Fun ELX Demo Today

[davef]

We have had so many people here for demo's lately, but this one today was fun.

This customer wanted to compare ELX Titan Towers to his Focal Aria 948, which originally sold for a bit over $6K for the pair.

The Aria's aren't even considered large towers, but they completely dwarfed the ELX.

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Anyone comparing these two speakers would easily make the assumption that the Aria's have much deeper and punchier bass and sound "bigger".

Well, this was absolutely not the case... Song after song, the owner of the Aria's stated the ELX sounded bigger and had deeper and punchier bass, and I absolutely agreed. In fact, my eyes played tricks on me several times such that I had to go and actually confirm which speaker pair was playing.

I will say, other than a slight sensitivity advantage in favor of the Aria (about 3dB), the ELX Titans trounced them.

Lugging those Focal's around was not fun (80+ pounds) but the owner is now planning to sell them and buy ELX Titans.

I continue to stand by my statement, there is no speaker out there at any price that I would not be comfortable with putting our ELX up against in a proper A/B comparison.

[curtis]

Wow! Excellent!

What kind of car did he bring the Focals in? Truck?

That is a lot of work for a comparison. I am glad his curiosity got him.

[davef]

Wow! Excellent!

What kind of car did he bring the Focals in? Truck?

That is a lot of work for a comparison. I am glad his curiosity got him.

It was an SUV, not sure what model but it seemed like the Focal's just barely fit. I too was surprised he brought them down. I would've liked to have run a full suite of NFS measurements on one, but after seeing the size and feeling the weight - I realized this old man might have put himself back in the ICU trying to get one of these positioned properly on the NFS

He was auditioning at our office for at least 3 hours, real nice guy. Not sure if he is a member of our forum, hopefully he is and he will make a post. This is the best part of what I do, I really enjoy meeting as many people as possible.

I think we have another demo this Thursday.

[curtis]

Demo'ing and listening is always enjoyable at Ascend!

I went to Santee on Saturday 5/13 for my youngest cousin's wedding, then came back up on Sunday, and was thinking about asking if you were going to be available for a visit.

Glad I didn't try. The traffic down was horrendous. I left Manhattan Beach at 11am and it took me three hours. Sunday morning at 9am wasn't so bad on the way back, but still A LOT of cars.

[msound]

Someone did a comparison with the same focal speaker against the v1 tower and preferred the towers. I'm definitely not surprised. I'm more interested in higher end Focal, TAD, PS Audio, Kef blade, Martin Logan's, magnapan, ....comparison

[msound]

Dave,

I'm very curious on what speaker did you personally put the ELX up with before it was finalize and released?

[davef]

Dave,

I'm very curious on what speaker did you personally put the ELX up with before it was finalize and released?

Many different models, and it is an ongoing process. However, I do not feel comfortable posting this publicly unless a consumer brings speakers down to our office to compare.

There are some comparisons to high end Revels (BE models) in a thread on ASR.

[davef]

Someone did a comparison with the same focal speaker against the v1 tower and preferred the towers. I'm definitely not surprised. I'm more interested in higher end Focal, TAD, PS Audio, Kef blade, Martin Logan's, magnapan, ....comparison

It was really more about a comparison in bass response, both punch and extension. We have had so many inquiries from consumers stating it isn't possible for our 6" LX woofers to compete with 8", 10" or even 12" woofers - not only do they compete, they surpass in most cases. And, not just the actual woofers, but the size of our ELX cabinet is so small compared to the competition. Most consumers simply can't comprehend the fact that these small towers can sound so huge and have such impressive bass.

[davef]

Demo'ing and listening is always enjoyable at Ascend!

I went to Santee on Saturday 5/13 for my youngest cousin's wedding, then came back up on Sunday, and was thinking about asking if you were going to be available for a visit.

Glad I didn't try. The traffic down was horrendous. I left Manhattan Beach at 11am and it took me three hours. Sunday morning at 9am wasn't so bad on the way back, but still A LOT of cars.

Yeah, traffic has been crazy lately! You know you are always welcome Curtis, next visit we need to get on the pickleball court!

[msound]

Many different models, and it is an ongoing process. However, I do not feel comfortable posting this publicly unless a consumer brings speakers down to our office to compare.

There are some comparisons to high end Revels (BE models) in a thread on ASR.

That is totally understandable! But can I ask what was the most expensive price speaker you compared to? Price question, not brand. Thanks Dave! My ELX upgrade kit is on order, but I already jump the gun and changed my signature.