A r t i c l e s o u n d & r e c o r d i n g 0 3 . 2 0 1 0

The name RCF is known to many people inthe field of sound reinforcement: RCF is both

a manufacturer of complete loudspeaker sys-

tems as well as the supplier of high-class dri-

vers. Many big names in the world of PA sys-

tems rely on RCF driveers and equip their

top products with the drivers from Reggio

Emilia. This is where RCF was founded – in

1949! The company can therefore draw on

more than 60 years of experience building

loudspeakers, which is reflected in a broad

product range reaching from drivers via PA-

systems and installation speakers up to stu-

dio monitors.

From developing active PA-speakers RCF

had already accumulated a wealth of expe-

rience regarding electronics like power amps

and controllers in speakers. These were qui-

te useful in addition to the experience in bu-

ilding drivers and enclosures when the com-

pany started to develop studio monitors. The

result are the models Mytho 6 and 8 which

are currently being launched onto the mar-

ket.

Mytho ModelsThe well-styled design of the webpage and

product infos befit the name and deliver the

impression of a valuable, high-quality pro-

duct with a special touch. As some examples

even from recent history have shown, success

needs more than a technically good product,

but a special legend building or „Mythos“

surrounding the product. Good audio techno-

logy is a prerequisite for success today, but is

not sufficient by itself.

Let’s have a closer look at the Mytho. We re-

ceived the Mytho 6 with a 6.5 LF unit plus

1“ tweeter in a two-way design. The larger al-

ternative Mytho 8 correspondingly comes with

a 8“ LF speaker. The enclosures are made of

two aluminum die cast halfes fixed together

with long screws. All the internal bracing, the

waveguide for the tweeter and other mechani-

cal parts for mounting drivers and electronics

are cast within the aluminium casing. Since

there is a high degree of design freedom when

manufacturing enclosure molds the outer

form was designed with ample curving at the

edges, which offers clear advantages in redu-

cing edge reflections. A further advantage of

the aluminium enclosures is the good rela-

tionship between interior and exterior volume,

since the shell material can be significantly

thinner than in wooden cabinets.

RCF Mytho 6Individually calibrated monitors from the

reference monitor series of the renowneditalian speaker manufacturer RCF

03/10

Article from

[ R C F M y t h o 6 ] Te s t

_ _ _ y _ g y

Verwendete Acrobat Distiller 7.0.5 JoboptionsDieser Report wurde mit Hilfe der Adobe Acrobat Distiller Erweiterung "Distiller Secrets v3.0.2" der IMPRESSED GmbH erstellt.Registrierte Kunden können diese Startup-Datei für die Distiller Versionen 7.0.x kostenlos unter http://www.impressed.de/DistillerSecrets herunterladen.

ALLGEMEIN ----------------------------------------Beschreibung: MM-Einstellungen ab 13.9.2004Dateioptionen: Kompatibilität: PDF 1.6 Komprimierung auf Objektebene: Aus Seiten automatisch drehen: Aus Bund: Links Auflösung: 600 dpi Alle Seiten Piktogramme einbetten: Ja Für schnelle Web-Anzeige optimieren: JaPapierformat: Breite: 246.047 Höhe: 317.48 mm

KOMPRIMIERUNG ------------------------------------Farbbilder: Neuberechnung: Durchschnittl. Neuberechnung auf 300 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) für Auflösung über 450 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Komprimierung: JPEG Bildqualität: HochGraustufenbilder: Neuberechnung: Durchschnittl. Neuberechnung auf 300 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) für Auflösung über 450 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Komprimierung: JPEG Bildqualität: HochSchwarzweißbilder: Neuberechnung: Durchschnittl. Neuberechnung auf 1200 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) für Auflösung über 1800 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Komprimierung: ZIP Mit Graustufen glätten: Aus

Richtlinien: Richtlinien für Farbbilder Bei Bildauflösung unter: 150 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Ignorieren Richtlinien für Graustufenbilder Bei Bildauflösung unter: 150 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Ignorieren Richtlinen für monochrome Bilder Bei Bildauflösung unter: 1200 ppi (Pixel pro Zoll) Ignorieren

FONTS --------------------------------------------Alle Schriften einbetten: JaOpenType-Schriften einbetten: NeinUntergruppen aller eingebetteten Schriften: JaUntergruppen, wenn benutzte Zeichen kleiner als: 100 %Wenn Einbetten fehlschlägt: AbbrechenEinbetten: Schrift immer einbetten: [ ] Schrift nie einbetten: [ ]

FARBE --------------------------------------------Farbmanagement: Einstellungsdatei: Color Management Off Farbmanagement: Farbe nicht ändern Wiedergabemethode: StandardGeräteabhängige Daten: Unterfarbreduktion und Schwarzaufbau beibehalten: Nein Transferfunktionen: Anwenden Rastereinstellungen beibehalten: Nein

ERWEITERT ----------------------------------------Optionen: Überschreiben der Adobe PDF-Einstellungen durch PostScript zulassen: Ja PostScript XObjects zulassen: Nein Farbverläufe in Smooth Shades konvertieren: Ja Geglättene Linien in Kurven konvertieren: Ja (Grenzwert für Glättung: 0.1) Level 2 copypage-Semantik beibehalten: Ja Einstellungen für Überdrucken beibehalten: Ja Überdruckstandard ist nicht Null: Ja Adobe PDF-Einstellungen in PDF-Datei speichern: Ja Ursprüngliche JPEG-Bilder wenn möglich in PDF speichern: Ja Portable Job Ticket in PDF-Datei speichern: Nein Prologue.ps und Epilogue.ps verwenden: Nein JDF-Datei (Job Definition Format) erstellen: Nein(DSC) Document Structuring Conventions: DSC-Kommentare verarbeiten: Ja DSC-Warnungen protokollieren: Nein EPS-Info von DSC beibehalten: Ja OPI-Kommentare beibehalten: Nein Dokumentinfo von DSC beibehalten: Ja Für EPS-Dateien Seitengröße ändern und Grafiken zentrieren: Ja

PDF/X --------------------------------------------Standards - Berichterstellung und Kompatibilität: Kompatibilitätsstandard: Nein

ANDERE -------------------------------------------Distiller-Kern Version: 7050ZIP-Komprimierung verwenden: JaASCII-Format: NeinText und Vektorgrafiken komprimieren: JaMinimale Bittiefe für Farbbild Downsampling: 1Minimale Bittiefe für Graustufenbild Downsampling: 2Farbbilder glätten: NeinGraustufenbilder glätten: NeinFarbbilder beschneiden: JaGraustufenbilder beschneiden: JaSchwarzweißbilder beschneiden: JaBilder (< 257 Farben) in indizierten Farbraum konvertieren: JaBildspeicher: 1048576 ByteOptimierungen deaktivieren: 0Transparenz zulassen: NeinICC-Profil Kommentare parsen: JasRGB Arbeitsfarbraum: sRGB IEC61966-2.1DSC-Berichtstufe: 0Flatness-Werte beibehalten: JaGrenzwert für künstlichen Halbfettstil: 1.0

ENDE DES REPORTS ---------------------------------

IMPRESSED GmbHBahrenfelder Chaussee 4922761 Hamburg, GermanyTel. +49 40 897189-0Fax +49 40 897189-71Email: info@impressed.deWeb: www.impressed.de

2 Te s t [ R C F M y t h o 6 ]

s o u n d & r e c o r d i n g 0 3 . 2 0 1 0 A r t i c l e

The woofers of the Mytho monitors are fitted

with Neodymium drivers, a 2“ voicecoil and

a cooling system based on the most recent

technology. The mebrane is reinforced with

carbon fibres and fitted within an amply di-

mensioned rubber sink. A further feature of

the woofers is the impedance control coil

(ICC). It is a secondary coil mounted on the

speaker yoke and driven in opposite phase to

the primary coil, reducing primary coil indu-

ctivity. This results in higher current flow

with correspondingly higher sensitivity and

lower distortion at higher frequencies. Above

1.9 kHz (see X-over function in pict.6) a 1“

dome tweeter with a membrane made from a

aluminium/magnesium combination is used.

The driver also uses a neodymium magnet.

For better heat dissipation from the moving

coil to the magnet and carriage of the twee-

ter the air gap is filled with ferrofluid. This

dampens the basic resonance of the tweeter

to a high degree as well.

For the poweramps with 200 W and 100 W

respectively for low and high ranges the clas-

sic AB-class technology was used, which is

widely considered above any discussion re-

garding audio quality in contrast to PWM

class-D circuits. Signal processing is hand-

led in the digital domain with an integrated

DSP-system. All the filter functions, the clip-

limiter and individual equalisation for each

speaker are processed here. In reality this

means that each speaker is tested and indivi-

dually adjusted regarding level and frequen-

cy in the factory before being shipped. The

low difference tested of only up to 0.5 dB at

the worst point within the pair confirms this.

The filters to match location and positioning

specifics are also handled by the DSP sys-

tem. These consist of low- and high-shelf fil-

ters, called bass- and treble-tilt, a bass roll-

off, a 80 Hz highpassfilter, a desktop-filter

setting and a „linear power response“ set-

ting. All the respective filter curves are

shown in picture 6. The desktop setting lo-

wers the area around 145 Hz with a bell fil-

ter by ca. 2.5 dB and thereby compensates a

potential level rise by a position on top of a

console or table.

Linear Power ResponseThe name „linear power respsonse“ also hi-

des a bell filter - at 1 kHz with a slight boost

of 2.5 dB. The background concept for this

filter, which allows the settings „linear power

response“ and „linear frequency response“,

is the fact that there are two different me-

thods to judge the frequency response of a

speaker.The „normal“ frequency response

test is done with very low reflections in the

surrounding area and only counts the frontal

projetion of sound from a speaker. A diffe-

rent method tests the power frequency res-

ponse of a speaker and measures the com-

plete sound energy projected from the spea-

ker into the room. Since the projetcion is

more or less globular (ball-shaped) at low

frequencies and a controlled and even dis-

persion only starts when frequencies rise to

mids and treble the power frequency respon-

se usually rises to the lows. The power fre-

quency response of a speaker should there-

fore be linear above a certain frequency,

which depends on the size of the speaker, at

least if the speaker has a more or less regu-

lar dispersion behaviour. Which frequency

response is the more relevant? The answer

depends on the room. The better the acoustic

damping of a room, the more important is

the free field frequency response. But if the

room is more reverberating and projecting a

lot of the generated sound back to the spea-

ker, the power frequency response becomes

more important. The linear rise to the lows in

the power frequency response is more or less

the expected listening experience, which me-

ans that there should be only small corre-

ctions or none at all. Diversions from a re-

gular steady flow of the power frequency res-

ponse tough should be corrected fully or

partially depending on the room.

All the filter functions of the Mytho can be

adjusted through 12 DIP-switches on the

back panel. A level control +/-6dB as well as

a balanced analog input with a XLR/jack

combination connector can also be found he-

re. A digital input, which would make sense

in view of the DSP system, does not exist so

far.

Lab Test ResultsLet’s have a look at the other lab results of

the Mytho 6. Picture 1 shows the frequency

and phase responses. The first is shown wi-

thout and with 1/3 octave smoothing. Even

without smoothing the curve looks quite re-

gular. Epressed in numbers this means a fre-

quency response of 42 Hz to 22.8 kHz (-6

dB) with a maximum deviation of +/- 1.7 dB.

Only the membrane resonance of the metal

dome at 26.4 kHz sticks out – but this is far

away from the hearing range. Still it should

be avoided to use this frequency unnecessa-

rily, since this could result in intermodulation

products within the audible spectrum.

The results for maximum level is also very

convincing. Both curves in picture 2 are

smooth and without weaknesses, resulting in

an average use level calculated as the avera-

ge at 3% distortion between 100 Hz and 10

kHz of 105.2 dB. In the bass range this va-

lue, now calculated for 10% distortion (red

curve) between 50 and 100 Hz is 98.5 dB.

As the power frequency response implied, the

projection character of the Mytho 6 is very

_ _ _ y _ g y

[ R C F M y t h o 6 ] Te s t 3

A r t i c l e s o u n d & r e c o r d i n g 0 3 . 2 0 1 0

smooth in both planes with an opening of

118° horizontally annd 96° vertically. In the

vertical isobarics the narrowing at 1.56 kHz,

which leads to the small dip in the power fre-

quency response can be seen quite clearly.

The noise level of the Mytho 6 is 28.7 dBA

at a distance of 10 cm and is therefore

slightly noticable in quiet surroundings at

short distances.

Listening TestFor our listening test we chose a typical ne-

arfield positioning with a distance of about 2

m. Thanks to the flexible and safe stand of

the cabinet the positioning is quickly done.

The acoustic impression of the Mytho can be

described as „pleasing“, „smooth treble“

and „powerful in the bass range“. The sour-

ce sounds are positioned precisely and stable

in the sound picture. The playback of vocals

is also natural and excellent. A slight mud-

dyness in the bass can be noticed, but it can

be corrected with the filters. The potential le-

vels are high for a nearfield monitor. It had to

be noticed though that the internal limiter

did not always react perfectly to overload,

which then led to noticable distortion in so-

me cases.

ConclusionWith the Mytho the great italian manufactu-

rer RCF is now entering the market for stu-

dio monitors with an initial offering of two

models. The huge experience of 60 years of

developing speakers and electronics were

brought into the design, which directly led to

a highly professional product. The Mytho 6

delivered for our tests delivered excellent re-

sults in every aspect from frequency respon-

se to maximum levels and directivity. The lis-

tening impression was also a very pleasing

and matched the lab test. The only criticism

could be the lack of a digital audio input. The

package is available at a price of € 2,098

per pair, which is a very reasonable pricing

for such a well-equipped high-quality moni-

tor in international comparison.

Text and lab tests:Anselm Goertz

Translation:Alex Merck

Fotos: Dieter Storck

Frequency range:

42 Hz – 22.8 kHz (-6 dB)Peak-to-valley difference:

3.45 dB (100 Hz to 10 kHz)Horizontal opening:118 degrees(-6 dB Iso 1 kHz to 10 kHz)Horizontal standard deviation:

18 degrees (-6 dB Iso 1 kHz to 10 kHz)Vertical opening:96 degrees(-6 dB Iso 1 kHz to 10 kHz)Vertical standard deviation:

25 degrees(-6 dB Iso 1 kHz to 10 kHz)Maximum usable level:105.2 dB(3% THD 100 Hz to 10 kHz)Bass useability: 98.8 dB(10% THD 50 Hz to 100 Hz)Deviation within pair:0.5 dB(maximum value between 100 Hz and10 kHz)Noise level (A-weighted): 28.7 dBA(at a distance of 10 cm)Magnetic screening:noSize:265 x 370 x 250 mm (WxHxD)Weight:10.5 kgPrice per pair:app. € 2.098,--

Overview

Pict.1: Frequency response on axis at a distan-ce of 2 m unsmoothed (red) or smoothed with1/3 octave (blue) as well as the correspondingphase response in green. Individual frequencyresponse curves of tweeter and woofer aredrawn in orange colour.

Pict.2: Maximum level at a distance of 1 m at amaximum of 3% THD (blue) and 10% THD(red). The 10% curve was only measured to300 Hz.

Pict.3: Spectrogram with decay pattern of thespeaker showing few small resonances in themidrange

Pict.4: Horizontal dispersion pattern with -6dB isobarics (from yellow to light green)

Pict.5: Vertical dispersion pattern with -6 dBisobarics

Pict.6: Filter functions of the Mytho 6. Blue:treble tilt, green: desktop-control (145 Hzbell) and linear power response (1 kHz bel),red: bass tilt, orange: bass rolloff and 80 Hzhighpass filter, black: woofer and HF speakerindividually

_ _ _ y _ g y

/ColorImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict > /JPEG2000ColorImageDict > /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages true /GrayImageMinResolution 150 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Average /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages false /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict > /GrayImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict > /JPEG2000GrayImageDict > /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages true /MonoImageMinResolution 1200 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Average /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.50000 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /FlateEncode /MonoImageDict > /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly true /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile (None) /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName (http://www.color.org) /PDFXTrapped /Unknown

/SyntheticBoldness 1.000000 /Description >>> setdistillerparams> setpagedevice