C-Series Cinema · Reference

C12Ref

The reference position in V&Y's cinema speaker range. Commercial cinema driver technology — dual magnet, dual gap, dual 3-inch voice coils — in a domestic cabinet. For rooms that demand it.

Cinema 12

Name: Cinema 12 - V&Y Acoustics
SKU: C12
Price: 5214.43 USD
Availability: InStock

The reference position in V&Y’s cinema speaker range. Commercial cinema driver technology — dual magnet, dual gap, dual 3-inch voice coils — in a domestic cabinet. For rooms that demand it.

$5,214.43

worldwide shipping · duties included

60-day home trial · 10-year warranty · Hand-finished · Limited production · Direct to customer

Finishes

Obsidian - Piano Black

Chalk - Gloss White

Clear

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Description
Shipping & Delivery

Description

Two coaxial point sources in a single horizontal enclosure. The most acoustically demanding position in any cinema system — finally resolved.

80%
Of every film mix lives here

Dialogue. On-screen sound effects. The full sonic presence of every character and object in frame. The centre channel carries more acoustic information than the left, right, and all surround channels combined. A weak, compromised, or tonally mismatched centre channel does not reduce the system's performance — it collapses it. Every investment in the rest of the system depends on the centre performing at the same standard.

1
Source for all of it

The C10-C uses two coaxial transducers, each with its own LF driver and HF compression driver sharing the same acoustic axis. Every frequency emerges from a coherent point source — not a tweeter above a woofer, not a line array, not a conventional D'Appolito arrangement whose off-axis response degrades with seat position. Two identical point sources in a single horizontal enclosure, delivering the combined output and tonal continuity the centre position demands.

0°
Tonal offset from the mains

The C10-C uses the same 10HX240 coaxial transducer as the C10 main LCR speaker. Same driver geometry. Same crossover frequency. Same dispersion characteristic. Same tonal signature. When a sound effect pans from the left channel through centre to the right, there is no colouration at the handoff point — no timbral discontinuity, no brightness shift, no evidence of a speaker boundary. The phantom centre that mixing engineers carefully construct is preserved exactly as they built it.

Acoustic Architecture

Two chambers.
Two sources.
One centre.

The C10-C cabinet is divided internally into two fully isolated sealed chambers — one per driver. Each transducer operates in its own independent acoustic environment, loading at precisely the same sealed Qtc as the C10 single-driver speaker. There is no acoustic coupling between chambers, no resonance transfer across the divider, no compromise to the sealed alignment that gives the 10HX240 its controlled, accurate bass behaviour.

The two drivers are wired in parallel, presenting a nominal 4 Ohm load to the amplifier channel. Any quality multichannel processor amplifier handles this load without constraint — it is the standard operating impedance for professional cinema centre channel configurations.

Electrical Configuration

Wiring configuration

Parallel

Nominal impedance

4 Ohm

Minimum impedance

3.2 Ohm

Combined AES power

500 W

Combined program power

1,000 W

Vertical Dispersion Control

Point-source HF.
Every seat.
Every row.

In any horizontal dual-driver design, the spacing between drivers creates lobing — frequency-dependent interference in the vertical plane. This is not a problem unique to the C10-C; it is inherent to every centre channel speaker ever built with two separate low-frequency drivers.

The coaxial architecture mitigates this more completely than any conventional design. High-frequency reproduction — the region where lobing is audible and damaging — is handled entirely by each driver's individual compression driver, not by the woofer cone. The HF source point is at the centre of each driver independently. Listeners in higher or lower rows hear the same HF content from the same effective source geometry. What remains in the LF region, where two 10" cones interact in the vertical plane, is acoustic energy whose directivity is already broad — the lobing frequency is below the range where it affects intelligibility or tonal balance.

Lobing — The Engineering Reality

With 270mm centre-to-centre driver spacing, the first lobing null in the vertical plane occurs near 630 Hz. At this frequency and below, the combined radiation pattern is broad and relatively uniform — perceptually inaudible as a separate phenomenon. Above 1.7 kHz, the HF compression driver in each coaxial unit is the active radiator: a single point source per side, independent of the woofer geometry. The result is the most lobing-resistant horizontal centre channel architecture available in a passive speaker design.

Effective Combined Sensitivity

~99 dB

Two 96 dB drivers wired in parallel. Mutual acoustic coupling adds approximately 3 dB to the combined sensitivity figure. The C10-C arrives at the amplifier channel with the highest sensitivity of any speaker in the C-Series — requiring less amplifier power to achieve reference SPL than either the C8 or C10 single-driver models.

AES Combined

500W

Program Combined

1000W

Independent Chambers

2×

Nominal Impedance

4Ω

Technical specifications

Cinema 10 C

Per-driver specifications are identical to the C10. System specifications below reflect the combined dual-driver configuration as wired in the C10-C enclosure.

Per-Driver — LF Section

Driver diameter

10 inch / 250mm

AES power (each)

250 W

Sensitivity

96 dB / 1W / 1m

Impedance (each)

8 Ohm

Frequency range

65 – 4,000 Hz

Magnet system

Neodymium + Al demod. ring

Flux density

1.25 T

Voice coil

65 mm aluminium

Xmax (each)

7.37 mm

Resonance (Fs)

65 Hz

Per-Driver — HF Section

Driver type

Compression with integral horn

AES power (each)

30 W

Sensitivity

107 dB / 1W / 1m

Impedance (each)

8 Ohm

Frequency range

1,500 – 20,000 Hz

Dispersion angle

110 ° constant

Min. crossover freq.

1.7 kHz

Diaphragm

Ketone polymer annular

Magnet system

Neodymium ring

Flux density

1.85 T

System — Combined C10-C

Driver count

2 × 10HX240

Wiring

Parallel

Nominal impedance

4 Ohm

Minimum impedance

~3.2 Ohm

Combined AES power

500 W

Combined program power

1,000 W

Effective sensitivity

~99 dB / 1W / 1m

Acoustic loading

Dual sealed isolated chambers

Net vol. per chamber

~18 litres

Driver C-to-C spacing

~270 mm

Dimensions

Slim enough to disappear.
Substantial enough to matter.

The C8 cabinet is engineered to the minimum acoustic volume demanded by the driver's Thiele-Small parameters — no excess, no compromise. At 220mm depth it can mount flush to a wall, sit on a dedicated stand, or integrate into millwork without demanding significant projection into the room.

Width

580mm

Height

320mm

Depth

185mm

Net weight

24 kg / 52.9 lb

Internal configuration

Dual sealed independent chambers

Mounting

Wall bracket · Behind-screen · Floor stand

Integration & Setup

I

Amplifier Requirements

The C10-C presents a nominal 4 Ohm load. Any multichannel amplifier or integrated processor-amplifier rated for 4 Ohm operation on the centre channel is suitable. This includes all Trinnov Altitude-series processors with external amplification, StormAudio ISP units, Anthem AVM and MRX series, NAD, Arcam, and all professional cinema amplifiers. A single amplifier channel rated at 200–500W into 4 Ohm is sufficient for domestic reference listening levels in rooms up to 80 square metres.

II

Active Crossover Settings

In any active crossover system — Trinnov, StormAudio, Anthem ARC, Dirac Live — configure the C10-C centre channel with a high-pass filter at 80 Hz (24 dB/oct Linkwitz-Riley) and hand off bass management to the C-Series subwoofer. The 1.7 kHz minimum crossover is the HF section's lower limit; the processor's internal DSP handles this automatically. No external passive crossover component is required — the C10-C connects directly to the amplifier channel with standard speaker cable.

III

Screen Placement

For acoustic transparency screen installations, the C10-C mounts behind a perforated or woven screen fabric at the screen's acoustic centre height. The 620mm cabinet width is appropriate for screen widths from 2.5 to 5 metres. For larger screens, two C10-C units may be deployed in a centre channel array — an engineering consultation with V&Y is recommended for this configuration. For non-screen placements, the cabinet mounts below the screen with the acoustic centre at 0° vertical relative to the primary listening position.

IV

Tonal Matching with C10 Mains

Because the C10-C uses the identical 10HX240 transducer as the C10 left and right speakers, tonal matching across the front soundstage is inherent — not approximated. In Dirac Live, Trinnov Optimizer, or ARC Genesis measurements, the C10-C's in-room response will naturally align with the C10 mains with minimal correction required. This reduces the processing burden on the room correction system and preserves more of the uncorrected acoustic performance of each speaker.

The same commitment
behind every
speaker we build.

Every C10 is individually measured, hand-finished, and shipped with full documentation of its acoustic performance. V&Y's 10-year warranty covers every component — driver, crossover, cabinet, finish — for a decade of assured performance.

Home trial

60 days in your room

Return the C8 within 60 days of delivery for a full refund, no questions asked. We cover return shipping. You take no risk.

Warranty

Ten years. Transferable.

Full coverage on drivers, crossover components, cabinet, and finish. No registration required. Transferable to a second owner.

Support

AV Integration Support

Engineering consultation on crossover settings, active filter implementation, and system integration with Trinnov, StormAudio, and Anthem processors. Included.

Finish options

Five finishes. All hand-applied. All to specification.

Each finish is applied in controlled stages. Coats are flat-sanded between applications. Every surface is inspected under raking light before the next layer is added. The cabinet clears our facility only when it meets a written surface specification — not a visual judgment, a documented standard.

Obsidian

Piano Black

Chalk

Gloss White

Celestite

Metallic Silver

Midnight

Metallic Gunmetal

Custom RAL colours available on request for orders of two pairs or more. Lead time 8–10 weeks. Contact us to discuss.

Contact us to discuss.

The C-Series

Build Your System

The C10 is the core of any V&Y Cinema installation. Add C8s for surround and Atmos channels, a C10-C for dedicated centre, and a C-Series subwoofer. Every speaker in the system shares the same coaxial philosophy — seamless tonal continuity from screen to ceiling.