Ruby Skye, one of San Francisco’s premiere nightclubs, recently upgraded its DJ monitor rig with custom EAW loudspeakers powered by Powersoft K Series amplifiers with digital signal processing.
The owners tapped their long-time audio and video vendor JK Sound, also of San Francisco, to design and install the new system. “Ruby Skye is a very high profile DJ/Dance club that hosts famous DJs from all over the world,” explains Brad Katz, lead systems integrator for JK Sound. “It was extremely important that we put together the highest quality system available.”
Michael Lacina, JK Sound president, designed the system with Katz. They were initially drawn to EAWs QX566 loudspeakers but they were too big for the four-corner system planned for the DJ booth. After talking with EAW about smaller alternatives and finding nothing suitable, the EAW team created a scaled down version of the QX566 for the club, aptly named the RS66. The RS66 is loaded with one pair of 12-inch woofers instead of the two specified for the QX566.
“We coupled each pair of RS66s to an EAW SB528 dual 18-inch subwoofer for really driving low end. It sounds and looks fantastic,” adds Katz.“The EAW Focusing was another huge plus. It made the system sound like it consisted of high-end studio monitors – the DJs love it.”
JK Sound designed a four corner stock setup for the DJ monitor rig. The subs are mounted on rolling risers that match the 16-inch DJ riser. Katz designed custom pole mounted yoke brackets for each of the monitors in order to mount them to the top of the subs, which are outfitted with two pole mounts each. The setup is easily reconfigured or taken apart for removal from the stage.
When it came time to power the system, JK Sound turned to their favorite power amplifier company, Powersoft, for the solution. “Powersoft products are stable at 2 ohms and below,” adds Katz. “The power density they provide is incredible – there is nothing else like it. Using Powersoft was a no-brainer.”
The system was powered with K Series amplifiers equipped with the optional DSP+AESOP boards. The boards enable Powersoft’s state-of-the-art DSP circuitry, which includes Active DampingControlTM, LiveImpedanceTM Measurement, TruePowerTM Limiters and other unique features, in addition to providing Ethernet capability. “The Powersoft DSP also made it very easy to import and use the EAW greybox settings using the plug-in for ArmoniaTM software,” notes Katz. “The system sounded terrific with very little tweaking – it was really fantastic.”
Katz used three two-channel amplifiers with DSP to power the entire system. One K3, providing 2,600 watts per channel at 4 ohms, powers the subwoofers; one K6, with 3,600 watts per channel at 2 ohms, drives the low-end cone drivers; and one K2, supplying 1,950 watts per channel at 4 ohms, powers the mid/hi compression drivers.
The rack is located on stage left behind the DJ booth. Both the look and size of the rack was a consideration for the system, explains Katz. “Because the Powersoft amplifiers are only one rack unit, it was easy to keep the rack small and locate it discretely on the stage,” adds Katz. “Everything really came together extremely well for the new monitoring system – the clients are very happy and the DJs are extremely delighted with the new set-up.”
The three Powersoft amplifiers were rack mounted along with a Motion Labs two space Rac Pac distribution system loaded with two Edison Duplex 20A connectors on the front panel and four Neutrik 32A Powercon connectors on the back panel.
