AV123 ELT 525M 2.0 speaker kit review

Soundcards and Speakers 106 Page 6 of 9 Published by

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Listening tests

 

Listening tests

These speakers were allowed to burn in and settle for well over 8 days before serious listening tests. We also allowed them to adjust before high power was applied. They were examined in both near field and far field positions.
Music Testing -- System used:

  • Source: Xonar Essence ST w/ custom discrete opamps in 2 channel mode
  • Players used:
  • Winamp5 Pro V5.56
  • Foobar2000
  • Tracks used: FLAC Lossless and CD originals.

We tested many genres of music with the speakers to gauge their overall sonic signature.
Some speaker can sound great with a certain type of music and poor on others. We want to know exactly what this system is capable of.

Let's get to the good stuff

We also use many custom tracks for testing such as guitar solos and drum solos.
Some are personal tracks and others are readily available. Many speakers can just play the sound but we prefer speakers that help with the musical expression. Random music while writing the article and personal testing tracks to see how the system handles guitar or drums will not be noted.

Albums Tested

Velvet Revolver: Contraband -- Track: Fall to Pieces, Slither
This make a great test track because it is quite busy and layered and some speakers and phones just turn the imaging to mush. This system showed exceptional imaging and separation. Everything could be heard in the proper space and location in the mix.

Vocals floated in the middle as if you could touch the singer! The guitar off to the right
With impressive texturing and the drums and bass balanced out the sound. These speakers have impressive imaging using this class D amplifier. Quality of the sound was also easily noticed, the expression the artists tried to relay comes through. Instrument separation and clarity was all there. During busy passages of the song, the speakers wouldn't just mush and blend they allowed the tracks to come through as produced.


Lenny Kravitz - Momma Said -- Tracks, Always on the run, Stand by my Women
Again with the impressive wide imaging and bass response for Sat speakers! These speakers kick and punch really well for their size. Lenny voice floated in air between the speakers with good character and depth. Offering great growl and "throatiness" there is a great deal of power imparted from the source to the user. Great clarity with no blurring of the upper registers was noticed during testing. The representation in the songs is very wide across the dynamic range going from quiet passages to louder power section and the ELT 's followed along very nicely.


Nickleback, The Long Road, Dark Horse -- Tracks: Burn it to the Ground, Someday
These guys are great for testing as there music is busy layered with many textures and sonic detail. No matter how loud or quite the passages in these song became the ELT 's handled the tracks easily. Chad Kroger has the low gravel voice that can sound both grating and smooth depending on your monitors.
We decided to throw on Burn it to the ground with has very prominent bass which is used more like a lead guitar in the song. The ELT 's again imparted more bass then there size would allow you to believe. Not just the thump of the bass was heard but also the character of the bass guitar strings. We could also hear a great deal of "micro detail" that helps impart the size of the venue and makes reverb sound more realistic and lush.
The guitar distortion sounded bright and "tubey" without being shrill or being to edgy.
We also noted that added studio effect such as echo and reverb had strong tails, trailing off instead of dropping off. These monitors also have a very smooth, natural texture and character about them.



Robert Johnson: The Complete Recordings -- Tracks: Me and the Devil Blues (Take2), When You Got a Good Friend.
These tracks have become a mainstay of our test collection as Robert Johnson is a god for blues guitar but also the tracks- if you have ever heard them; are both very rough from a recording standpoint and musical from a listener point of view.

Theses tracks can help show any imperfections a system may have, they hiss and pop and they can be used to see how a system deals with "anomalies" and imperfect sound. If it just glosses over it or gives you the truth in the recording. We here at the Guru3D Audio Lab prefer the truth in the recording for better or worse. So let's see what Robert can tell us about these ELT 's.

Main vocals and sit full and expressive dead center. With many of these tracks Robert has a self accompaniment style using timing and small riffs. A great deal can be glossed over by unbalanced speakers, but the ELT 's seemed to allow this style to come through. The big double bass can be heard in the background without muddiness or "mushing" of the image.

Detail and clarity seem effortless, and there seems to be no straining in the heavier passages. Trebles seem to be produced quite clear with no smearing or harshness heard.
It is hard to keep your foot from tapping with this system on the test tracks.
The imperfections of the tracks were part of it without any glossing or hiding or roll-off of the higher frequencies. Indeed, these monitors seem to show you what you have for your quality of music.

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