docking System™. The Ten2 EX cab can be used alone with any AI head or as an extension cabinet—beside or under (see pic) any of our combos for an exceptionally compact and great sounding 3X10 system.

Ten2 combined with a Coda+ combo for the ultimate in power, portability, coverage, and fidelity in a three-ten system (Ten2EX shown is a prototype)

Special introductory pricing — plus discounts on discontinued models.

The new Clarus+, Coda+ and Corus+ will be available in late May. Up to June 1, these new units can be preordered at special introductory prices: the Clarus+ will be the same price as today’s Clarus 2R ($979 street), the Coda+ will be the same as the Coda R ($1289 street) and the Corus+ will be the same as the Corus ($1289 street). After that, prices will increase. In addition, discontinued models (Clarus 2R, Coda R, Corus) will be sold at a 10% discount.

The Ten2 and Ten2EX will be available later this year. Prices are TBD.

Contact your Acoustic Image dealer for details.

What's Changing and What's Not.

While we’re adding important new products and features, we continue to be committed delivering clean, hi-fi sound that assures that you sound like you… and to serving the long term needs of musicians around the world.

So, our new products sound like every other product we have made… are designed from the ground up (without the use of off-the-shelf amplifier modules)… are assembled and rigorously tested one-at-a-time in Research Triangle Park, NC… and are supported by warranty coverage that is unsurpassed in the industry.

That said, we also remain committed to continuous improvement and to delivering what the market wants. With these two issues in mind, here is what happens to the existing AI product lineup:

  • Clarus 1 becomes our only single-channel head — without effects and with 400 watts of power.
  • Contra remains unchanged, without built-in Cabrio capability and with the Clarus 1 head.
  • The Clarus 2R becomes Clarus+, with 800 watts of power and expanded, improved effects
  • Coda R and Corus become Coda+ and Corus+, and incorporate the Clarus+ head.
  • Contra EX and Corus EX remain unchanged
  • Focus 1 and Focus 2R are discontinued.

For an updated product comparison, please go to acousticimg.com

Rick Jones on the Design Challenges of the Ten2.

Rick Jones
Rick Jones, Acoustic Image
President and Chief Designer.

In designing the Ten2 combo and EX, the most essential element was a speaker cabinet that complimented existing AI cabs, adding new capabilities while remaining “in the family.” Specifically, it had to incorporate:

  • Small size and light weight
  • Classic AI sonics, but with a forward firing woofer to add more presence
  • Greater versatility, along with the ability to “move more air” and be louder than our current products for those players who need more volume
  • Common AI design elements including down firing woofer, cylindrical enclosure, similar look, etc.

We began with a new woofer design that maintained the low resonance and excellent low frequency response of our current custom design but extended the high end response of our existing woofer by nearly two octaves. This wider-range woofer, made exclusively for us, has a smooth frequency response from 30 Hz to 4 kHz.

With improved high frequency response, we were able to replace the midrange speaker with a tweeter which, when mounted coaxially on the front grille, allowed us to stay with a very compact cabinet.

After much testing, we also developed a crossover design which corrects for phase differences between front and down-firing drivers.

Plus, we designed a new, proprietary system for controlling speaker/room interactions. We call it Room Coupling Control™. With it, you can adjust the low-end output of the downfiring woofer to compensate for rooms where there is too much boomy bass.

The overall result is what we believe is our best cabinet yet.

Keyboard Crows about Corus

In the December 2008 edition of Keyboard magazine, working musician and Technical Editor Stephen Fortner serves a glowing review of the AI Corus.

He starts the piece by conclusively answering his own question:

“Can a 20-pound amp about the size of a tom-tom deliver enough loud, clean, full range sound for the real world of gigging keyboardists? I didn’t think so either, but then I met the Corus, and nothing could have prepared me for how much it has changed my gigging life.”

He continues:

“Acoustic Image says the Corus is meant for moderate-volume, high-fidelity situations, not replacing your keyboard amp in your rock band. They’re being modest. True, I wouldn’t set up the Corus between a Marshall stack and Animal from the Muppets. But through two months of bar cover gigs for crowds of 50 to 200, some of which could get pretty raucous, it projected exceptionally well. What do I mean? From the back of one of these rooms filled with chatty, dancing people, you could hear the keyboards clearly in the mix, but if you walked right up to the stage (hopefully to bring me a drink), the Corus didn’t seem to get all that much louder. In other words, I didn’t have to fry my ears (or my bandmates’) in order to be heard everywhere. After shows, I was often surprised by how little I’d been turned up in the main PA.”

Overall, it’s a ringing endorsation of AI's 360-degree sound and of the versatility of the Corus for a wide variety of musical applications.

Visit Keyboard to view the complete article.

 

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