Полочная акустика — Gauder Akustik BERLINA RC 3 MK III

The BERLINA RC 3 MK III is the only stand-mount design in the Berlina line, the top range of Gauder Akustik, whose larger members are the three-way RC 7 MK III with a triple 7 inch bass system, the four-way modular RC 11 MK III at 202 cm and 230 kg, and the Berlina Center Grande MK III. Company founder Roland Gauder holds a PhD in physics from the University of Stuttgart and headed hi-fi design at Isophon from 1989, split the high-end department off as his own firm in 1997 and renamed the brand Gauder Akustik in 2012. The first RC 3 sold in the UK for GBP 7,290 around 2016.

Key specs that matter

Gauder lists the MK III as a closed two-way monitor with a nominal impedance of 4 ohm and a power handling figure of 120 W. It stands 43 cm tall, 23 cm wide and 33 cm deep and weighs 16 kg. Drive units are Berlina-XPulse bass and midrange cones paired with an aluminium tweeter that can be upgraded to beryllium. The cabinet is lacquered in piano high-gloss black or white, while the thin spacer ribs between the cabinet layers can be ordered in black, white, silver or gold. Sensitivity and frequency range are not stated by the maker.

Engineering and use context

RC stands for Rib Construction. The cabinet is built from individual ribs of 40 mm MDF, cut to the teardrop outline, stacked and screwed together, with soft fibre layers between them so the slices do not touch and panel resonance is suppressed. The crossover is symmetrical, with filter slopes steeper than 50 dB per octave to keep the overlap between the two drivers small. Time Delay Control, built into the network, holds back the tweeter signal by the amount of electrical delay created in the crossover so that both units radiate at the same moment. Bass level can be set to minus 1.5 dB, linear or plus 1.5 dB at the Berlina Terminal. Internal parts come from Mundorf, Intertechnik, WBT and Clearwater, and input is through WBT NextGen bi-wiring posts. The original RC 3 took a different route, with a custom Accuton 7 inch ceramic bass and midrange unit, a 1 inch Accuton ceramic tweeter crossing over at 3.4 kHz, a 6 litre sealed volume formed by 13 ribs and a baffle stiffened with thin stone layers, and its optional diamond tweeter added GBP 4,690.

Pairing

A sealed low-impedance two-way of this kind is best matched with a transistor power amplifier that keeps its output current up into a low load. With two pairs of posts, owners can run bi-wired cable or feed the treble and bass sections from separate amplifier channels.

Alternatives

The Gauder Akustik CAPELLO 40 is a lighter closed stand-mount model from the brand at 39 cm tall and 10 kg.