Yorkville U15 15-Inch 3-Way Passive Speaker

Engineered for the serious pro audio user, the U15 is among the most advanced, most versatile and most efficient high-powered portable P.A. boxes available on the market today. The U15 is a radical loudspeaker cabinet design utilizing the patented Unity Summation Aperture Horn Technology invented by loudspeaker designer Tom Danley.

The U15 provides remarkably even high/mid frequency distribution from its 60° x 60° horn assembly. The combination of that conical, constant directivity horn, a 15" high power woofer and their unending attention to details, right down to the ideal trapezoidal cabinet design, has yielded an extremely versatile speaker. The U15's Unity horn combines a single 1-inch-throat (1.75" diaphragm) compression driver with three 5" ceramic magnet midrange drivers firing through time-aligned slots in the horn-wall. This seamlessly blends the mid and high frequencies while providing exceptional power capacity and clarity from 300Hz to 20kHz.

The U15 comes with a high-definition 3-way passive crossover featuring their exclusive PTC non-interruptive horn protection. However it can be easily bi-amplified by way of a switch on the rear jackplate, and using the optional UP15 Unity processor, designed specifically to optimize the sonic characteristics of the U15. The UP15 has been developed to ensure trouble free, "plug-and-play" operation and further offers a subwoofer output.

The compact and ultra efficient U15 is a trapezoidal shaped, 800 watt cabinet with a carefully chosen crossover point to seamlessly match the directivity characteristics of the conical horn to the neodymium woofer. With such a compact footprint and weight, the U15 easily finds its home as a FOH speaker, drum monitor, side fill, front or down fill or virtually any situation where a professional quality sound reinforcement system is required. The unparalleled sonic clarity and smooth frequency response also makes it great for music playback. With pre-recorded music the U15 has the hi-fidelity to put it on par with some of the best studio reference monitors. But unlike traditional studio reference monitors, the U15 is capable if putting out a very high-efficiency 1000-watts at 4ohms. The trapezoidal shape was designed with multi-box, tight pack arraying in mind.

Looking at a polar plot for a 3 box, tight-pack array one would notice how extremely well behaved it is. Furthermore, due to the nature of the conical horn, the polar pattern remains quite constant regardless of any vertical, or off-axis rotation put upon it. It acts the same on all vertical axis, making it ideal for use upright or on its' side, without the need to ever rotate the horn.

Ultra clear reproduction through the high-mid band with extremely linear frequency response is achieved using patented Unity horn technology.

Unity horn technology combines a single 1.75" diaphragm high frequency compression driver alongside three 5" ceramic magnet midrange drivers on a single, highly efficient conical horn. This combines high and mid frequency energy in a single 60° x 60° horn producing all content from 300Hz to 20kHz.

Patent holder Tom Danley explains it this way; "With a conical horn, one sees that at the compression driver exit, the expansion rate is very rapid at high frequency cutoff, and since the expansion rate acts as a high pass filter, the low frequency energy does not couple to the mouth. Move a few inches toward the mouth and one finds the expansion rate is much slower and suitable for low midrange, if only that was where the driver was. All one has to do is obtain a mid driver, suitable for efficient horn loading in that frequency band and find the point in the flare where the expansion rate is suitable for that frequency range and couple the sound in at that point. Because the compression driver and each mid driver are less than 1/4 wavelength apart, their output combines fully and coherently, something which cannot happen if the driver were further than about 1/3 wavelength apart.

In application, all four drivers mounted in a Unity horn measure and act like a single point source. The sound produced from the combined four drivers act like a single driver. Additional DSP (Digital Signal Processing) is not required to time align the mid and high frequencies as required in less innovative designs. This minimizes, if not eliminates phasing and lobing problems typically associated with standard multiple horn 3-way speaker cabinets.

Highly efficiency horn loading means the mid and high frequency drivers are conservatively driven, well below each components maximum power handling. As a result of efficient horn loading and high headroom, mid range harmonic distortion is typically much lower than that measured in most speakers at the same SPL, and far lower than any 2" compression driver could attain. Unlike other multi-driver, two or three way full range speaker systems, there is little self-interference between the various components at crossover and unlike conventional loudspeakers systems, the polar plots are free of lobes and large changes in directivity versus frequency.

The Unity technology takes advantage of the variable flare rate nature of a conical horn. By sectioning the horn according to the expansion rate, the horn can be divided into frequency bands and be loaded with suitable drivers mounted outside the acoustic path. The front-to-back spacing of the drivers on the horn exactly compensates for a drivers inherent "built-in" delays and the phase shift / delay introduced by the crossover. Polar measurements show that while there are four drivers loading the horn, acoustically they act as ONE source. Energy vs. Time measurements show ONE source. Acoustic phase measurements give no indication of where the crossover is, it in fact, looks and acts like one point source.

Extensive research and development using the latest in acoustical measurement and modeling software to ensure that all Unity Series cabinets function equally on their own or in tight pack cluster arrays.

To assist in rigging and flying of all cabinets, nine rigging/flying points are standard as follows on all Unity Series cabinets: 2 on top, 2 on the bottom, 2 on each side and a single pullback. All 9 flypoints feature threaded inserts for 3/8" ATM Eyebolts, the defacto standard for flying hardware due to their strength and durability, not to mention one of the highest load tolerances in the industry.

• 2000-watt 3-way full range loudspeaker (1000-watts program)
• Max SPL 131dB Peak (128dB Continuous)
• Unique 60° x 60° Unity horn assembly combines mid and high frequency drivers on conical horn.
• All four component drivers mounted in a Unity horn are mechanically time-aligned to measure and act like a single point source.
• No self-interference between individual loudspeaker components.
• Nine rigging points and internal standmount adapter allow for all possible mounting and flying configurations.
• 15mm 11-ply birch cabinet construction.
• U15 - black ozite (carpet) finish
• U15 processor settings
• Made in Canada

• System typethree-way passive loudspeakers
• Program power: 1000-watts (2000-watts peak)
• Biampable: yes
• Nominal impedance: 4 ohms
• Sensitivity: 98 dB @1Watt/1m
• Max SPL: 131dB peak (128dB continuous)
• Frequency response (Hz +/- 3dB): 50 - 20k
• Crossover frequency: 300 Hz / 1250 Hz
• Driver configuration: 15" / 3 x 5" / 1.75"
• HF drivers: 1.75" polyester
• HF impedance: 8 ohms
• HF horn: conical unity horn (1" throat)
• HF dispersion: 60 x 60 (°H x °V)
• HF protection: PTC
• MF drivers: 3 x 5" ceramic