Epik Valor, eD a3-350 or eD a7S-450

[usp1]

Currently all three are roughly the same cost once shipping is included. I have a 17X20X8.5 room. One side of the room has almost no wall with openings to the kitchen/breakfast area and two storey foyer (open floor plans!). I want it to be very musical but do enjoy a heart pounding bass for movies as well (60-40 Music-HT split). I know not too many people have heard the a7s-450 yet but any help is greatly appreciated.

Currently have a swan sub10 which I got as a package deal when I bought my swan 5.1s and 4.1s. Nice and musical sub but clearly not loud enough or deep enough.

[mike c]

why not order the A5-350 before they increase price?

[usp1]

I know....just wasnt sure which one to order. Given the weights of these behemoths I dont want to have to return them.

[mike c]

since you have a pretty big room, I'd always vote for the ported subwoofer rather than the sealed subwoofers.

re: the A7S ... you're gonna need to add some EQ if you want some low end to go with that.

[usp1]

Thanls mike. I saw some graphs that chris S from eD posted on their forum comparing the a3-350 and the a7s and the a7s seemed to be capable of higher spls. I think the graph was with the higher powered amp for the a7s. Still debating...I will give them a call and see what they suggest between those two.

[mike c]

I'm dumbfounded by that graph as well, it looks like I am wrong with my thinking that the a5-350 can go louder. but I still believe that to have the same output down low (20+hz area), you're gonna need an EQ to boost the low end

but it is much more flexible in usage

[bobgpsr]

For that big of room, plus you really have to add in also the cubic feet of that kitchen/breakfast area & two storey foyer, you more likely would really need two 12" drivers ported and tuned to 20 Hz (since very little room gain) -- in order to get close to movie reference playback SPL levels. Something like two SVS PC 20-39 cylinder subs or better. IMHO. How about an eD A7-600 dual 12" driver ported sub?

[mike c]

for the best bang for the buck: I would still recommend the A5-350 while it is still 600 bucks (you have til the end of the year). if you need some more, add a second one.

[usp1]

Budget is the limiting factor here. ALready spent a bunch of money this year on the plasma and HT system so I have to be a bit budget conscious. I currently have a swan sub10 which has dual 10" drivers and a 200watt amp. It is a sealed sub and is quite musical and goes down to about 30 effortlessly...no output below 25. I dont know if I will be able to integrate that in the system in addition to the new sub I buy. I know that it is hard to integrate two subs let alone two dissimilar subs.

I am not sure two large cylinders are going to pass the WAF test. She has been very tolerant of my hobby so far and I might be able to push one more ugly sub through but two cylinders is pushing it too far.

I am going to try and find out from the eD guys if the a7s-450 is indeed that much better than the a3-350.

[mike c]

don't try to integrate dissimilar subs unless you can EQ with REW/BFD or at least watch the response change real time, because most of the time, it's detrimental.

try eD's online chat on their site, they're very helpful, and you can save your chat log for reference.

[usp1]

Thanks again mike.

[michaels]

Within the next week I'll receive the first production A7S-450 from eD. I had been debating room needs, output, and my own personal preferences before deciding. I am a 75/25 ht/music split guy, BUT I have always longed for a large sealed unit due to the responsiveness of a sealed sub and it's for this very reason I chose the A7S.

I also ordered the new, not yet released, eq/2 2 band parametric sub to eq the 14-22 range as well as smooth the top. I've some incredibly musical, but small bookshelf speakers that do a phenomenal job @ 75+hz, but I'll need this monster to come up to there.

Now I'm simply in eager anticipation mode.

michael

[usp1]

Michael,

Given the length of time it takes to get subs from eD, your sub will take too long to arrive for me to wait for a review before ordering.

[mike c]

i think michaels ordered a month ago for him to be able to get his unit "within next week"

my orders from eD should also ship next week. though it will take a month to arrive where I am.

[tcarcio]

Well I bought an A5-300 a few months back and I had it for about 3 months before it died. I called Alex at ED and he told me that they were having a problem with that set up, something to do with the amps not working correctly with the driver, he said they would upgrade me to the A5-350 but I would have to pay to ship the 300 back to them. I decided to do that and about a month and a half later I got the 350. Well needless to say I am not too happy because today the 350 died. The amp comes on and the green light is lit but there is no sound. I called and left a message for Alex to call me back on monday. Now don't get me wrong I am not bashing ED and they are very nice to me when I talk to them but I have never had this kind of trouble with a sub before. I really am dissapointed because now I will be without a sub again for who knows how long. I sold the DCM that I had for 8 years and I wish I didn't. Oh well I hope we can get this fixed for good this time.

[usp1]

tcarcio,
That's not very reassuring to hear. And they made you pay to ship back a defective product!
That must have cost a lot. ANyway hope things get resolved quickly for you.

[tcarcio]

Well they gave me the option of them just shipping me a new amp to replace the bad one but could not say the problem would not repeat itself. So I opted for the bigger sub even though with the shipping back to them it ended up costing at least as much to purchase the bigger sub if not a few bucks more. I was alright with that because I did not want to have a sub that might have a desiegn issue and have to go through the problem again. I didn't think I would be going through this again or I might have made a differant choice.

[warpdrive]

tcarcio wrote:

Well they gave me the option of them just shipping me a new amp to replace the bad one but could not say the problem would not repeat itself. So I opted for the bigger sub even though with the shipping back to them it ended up costing at least as much to purchase the bigger sub if not a few bucks more. I was alright with that because I did not want to have a sub that might have a desiegn issue and have to go through the problem again. I didn't think I would be going through this again or I might have made a differant choice.

I hope it works out for you. eD does seem to be a stand up company. I would say they should have absorbed some of the cost of shipping it back to them given the circumstances.

I have to admit that I've always weary of buying big things like subs and be an early adopter. eD hasn't been making home subs that long so things are likely to go wrong if you are part of the first adopters.

[tcarcio]

Well I will let you guy's know what happens. I watched the new Bourne movie today, it's just not the same without a complete system.

[tcarcio]

Well I talked to Alex today at ED and he was very apolagetic and said they would ship me out a new amp with return postage for the old one. He also is throwing in an ED shirt to go along with the apology. I hope this will take care of this problem.

[mike c]

pls update us tcarcio on how everything goes. I don't suppose you can take pics of the insides of the enclosure and amp

[tcarcio]

mike c wrote:

pls update us tcarcio on how everything goes. I don't suppose you can take pics of the insides of the enclosure and amp

I would but my camera is not working. I am going to get a new one soon. I might be able to borrow one and if I can I will post them.