# Elemental Designs 13av.2 Review



## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

Well after having this thing for quite a while, I think I’ve finally got enough listening time in on it to make an intelligent review. I would have actually preferred a bit longer but some s.o.b. decided it would be a good idea to shoot my window out with a pellet gun, so the car is at home for the time being until I figure out a better parking solution here at school.

First, the setup. Car is a 2000 BMW M Coupe, so a hatch. The sub is in a 1.3 cf sealed enclosure with a double baffled front, firing towards the side of the car. Power is coming from an ED nine.5 ( so about 600 watts ) and an Alpine 9855 headunit.

Before I get into how it sounds I’m going to state my first impressions on this thing. F*****g huge. Not quite new XXX huge, but that’s the last speaker that got this type of reaction out of me  Unfortunately the sheer size of this thing will probably make it difficult for a lot of people to implement it (I tried and failed in a 350z  ) but bass takes space right? It’s exactly what it was meant to be, one of the big ones 

When I started thinking about how I was going to go about this review, I decided I wouldn’t take the 'fitty slams on dis ****' approach (although I will have comments on how it handles rap later) I wanted to see what type of SQ you can get out of a speaker this large. Also, I’m not going to be directly comparing how it sounds to any other speakers, because that will most likely cause this thread to go down a path I don’t want it to take. I’d rather it remain a civil discussion on the product at hand. However, I will say that I have experience with the JL W7, both the old and new XXX, IdMax, and many other quality subwoofers, so my opinions on this speaker will not be from someone who is just hearing a decent subwoofer for the first time.

After a little tweaking I decided on a crossover point of around 60 hz, I was using the crossover on the nine.5 to do this, so the slope is 18db/oct. I am fortunate to have midbass by the metric ton, so a low crossover point is a luxury I can afford, but if you are not so fortunate, I can see it being crossed over a little higher, however the speaker is a bottom feeder and a reasonably strong midbass driver is a must if you want to implement it seamlessly into your system.

Now onto how it sounds. My listening to these cds was done over the last week I had with the car, after I had broken it in with a few days of normal listening. I began my trials with a couple of Audionutz Sq cds. My first choice, naturally, was their percussion disc. Let me start off by saying that the A created one of the most natural sounding bass drums I have ever heard in a car. A lot of subs have trouble producing the ‘depth’ that is present when you hear a bass drum live, but this speaker handled it exceptionally, which is why I’m mentioning it here. My overall feeling after listening to the percussion disc, was ****, I think I’m going to like this speaker.

Next CD I decided to check out was audionutz reference vocals cd, my thought process being, lets see how it handles some deep voices. I find this test to be pretty good at showing how well the substage integrates up front. What I discovered after playing through a couple of tracks was very very warm and natural bass. A recurring though I get when asking myself about the speaker is warm and smooth. Also, when trying to localize the sub, I never got the feeling of hmmm, there is a subwoofer 2 ft behind me. That may be more car/install related, I'm not sure, but I figured I would comment on it anyways.

Now, I'll comment on the low end I alluded to earlier. Since most music really doesn’t dig that deep, I decided to play around with some test tones to see how low can it go, and also how level it remained with a sweep from 10 to 60hz. First tone I decided to play around with was a 15hz sine wave. Popped it in, turned it up. Wow. Definitely some output. Kind of strange experiencing that low HT rumble in a car, but I can’t say I disliked it. Next up was a sweep from 10hz to 60hz, sounded pretty well balanced to me. When and if the ED guys ever get around to making a ht version of this sub, I think it is going to be absolutely ridiculous in a large ported box, tuned low.

Now on to dynamics, first thing I did here was adjust the bass level all the way up, and toss in Blue Berry Yum Yum by Ludacris. I’m not sure how it happened, but BBYY and the Av.2 seem to have been created with each other in mind. Even off the miniscule 600 watts the nine.5 produces, it was a tremendous amount of bass. I really want to experience it off a full 12 to 1500 watts to see what it can really do. But as long as were on the subject of output, the subwoofer doesn’t have to be turned up all the way to sound good nor does it have to be turned down a lot either. At both low, high, and anywhere in between the speaker keeps its composure and does very well.

Now onto some more random thoughts, I never experienced any of the big sub slop or boom that you might expect out of a package this large. Transients were handled exceptionally well too, another problem that generally plagues big speakers.

So, for my conclusion I’m going to summarize what I think of the subwoofer. It is not the loudest speaker in the world, nor is it the best sounding speaker in the world, I don't think it was meant to be either. But I must say it has an absolutely fantastic combination of output and sound quality and the fact that they have these things available for less than 300 dollars blows my mind. Highly recommended.

Any questions or clarifications needed, please ask.

-Dom


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## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

Some photos of the cone.


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## Lumadar (Sep 28, 2007)

Good review


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## CMR22 (Feb 10, 2007)

Yes, nice review. I don't get on icix but I have seen a handful of reviews posted on other forums recently. Is ED sending this sub around to different people to try out and then pass on to the next person? I noticed that in every review a photo of the basket and motor is not shown.


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## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

CMR22 said:


> Yes, nice review. I don't get on icix but I have seen a handful of reviews posted on other forums recently. Is ED sending this sub around to different people to try out and then pass on to the next person? I noticed that in every review a photo of the basket and motor is not shown.


Yes, they're being sent around to a few people. The basket on them is not the production version, so no point in showing pictures, since some people might get the wrong idea


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## JayBee (Oct 6, 2006)

The basket on the pieces that are bring reviewed are likely the ones that JL Audio didn't like, plus the protypes don't have the fit and finish that the production models will have. I don't think eD wanted any pics out until the production models started going through QC/shipping.


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## CMR22 (Feb 10, 2007)

Mr X said:


> Yes, they're being sent around to a few people. The basket on them is not the production version, so no point in showing pictures, since some people might get the wrong idea


Cool, thanks.


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## Rudeboy (Oct 16, 2005)

Enjoyed the review. Thought it was funny that you censored yourself.


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## JoeHemi57 (Mar 28, 2006)

probably has the cone area of a 10, way to much surround imo.


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## MiloX (May 22, 2005)

JoeHemi57 said:


> probably has the cone area of a 10, way to much surround imo.


When you consider that half the width of the surround would be included in a piston area calculation do you still think it has too much surround?


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## bassfromspace (Jun 28, 2016)

MiloX said:


> When you consider that half the width of the surround would be included in a piston area calculation do you still think it has too much surround?


Is it 1/2 or 1/3?

Can't remember which.


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## SQ_Bronco (Jul 31, 2005)

MiloX said:


> When you consider that half the width of the surround would be included in a piston area calculation do you still think it has too much surround?



It's only funny because eD kept the "13" prefix even on a sub that doesn't use the _"eu-fringe surround"... _ which was supposed to increase effective cone area by an inch by reducing the size of the surround. Or is this sub actually 13"?


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## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

SQ_Bronco said:


> It's only funny because eD kept the "13" prefix even on a sub that doesn't use the _"eu-fringe surround"... _ which was supposed to increase effective cone area by an inch by reducing the size of the surround. Or is this sub actually 13"?


Cutout Diameter: 12.00"
Outside Diameter: 13.00"


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## SQ_Bronco (Jul 31, 2005)

Mr X said:


> Cutout Diameter: 12.00"
> Outside Diameter: 13.00"


Ah, excellent 

I waited a long, long time to buy one of these... it's a shame it took so long to bring to market.


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## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

Nice review Dom, thanks. Did you listen to much rock with fast double bass? Or anything with a fast low bass line that would trip up subs??


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

It seems to have enough peak-to-peak travel


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## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

Haven't had much time for forums latley, but I thought I'd poke back in and update this thread with the production photos.


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## CMR22 (Feb 10, 2007)

I liked the basket design they "borrowed" from JL much better. That reminds me a little of the Earthquake HoleeS.


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## Mr X (Aug 27, 2007)

I think I prefer the looks of this one. My only complaint about the looks of it would be the new logo, but really, not that big of a deal.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

Are these shipping now ?

Anyone got one of these yet ?


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## Bassfanatic (Feb 1, 2011)

good review


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## Resonant (Mar 20, 2011)

Thanks for the review I miss the old school eD stuff might have to try out the newer models!


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## Gonadwarrior (Apr 29, 2011)

what a beastly looking driver!
thanks for the review


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