How can this be?

zingo

I had never owned a decent powered subwoofer, so I thought it'd be fun to pick up a local Elemental Designs A3-300 for fun (it even came with a spare plate amp :cool:):

Driver Size - 12", Driver Excursion - 25.4mm (one way)
Frequency Response (+/-3dB) - 18-100Hz
Amplifier RMS Power - 300W, with level control
Cabinet Type Vented 4" Port, Shipping Weight - 86 lbs,
Internal Size - 2.40ft³, External Size - 4.16ft³
Width - 18.00", Height - 20.00", Depth - 22.0"
Crossover Frequencies - 35-180Hz, Phase adjustable 0-180
Inputs: Speaker level, RCA level, LFE

This thing is beasty in size and output which I was expecting, but I was not expecting it to best the bass on my SRS 2s. I used the high and low pass connections on my preamp to split the frequencies at 80Hz for the subwoofer, and the result was improved clarity and detail in bass response. My main test track for articulate bass is "Walkin' My Baby" by Livingston Taylor which opens with a stand-up bass. The best I've ever heard this reproduced was my old corner horns (in both imaging and detail), but this A3-300 is right up there producing a very clear and articulate stand-up bass. The SRS 2s by comparison produce a more hazy and sloppy sound and image for this same instrument, which was not what I expected from a ported subwoofer vs a passive radiator full range speaker. I have always felt that a full range speaker was superior to monitors and a subwoofer (with the same given frequency response) for integration and detail/articulation, but I'm now starting to doubt myself...

How can this be?

EndersShadow

Nice. I really enjoy my A2-300 I picked up off the forum.

I am wanting to drop a bomb in the new house and move to duals.

halo71

I never did really hear what happened to Elemental Designs...they go bankrupt?

codyc1ark

It's too bad that they did go away, because that is one serious driver. Nice score, enjoy!

zingo

Over the last six months we at Elemental Designs have been struggling due to a few key factors. You, our customers deserve the right to be aware of these issues. Under my leadership for the past two years Elemental Designs has lost a large share of its customer base in both the home and car audio markets. This is due to inefficiencies in large scale business management on my behalf. The mismanagement of in house production caused an increase in customer lead times while our goal was to decrease them. Key raw materials which go into almost all home audio products reached critical inventory levels due to inadequate reordering management. Without these raw products we did not have the availability to ship orders in the quoted time.

This mismanagement of inventory meant that we had a surplus of products that would only sell when heavily discounted and not enough inventory on the items customers demanded. This was a large issue with home audio amplifiers and raw drivers, causing long delays between order placement and shipping times. To fulfill orders quickly it required us to use vendors based in the US. The largest issue here became shrinking margins and order quantity decreasing over the past six months. To complicate things even more, we ran into many out of stock parts on components we did require. This lead to item stocking issues and with warranty replacement issues. Without the proper inventory levels, we relied on repairing faulty amplifiers instead of shipping out a new unit. All of this combined is what put us in the situation we are in today. We are putting the website in standby and are working on current individual open inquiries.

Because I cannot operate with such a large overhead with little inventory, and no staff, I have come to the conclusion that the doors at Elemental Designs will be closing by the end of Friday, August 31st, 2012.

Thanks,
Alex Lindeman
CEO - Elemental Designs

EndersShadow

codyc1ark wrote: »

It's too bad that they did go away, because that is one serious driver. Nice score, enjoy!

Yup, if I ever see another one nearby I plan to scoop it up in a heartbeat.

zingo

It is a serious subwoofer which I expected would be great for movies, but was blown away that it sounded better than the bottom end of my SRS 2s! The specs and build make the A3-300 a competitive copy of the SVS PB12-NSD, which also has very good reviews in the industry. The fact that this sub could bring a realism to a stand-up bass that the SRS 2s could not is still surprising me, and will require much more testing tonight...

motorstereo

Prepare to be crucified Jake for suggesting that adding a sub is an improvement on your 2s bass. I run a nice quality 18" sub with my 1.2tl's and I know what you speak of; it's the truth.

zingo

motorstereo wrote: »

Prepare to be crucified Jake for suggesting that adding a sub is an improvement on your 2s bass. I run a nice quality 18" sub with my 1.2tl's and I know what you speak of; it's the truth.

Not adding to, instead of... :eek: I know a high pass filter on the SRS 2s could be a funky with the passive radiator, but that's what testing is for.

teekay0007

This should be REALLY helpful for you...starting at post #7: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?158166-So...

stubby

motorstereo wrote: »

Prepare to be crucified Jake for suggesting that adding a sub is an improvement on your 2s bass. I run a nice quality 18" sub with my 1.2tl's and I know what you speak of; it's the truth.

Indeed. The angry mob torches are being lit right now.

Not all of us live in homes with perfect room arrangements, and that are conducive to the deep bass capabilities of our large SRS speakers. Sometimes well placed supplemental subs are necessary.

JPete

I run a tiny old Klipsch SW8 with my Monitor 10Bs and Model 11 RTAs. Definitely adds a bit of moral support, albeit, not much quality bass improvement overall. I take it that the purists feel that no sub is necessary in ideal conditions? Sorry, first time looking into this site.

zingo

Yup; after an hour of listening last night, the bass is much cleaner, tighter, and more detailed with the subwoofer on duty below 80Hz. There was also no integration issue about 80Hz which I also thought might happen. The bottom end of the SRS 2s seem muddy by comparison, and I played with many factors:

-spiked through the carpet onto the concrete slab in our basement
-upgraded to film caps and Larry's rings
-adjusted distance to back wall between 4" and 18"
-adjusted distance to side wall for left speaker

My next stop will be to borrow a pair of my buddies monitors and try the monitors with subwoofer vs full range SRS 2s. :question:

drumminman

zingo wrote: »

I used the high and low pass connections on my preamp to split the frequencies at 80Hz for the subwoofer, and the result was improved clarity and detail in bass response.

Have you tried running the SDA's full range and dialing in the sub? I've done this with several different pairs of speakers including my 2.3TL's, and found it to produce superior results.

Placement and power are two reasons the big SDA's may not produce satisfactory bass. While my 2.3TL's are being driven with plenty of clean power my room is less than ideal, hence the use of a sub.

Phasewolf

The issue a lot of full range speakers have is distortion at very low frequency. If you look at the tests on say a pair of Legacy Audio Focus We the distortion at 50hz is like .05 drop them to say 20hz and the story changes they shoot up too 10%

Must a thought but try the crossover set to 40hz that should keep the SDA in the low distortion range for the driver and allow for the sub to just handle the lowest range. Let me know what you think.

zingo

Thanks for the thoughts.

Power may be an issue as I'm only driving them with 200wpc, and that may not be enough to produce low distortion, even if it does product as much bass output as the separate subwoofer.