Old thread but still shows up on RCF searches... so here goes.
I have been a QSC man for many years. I used to run a pair of QSC amps with a pair of JBL JRX125s (dual 15s for you younger guys) back in the passive days. Once most of the bugs were worked out of powered speakers I sold my old rig and went with QSC. My most recent system was a pair of K12.2s, a pair of K8.2s, and a pair of KS112 subs. I used the K12.2s for small-medium gigs and the 8.2s and subs for larger gigs. The sound was wonderful at all my gigs.
Recently we have been booking a lot of road trip travel weddings. We just did a 5,000 mile, 6 wedding and a COL trip, and were on the road for a month. The problem that presented itself was that some of the gigs were small-medium, and 2 of them were larger gigs. There is no way I could take 2 subs and 2 bagged 8.2s along with all the other stuff we needed to pack, so I made do with the pair of 12.2s. While we were on the road I did a lot of research and thought maybe the new JBL PRX Ones might solve my situation. I made lots of calls around each area we were in looking for a place to demo them. With no luck I continued to research and thought maybe the RCF Evox J8 might be 2nd best. I made 5 calls to the RCF U.S. office in Edison NJ and was impressed by the helpfulness and knowledge of Kyle there.
As luck would have it, while were in the Chicago area I found a store that had the PRX One, RCF J8, RCF Evox 8, and Evox 12, 3 Bose systems, 2 LD systems, and the Evolve 30 & 50. They also had a demo of my K12.2s, so I was able do a true head to head. I use Usher's "Yeah" for my sound checks so I used it for the following tests too. The 1st test was the K12.2 vs the RCF. That test lasted only a few seconds because it was immediately obvious that the RCF was destroying the K12.2. Next I did the RCF J8 vs the PRX One. They were pretty much head to head as far as sound quality right up until we got to full volume. The JBL was a tiny bit louder, but the RCF was amazingly crystal clear, while the JBL was sounding just a touch muddy. I never play that loud at a wedding anyway, but the JBL did not sound $600 better, and since I was going to buy a pair it certainly wasn't $1200 better. So eliminating the JBL, the RCF became my main test subject. Next up was the J8 vs the Evox 8. They have exactly the same speakers and amps in them but the Evox 8 has a wood sub cabinet. Surprisingly the engineering on the J8 gave it a better low end sound in spite being a plastic box. Against the Evox 12 the SPL is 2 dB higher, the bass a minimal amount stronger, but again not $3400 a pair better, plus 30 pounds heavier each. The head to head against all of the other systems reinforced my research and I ended up getting a pair of the RCF J8s. A few things I considered n my research on, and tests of the array systems:
-weight- The RCF system weighs just a few pounds more than my K12.2s and a lot less than a KS112 sub and a K8.2. Some of the systems were lighter, but they also felt like they were fragile compared to the RCF J8.
-portability- The RCF top stores inside the sub on the RCFs and it has the same exact footprint as a k12.2, except about 4" deeper
-ease of setup- I keep the pole assembled, I have the Speakon cables permanently attached to the poles and stored in a good padded tripod bag. Setup is 2 minutes each speaker. I was also concerned with the plastic in plastic column setups that the connections would eventually fail, or the bottoms of the pieces would crack or chip.
-SPL-The RCF J8 has an SPL of 128, which is much higher than most of the competing array systems. There were some huge differences at max volume.
-mixer- I already have some great mixers, so I didn't need that feature that some of the units had
-clarity at loud volume- This is where most of the competition melted away.
-price- I'm blessed with a very successful business, so price was not as important as all of the above. That being said I am a level headed buyer and don't throw away a few extra thousand dollars if I can't justify the benefit of doing so.
When I got home from my road trip I burned in my J8s for 24 for hours, then set up a KS112 with a K8.2 for the test. They were neck and neck right up until we hit max volume. The QSCs were really struggling to stay clear while the RCFs sounded just as clear as they did a lower volumes. The QSCs are now all sold. I actually brought in $1400 more than it cost me to replace them (happy dance). Tomorrow I do my 1st wedding with the new system and Tuesday we leave for the next 4,000 mile road trip.
Great sound is an opinion. This is just the opinion of a wedding DJ that has done somewhere between 2500 and 3,000 weddings. Special thanks to Steve (R.I.P.) for his YouTube video that created my interest in the RCF J8s!