TC Furlong Inc. was established in 1973. Six years later, in 1979, Meyer Sound Laboratories was founded. For over half of Meyer Sound’s lifespan, our companies have enjoyed a productive relationship, with Meyer becoming a trusted manufacturer partner, and one of the staple brands of our extensive rental inventory.
Based in Berkeley, California, Meyer Sound Laboratories has been pushing the envelope of loudspeaker design for over 40 years. Meyer Sound Labs are the holder of over 40 patents, including the now-ubiquitous trapezoidal loudspeaker cabinet, the self-powered loudspeaker, and more. Renowned for their culture of innovation, the quality and consistency of their products, and their excellent customer service and support, Meyer Sound is one of the select few elite loudspeaker manufacturers in operation today, and the only one that manufactures all their products in the USA.
TC Furlong Inc. has carried Meyer loudspeakers in rental inventory for over 20 years, starting with the UPA-1P in 1999. Since then, we’ve steadily added more Meyer products to our stable, and they have long been the featured loudspeaker brand in our Rentals and Live Events Departments. We have been early adopters of numerous Meyer products, including the MJF-212, MICA, ULTRA-X40, and many more.
We take pride not only in our large inventory of Meyer products, but in our deep institutional knowledge of those products. Our team has collective decades of experience in designing Meyer systems across all departments of the company. In addition to sales and dry hire rentals, we deploy Meyer systems of all scopes and sizes on the numerous live events that we staff each year. Whatever your unique needs, we have the right Meyer loudspeakers and the requisite know-how to design a great sounding PA.
Self-Powered Loudspeakers
For much of their history, Meyer’s focus has been on the development of self-powered loudspeakers. That is, loudspeakers with their amplifiers built into the enclosure. All of the products we’ll look at in this article are self-powered. Self-powered loudspeakers have several advantages over their conventionally powered counterparts. These include easier deployment due to the lack of amp racks and corresponding heavy speaker cable runs, more predictable operation, and better frequency and phase response, because all amplifier components are perfectly matched and calibrated with the loudspeaker’s drivers.
Line Arrays
If a line array best suits your needs, we currently carry two offerings from Meyer’s LEO family. LEOPARD is a versatile and powerful mid-sized line array option. Surprisingly light and compact for the power and headroom it offers, LEOPARD is an incredibly flexible option that’s equally at home in house of worship sanctuaries, ballrooms, and outdoor festival-style stages.
LINA is the most compact member of the LEO family of line array solutions, and is an excellent choice for smaller rooms where space to hang or stack a PA is at a premium. LINA arrays also work well as side fills in larger systems that are built around LEOPARD main hangs. Individual LINA boxes can even be used as frontfills or under-balcony fills.
LEOPARD and LINA can both be configured as ground-stacked or flown systems, and they pair excellently with the 900-LFC and 750-LFC low frequency control elements respectively. LEOPARD and LINA can both be operated in Native Mode, allowing for excellent performance in simple setups without the need for significant external signal processing.
Point Source
Our inventory includes a wide variety of Meyer point source loudspeakers. One of Meyer’s newest innovations is the ULTRA series. The successor to Meyer’s incredibly successful UPA loudspeakers, the ULTRA-X40 and ULTRA-X42 utilize much of the same technology seen in the LEO line array series. The result is a speaker that weighs less than 55 pounds – 20 pounds lighter than the UPA-1P – but delivers incredible SPL levels efficiently and with low distortion. The ULTRA-X20 is the latest introduction to ULTRA series, and packs the same innovations from its bigger brothers into an even more compact package. The ULTRA series features rotatable horns and a variety of rigging options (including an integral pole cup) for maximum flexibility.
Also available is the UPQ-1P for applications that require more output power than the ULTRA series. The 15” woofer in the UPQ delivers excellent low end extension, making it a great choice for the primary loudspeaker in many small to mid-sized rooms.
For smaller systems and a variety of fill applications, we carry many smaller point source Meyer loudspeakers, including the MM-4XP, UP-4Slim, UPJunior, UPJ-1P, and UPM-1P. Whether you need a tiny speaker to hide in some scenery for a theatrical show, or a discreet option to amplify a presentation in a conference room, we carry a Meyer product that will be a perfect solution.
Wedges
The dual 12” woofer MJF-212A is Meyer’s premier dedicated stage monitor. The MJF-212 far outperforms typical wedges with its flat phase response and excellent transient response. The MJF’s even 50° vertical x 50° horizontal coverage provides a comfortable “sweet spot” for performers to move around in, while minimizing bleed to other areas of the stage. We also carry the smaller UM-1P, which sports a single 12” woofer and a tweeter.
Subwoofers
The 900-LFC and 750-LFC are low frequency control elements from the LEO family of products. They pair well with LEOPARD and LINA respectively in ground-stacked or flown arrays. They also have the flexibility to be used in conjunction with many of Meyer’s point source options. The 750-LFC has an integral pole mount, making it an excellent companion for ULTRA series boxes for sleek “speakers on sticks” configurations.
If you need more low end power for your system, our stock also includes the dual 15” 600-HP, dual 18” 650-P, or dual 18” 700-HP. Finally, there’s the compact MM-10ACX, which complements smaller point source speakers like the UPM or UP-4Slim.
Slim System
Our Meyer Slim System package pairs together the ultra-compact UP-4Slim loudspeaker and MM-10ACX subwoofer. The speaker, subwoofer, mounting hardware, and cables are packaged together in a Pelican 1690 for easy portability, and the system can be set up in a matter of minutes. The Slim System is a great choice for speaking engagements in smaller rooms where a compact, discreet, but excellent sounding PA is required.
Bluehorn System
The Bluehorn System is the culmination of Meyer’s decades of loudspeaker design experience. Designed for full bandwidth monitoring with near-perfectly flat amplitude and phase response, Bluehorn represents a new paradigm for studio monitoring applications.
MAPP Software
MAPP is Meyer’s loudspeaker prediction and system design software.The most important factor for any system design software is accuracy; the designer needs confidence that the results predicted by the software will be matched by the performance of the system once it’s deployed. MAPP’s prediction accuracy has made it an essential piece of our system design process for many years. Earlier this year, Meyer released MAPP 3D, giving system designers an even more powerful tool to fully visualize and accurately predict the results of their work. MAPP is an invaluable tool that supports our company mantra: Better Audio By Design.
SIM 3 Audio Analysis Workstation
SIM, which stands for Source Independent Measurement, is another one of Meyer’s many patents. SIM 3 is an integrated hardware and software package that allows a skilled technician to measure the response of a sound system with exceptional speed and accuracy. Our SIM 3 package is an essential tool for tuning and optimizing a system once it’s deployed on a show site.
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to loudspeaker system design. That’s why we carry a wide variety of Meyer loudspeakers; their quality and consistency allow us to design excellent sounding systems for any application. Contact us today to begin designing the perfect system for your next show.
If you have questions about renting Meyer loudspeakers, or anything else in our huge rental inventory, get in touch with our Rental Team at rentals@tcfurlong.com or 847-367-9588.
We’re also a longstanding dealer for Meyer Sound, and all other major professional audio manufacturers. To request a purchase quote, email sales@tcfurlong.com or call 847-367-9588.
Our system design team has 50 years of combined experience, and is ready to help design a loudspeaker system for your venue. If you have questions about system design, or would like to schedule a free phone consultation, email align-design@tcfurlong.com.