CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[ecrabb]

Register to remove this ad. It's free!

Guys,

Elemental Designs is an Iowa-based manufacturer of powered home theater subs, full-range speakers for HT and 2-channel, as well as mobile audio drivers and amplifiers. Last week, they had an open-house for some of us Iowa folks who are interested in HT and what they do. I went with my friend Chad and we got to talk shop with the people who run the business, see their operation and products, and take a look around a great Iowa-based HT business.

Here are the photos from the afternoon meet I just snapped with the iPhone. Enjoy.

2-channel listening room - AKA Ben's office with all his furniture MIA.


Here are some gorgeous rosewood monitors we got to see and hear at my meet last month. They sound as good as they look.




Some unfinished cabinets. The two smaller cabinets are custom and have removable front baffles. A customer wanted cabinets to be able to test different driver/crossover configurations, so they made a set of these cabinets with removable baffles. When he wants to test a new set of drivers, he gives eD the specs, and they cut and send a new set of baffles instead of having to construct all new cabinets.


They had another room set up with a plasma, their towers and center, and two A5-350's. It sounded really, really impressive. A couple of A5-350's are definitely my next HT upgrade and will definitely take my system up another notch. The old M&K's I have were good for their day, and don't sound bad with two of them, but they roll off pretty fast below 30hz and just don't have the output to match the rest of my system. A couple of A5-350's will definitely fix that problem!

The A6-6T6 towers and A6-6T6 MTM center sounded surprisingly good - amazingly good for the relatively low cost. They're not Paradigms or Atlantics or something, but they sound great considering just how inexpensive they are. If you're value-oriented and looking for a set of mains that don't cost a fortune, you should take a look at these.

Here's the big CNC router getting ready to cut some coasters for us. That's a 4x8 sheet of what eD calls "EFS" - environmentally friendly substrate. It's like MDF, but heavier and denser and without the formaldehyde-based binder. The router is surprisingly fast. It only took a couple of minutes to cut out half a dozen coasters, and half that was a tool change from a chamfering bit to a cutting bit. VERY COOL piece of equipment.


Closeup of the EFS after a Yankees logo and a few coasters are cut from it.


My personal party-favor coaster. Thanks, guys!!!


View from the "driver's seat" of the router. I want one.


Here's the insanely huge A7-900 in the paint booth with a coat of paint on it. This thing is massive. You don't get a sense of the scale from this photo - you need a frame of reference, like say...


...my friend Chad posing for the pic. This thing is huge. I'm a big guy, but this thing is big enough that my wife could literally stuff me into it to bury me - which coincidentally is exactly what would happen if I came home with one.


Here it is with a cell phone for scale. Nearly 450 pounds, dual 18" drivers, 1300w RMS amplifier, and run down to 16hz @ 110db in a typical HT. In my smallish room, at some frequencies, Ben said I could hit 130+ dB. Wow!


You should see the internal bracing in this thing. What an amazing piece. It's a little like looking at a Ferrari; I'll probably never have one, but it's really fun to look at.

Check it out:
http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?cPath=2_41&products_id=606

Thanks again and Happy New Year to Ben and everybody at Elemental Designs!

Happy New Year to everybody here, too!!!

Cheers,
SC

[greg_mitch]

Looks fun. I don't know if anyone is familiar with Craig Chase but he used to have a subwoofer ranking thread over at AVS and the A7-900 is still top of the list on there amongst just about any subwoofer you could think of.

Sounds like everyone had a good time...I wish I could have made it.

[Jester]

Does anyone have these subs? how good are they? I looked over the site and its reasonable priced, that is why I ask. I am also sure my wife would bury me in that thing as well

[Bucketfoot]

I have an A7S-450 (sealed 18") that I picked up used the day after Christmas and am loving it.

Their biggest drawback is the finish. While they are far from terrible, if it is going to be sitting out in a non-dedicated room (such as a family room) where appearance is of major importance I would consider looking elsewhere.

Otherwise they are definitely a bang for the buck leader for subs.

[ecrabb]

The eD guys brought a single A5-350 (ported 15", $650) over to my house for my meet. We disconnected one of my old M&K V-75 Mk II's (12" 75W sealed), and connected the A5-350 in its place. Immediately, I couldn't believe how much more deep, gut-hitting, wall-shaking bass the eD sub had. My old M&K's were great for their time, and for music are still excellent. But, for awesome HT LFE, the eD sub kicked ass. They have foam plugs you can insert in the ports to make them sound a little more musical like a sealed sub, too.

At their meet, they had two A5-350's set up in a listening room with a PS3 and plasma display. The bass was incredible. It was easily too much bass. I think some treatments and EQ would have made it sound better. Based on what I heard at my meet and at the eD meet, I'm going to sell the M&K's and replace them with a pair of A5-350's.

You're right about the "Odye" finish - it isn't anything to write home about. It's reminiscent of spray-in truck bed liner, but smoother. eD would be more than happy to custom-build anything you wanted out of any material you wanted, though. If you wanted a rosewood A7S-450, they'd build it for you. Of course, it would probably destroy most of the cost advantage the eD sub has over similar products.

Cheers,
SC

[MikeEby]

Thanks SC, the A5 - 350 Subwoofer looks like a perfect way to spend an economic simulates check, if we get one and keeping the money here in the US.

Do you think they would be interested in some type of a group buy?

Mike

[greg_mitch]

Awhile ago they said they would knock of $90 if you pick it up. Not sure what that would be now though.