Fulcrum Acoustics FA12

Jason Raboin

Sophomore
Apr 6, 2011
224
2
18
Northampton, MA
Rich and Dave from Fulcrum Acoustics were kind enough to lend me 6 of their FA12 monitors and two Crown Itech HD amps for my last tour. It was a bit of a leap of faith, as I had not used any of their products before, and generally am supplied L'acoustics or D&B wedges. That level of quality is what the act is used to. The FA12 didn't disappoint. They are scary accurate, get plenty loud without feeding back, and I didn't touch a graph or use any eq on them for the month I had them out. The FIR filter and tuning that these guys have done provides a depth that I have never heard in a wedge before, and have only heard on rare occasions in the best PA's like K1 or Q1.
At one of the shows I had the opportunity to A/B the FA12 with an L'acoustics 115FM, which is an older, discontinued coax monitor. Previously the 115FM were my favorite on the planet. All three of us listening picked the FA12. It doesn't go quite as low as the 15" wedge, but if you need more low, there is an FA15, though I would want to add a sub in situations that require more low end output than the FA12 provides.
Local crew commented every day on how light they are.

After the tour I returned them to Fulcrum, but have since decided to buy 4 of them with 2 Powersoft K2 amps.

The only negative I found is that they sound so good musicians ask you to turn up their mixes. Seriously. That's what happened. One musician asked for his whole mix turned up a bit. I asked him if he couldn't hear, and he replied that he could hear everything perfectly and that it sounded so good he just wanted to hear a little bit more of it all!