RX9 Down Fire Model Specifications

Profile: 5 Degree Downward Fire Angle

Height:  3.125" / 2.125"

Width:  15"

Depth:  11"

Load Limit:  50 lbs

Recoil Stabilizer Specifications

The Recoil Stabilizer is a nearfield monitor platform that incorporates four different elements to create the whole. This includes: 

1.  Isolation foam:  High density open cell acoustic foam provides acoustic isolation to eliminate coupling between loudspeaker and shelf.  

2.  Steel platform:  Laser cut ¼” (6mm) steel platform adds the necessary stabilizing mass to rigidly hold the nearfield monitor in place.  

3.  Curved front panel:  Curved front panel eliminates standing waves and adds mass to the platform without increasing the footprint.  

4.  Retention pad:  Thin no-slip neoprene surface ecures the nearfield monitor to the top surface for maximum signal transfer.

Recoil Stabilizers are available in a variety of sizes and weights to coincide with various monitors being produced today.

Recoil – The New Problem

Think of a cannon firing. The power charge explodes propelling the projectile forward. As the projectile pushes forward the cannon recoils backwards to absorb the energy. This is exactly what is happening when you place your speakers on a soft spongy material: during a transient such as a sharp kick drum thump, the forward momentum of the speaker is dulled by the foam as the soft malleable substance allows the speaker to tilt backwards and recoil. This 'recoil' may be desirable when firing a cannon, but with a loudspeaker, the movement blurs the initial transient at the start of the wave, and the result is predictable: you lose clarity and detail. So instead of the bass resonating into the shelf causing low frequency disruption, it is now being lost via a thermodynamic transfer as the loudspeaker wiggles around on the foam. Essentially, you fix one problem while creating another.

Solving the problem entails decoupling the loudspeaker from the stand while providing a stable platform so that the loudspeaker fires accurately - as it was designed to do. You invested in high performance monitors… it only makes sense that you hear what paid for!

Recoils Stabilizers To The Rescue!

The Recoil Stabilizer begins with a high density isolation pad. Made from open cell acoustic foam, the isolation pad is sufficiently dense to hold the loudspeaker level while being soft and thick enough to provide the required isolation from the shelf or stand. We employ dark grey foam that is embedded with carbon to lessen the effects of oxidization and UV rays as a means to lengthen the foam’s life span.

Stabilizing the loudspeaker is achieved by introducing a heavy mass on top of the isolation pad. By significantly increasing the mass of the base platform, the loudspeaker's forward momentum is no longer sufficient to move the platform backwards. It is stabilized and the recoil is significantly reduced. If you think about it, this is exactly how a gyroscope works. Gyros are used in airplanes, ships and torpedoes to stabilize the navigational system so that the device stays on course. By rotating a heavy mass very quickly (like the earth around itself - around the sun) the centrifugal force retains the gyro's position relative to all axes. Since we need only control the effect from the speaker excursion on a single axis (front to back) we do not need a centrifugal force to steady the device. We can achieve stability with a simple, heavy steel platform that acts as the stabilizing mass.

The heavy platform is in turn, sandwiched between the isolation foam and a no-slip neoprene pad. The pad works double duty by providing the speaker with a comfortable place on which to sit while also working in sympathy with the bottom urethane foam and mass of the speaker to dampen the steel plate. To further reduce self-resonance, a curved front panel aids in the process by varying the impedance thus eliminating internal standing waves. This also adds more mass to the Recoil Stabilizer without increasing the size of the footprint.

The Benefits of proper Isolation

When the loudspeaker manufacturer designed your near field monitors, they painstakingly ensured that the speaker enclosure was both rigid and heavy so that the energy being produced is maximized. They likely tested the loudspeaker on a large heavy slab of granite to ensure the base was rigid so that the resonance from the loudspeaker could not transmit into the granite block.

And what do you do? You take your brand new near field monitors out of the box and put them on a stand, shelf, meter bridge, foam pad or bass trap. What happens? Simple: the loudspeaker was designed (tonally balanced) to sound right when placed on a solid, stable platform. By introducing variables that inevitably will resonate, not only have you gone away from the original sound that was intended, but you have introduced a tonal change in the form of resonance and phase. Let’s consider some of the more popular mounting options:

By minimizing ‘variables', the Recoil Stabilizer introduces a ‘constant' that will ultimately ensure that your recordings are more consistent and will translate better to other systems. This is all the more important as today, more and more engineers and producers are ‘mobile' and find themselves working in multiple studios. This in fact is what truly makes the Recoil Stabilizers so cool. And is why they have been adopted by the ‘who's who' of the recording industry.