Official Elemental Designs Subwoofer Thread - Page 498

this company blatenly stiffed people and robbed them...Iam sure matt knew of the problems...this is a joke and what irritated me the most is that I defended them earlier but did change my tune later...they took care of me and couple others as pawns for only to rip others off because we defended them...iam sure in hopes to rip more people off...I got dooped as well as mk, who is well respected in these forums got dooped as well! I would never buy anything from Matt should he ever get back into the av industry. Sorry for venting...wish I never posted anything positive about ed...I should of saw the writing on the wall as the complaints were coming in on this forum.

Wow, this is sucking worse by the day. I sent my broken amp in late June only to be pushed off continually until I run into this news

So I have a A5-350 with a big hole in the side now. Anyone know of a plate amp that fits that hole perfectly and is a good substitute?

I have met all of the eD guys personally, and I will say without a doubt that if Matt is ever in the audio industry again, I would strongly consider buying from him. Trust me when I say HE is a trustworthy soul. You can take that for what it's worth, but it's easy to judge someone based on limited online and phone interactions. I'm sure we can all agree that face to face interactions leave a much more lasting mark.

You can take that for it's worth, but it's how I feel.

Just because eD screwed people over doesn't mean everyone there knew and participated in these actions as well.

My A5-350's LT.500 amp was fixed/rebuilt by David (daveds50) last week.
I'm extremely happy now!

He did it so quick too, it was almost unbelieveable.
I just installed it this morning and life is complete again.


Wth all the negativity and pessimistic opinions and nuances in this thread, I'm really happy to report that there are still plenty of folks like David, who are sincerely willing to help us going through this situation.

This goes to show again, that this community exists because of its awesome members.


For those of you in the same situation as myself, with blown amp plate (or any other issues, needing repair), I highly recommend you to contact David. Folks, this gentleman is LEGIT. Make no mistake.

It sounds like eD invested in a tremendous amount of defective parts in the last couple of years. I would speculate that warranty replacements (amps especially) was destroying their bottom line and ate up all of the cash reserves and credit lines they had. Their reliance on subpar parts combined with their outstanding warranty policy equaled failed business.

agreed ! it seems he is a man of his word.... i just got a call from a trucking company here in Las Vegas, and they said that a pallet is ready for pickup.

it contains RMA amplifiers that were at eD. i am going there at around 3:00 PM PST this afternoon.

i am quite busy today, but i will try to get a list of names together of the owners of the RMA amps this evening, and post it here.

those of you that have contacted me already and said that you wanted your amp fixed if it is on the pallet, that is what i am going to start on after the list is posted.

while i have limited time tomorrow to work on them, and have prior commitments this weekend, i will be in full production mode on these on monday.

Perhaps you could post the RMA#'s? I'm pretty doubtful that mine is included in that group as I was told by Alex that it was in AZ for repairs, but remaining hopeful!

what i am going to do, is post the names. to claim the amp, you need to message me the RMA number associated with the name. that way, there wont be anyone trying to claim an amp that is not actually theirs.

i have heard that someone in AZ was sent amps after i refused to accept any after January. dont know, and cant confirm that. if it is true, obviously, whoever it is, is flaking out on you guys.

but then again, it seems whatever Alex has said in the recent past, is questionable...

It was paid through PayPal on 5/17/12....way past the 45 day dispute time. I talked to someone at ED several times and they kept telling me that they were recieving the parts to build the new drivers. Whomever I spoke to knew exactly what was going on.

btw, the $245 was for a 190v.2

Crossing my fingers that mine is on that pallet. The wife has already expressed her distane for the non functioning coffee table that has sat there lifeless for the last 20 months.

Looks like the ed website is now nothing more than a memory

the pallet is here ! it's been a tough afternoon... Matt and i agreed that i would pick it up at the trucking company, as for them to deliver it to my shop, would have cost significantly more. and Matt had enough trouble raising the money just to ship the pallet at the pickup rate.

so, i went and got it. i only have a Toyota Tacoma, and no forklift... when companies ship things to me, the truck always has a lift gate and pallet jack, so i never had to worry about it.

piece by piece, i unloaded the truck. my body says there were 38 bazillionmillion boxes on the pallet. i did not count them, but thats what my body says... im beat.

going to break for dinner right now, but will put a list of names together afterward. will post here later tonight.

by the way maxpower2078, your amp is here. your RMA number and name you gave me in a previous message match one of the boxes. you can rest now. but like i mentioned before, i *may* get limited time tomorrow, but will not be able to do anything this weekend due to prior commitments. most likely not much will be done till monday.

ok, 28 homeless RMA units. if you had an amp at eD and it is missing, see if your name is here:


A Hampton

M Truzzi

R Bvenrostro

J Morrison

M Bruno

B Feucht

J Devereux

L DesRoche

J Saler

J Carbone

J Jiang

M Gimbl

C Thornton

T Stout

R Holler

M Tracz

G Reyes

S Padilla

J Edel

A Smith

M Berkowski

D Jack

R Owens

D Henke

J Yee

M Humann

J Denton

A Estillore


first of all, i apologize if your last name is spelled wrong... but in reality, you should print better so other people can read what you wrote.

if your name is here, for security reasons to make sure someone does not try to claim something that is not theirs, private message me with:

1. your first and last name

2. city, state, and zip code of where you live

3. RMA number

4. do you want it fixed or not

these are all the RMA units i have... however, if you are not on the list, and are still missing an amp, i did receive some extra units that we can work something out with. they are LT200, LT300, and LT500.

also, if anyone here is on other forums and knows someone that this applies to, feel free to copy and post it on the other forum. they can either join this forum and message me ( preferred ), or e mail me at audiofix at cox.net ( < fix the e mail address before sending ) lets try to get everyone their amps back.

note: all i have is amps... i do not have RMA drivers, cabinets, etc, etc... only amps. i have no clue where anything else is.

PM incoming!

(and my printing is impeccable. )
Edited by MT_WRX - 9/13/12 at 11:05pm

Oops. stupid phone.

hey dave,

thx for helping all these people.

is there a particular part that is commonly defective with the LT/550? i have a friend with a bad amp; can you post a "How to" for those of us who may want to fix it ourselves?

thx. i'm handy with a soldering iron and can likely get the part / cap resistor, etc... online from mouser.com

If you don't find one, just fill the hole in (there is a picture on previous page or 2). You can insert binding posts to use an external amp. It wont be that hard, and you could find local help I am sure.

i could... however, it will have to wait until i have more time to write something up. it will be an extremely long post and i dont see it happening anytime soon.
LT550 and LT500 has 14 critical parts that potentially need to be replaced. some are a result of what gets strained when it blows up, some are what can blow up, and also, there are reliability modifications that should be done. there are also 4 diodes on top of that that should be replaced. one of your main problems, is going to be where to get a toroidial coil if it is needed. Mouser cant get it... however, you can re-wind it yourself if you get the magnetic wire. all in all, the most important part, is using high quality parts when replacing. that is most of the problem.

Dave has my amp, so I am going to go the route of fixing it.

Now to find the screws for the plate, I took this amp out over a year ago and not sure where they are now

A HUGE thanks to Dave for helping here, but lets also not forget Matt's efforts in getting these units to Dave to repair in the wake of everything else going on. As much as I was skeptical of how much 'help' he was going to be able to offer with everything else going on, he really came through in getting these out for repair.

As much as I could fixate on how badly Alex ****ed things up with both his dishonesty and his obvious lack of effort (likely due to the snowball of 'bad to worse' things happening with eD), it seems that for at least some, the situation is being resolved in the best way it could be.

Thank you Matt. Thank you Dave.

Dave repaired my blown LT500 in no time.
Folks, don't hesitate and take this chance to get yours fixed.
I'm a BSEE, work in tech industry, and I won't even dream of being able to fix the amp myself, not with the time and cost that David is offering.

Hello all I would like to give my condolences to all that had not gotten there moneys and or products , I guess I’m one of the lucky ones that got a good working a5-350s , but ED did put in a Bash 500 S digital fidelity amps that have heat sink fins sticking out in mine instead of the LT 500 so maybe the ones with a5-350s with non working LT amps or lost amps can do the same and put in a Bash 500 S amp .
Just a thought
Edited by flamingeye - 9/17/12 at 2:25pm

So, the last post on any thread by Matt was on 8/30/2012. The same day that ED closed shop. I have sent several emails and a message here to Matt and still no response even though he has been on here pretty much every day since 8/30/12 !!! I do realize that there are probably hundreds of customers that have emailed him but he could atleast update everyone on here......soooooo, now I am starting to wonder !!!!!!!

so eD is gone?
i almost bought an eD A5-350 ,ended up getting an outlaw EX1

I agree. He is super fast. He had my amp fixed and back to me in no time at all. Really helpful guy.

I was billed by ALEX for a part for my plate amp back in March 2012. I called him and emailed him and he said they were on it and then stopped returning my messages. They did however charge my card BEFORE shipping the product!! This company, aside from what you outsiders believe that have not personally owed their product, makes PIECE OF **** HORRIBLE quality stuff! I had one plate amp catch on FIRE!! Yes others on here have made reference to the same amps! Also, they offered an "upgrade" to a 550w amp which I was duped into. It's simply a plastic label glued to the smaller amp that FELL OFF when the bass was going. The sub was one piece of **** since day one. The replacement amp from day one caused me to believe the char broiled amp must've blown my sub in the process since it sounded horrible. After taking it to a local shop they determined that my NEW replacement amp was a piece of **** as well and my sub was still fine! They didn't even make these amps and they one offered their customers that bought the 550w amp a 300w replacement and no money back for the difference! Finally I decided on getting an external amp by Speakercraft and Alex simply offered me a plain plate with a speaker terminal on it so I could remove the second defective amp and seal the hole. I paid for it in March and never received it. I guess I'm out my $20!! That's ok. They are all out of their job and I'm glad because their products SUCKED and their customer service was even WORSE!! They DEFINITELY got what they deserved!!

Also, from reading on here it seems like there is one really bad apple that can spoil the lot. In this case I'm calling the apple out. ALEX. He charged my credit card for a part that never was made and never shipped. Worse off, he shipped me a defective replacement amp all fingered up and I've been dealing with him for over two years so no wonder they went under. BUT to be fair I'm reading on here how DAVE is helping people out and for that I applaud him. I don't know what position Alex was in, but if he didn't own the place he definitely should've been fired YEARS ago and then MAYBE the company would still be here. It definitely would've lasted longer. I planned to buy two more subs after he sent me my amp. I'm still waiting on my good replacement amp so obviously I never ordered the two subs! And now I'm sitting with two LT-550 amps that one is char broiled and one sounds like its blown even though the subwoofer sounds perfect running on a Bash amp on a test bench. Alex treated me like a jerk and I was the customer! Now I have a big huge box with a hole in it! Id be willing to part with two LT-550 amps. One has a charred part on it and the other one looks good but doesn't sound good, all for just a plain plate with a simple speaker terminal on it, even though I already paid for it!

I did drop by the Elemental Designs factory on Saturday to see what was going on with the location. The doors were not chained up, the sign out front was still very viable as was the name on the doors. On the front of the building near the road were 4 or 5 wooden pallets empty. In the back of the building were probably 100-130 empty pallets near the dumpster. They had all the windows covered with blinds, but the front doors did not have blinds. I did notice that the waiting room furniture was gone and the place appeared mostly empty from the last time I was there. In the middle of the room was a single chair and a small coffee table. There were many letters opened with documents laying on the table. I could not get close enough to see the addresses on these letters.

I got the impression that the place was pretty close to abandoned. All of the pictures / awards that eD had on the walls were pretty much gone. All the drivers / boxes / parts they usually had sitting around when I was there were all gone. The main desk in the front office was very clean with no computer monitor or Keyboard. My guess is the employees took what the could before that deadline date.

I am going to keep tabs to see if they have some chapter 11 type auction. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on another set of wood for an A7s-650. I could always finish it off using a dayton amp and JL W7s.

hey gormo66,

when you stopped by eD, amongst the stuff lying around you didn't find a plate amp cover with a slip mark PAID on it did you? LOL! I am HOT but not surprised by me paying for an not getting my part. Still trying to figure out now how to get a blank plate with a speaker terminal on it so I can hook this thing up to my Speakercraft external amp and be DONE with their crappy amps.

To ANYONE who can help, this is what I paid for and still desperately need!

Elemental Designs: Car Stereo, Home Speakers, Electronics

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Order Number: 36245
Detailed Invoice: https://www.edesignaudio.com/account_history_info.php?order_id=36245
Date Ordered: Friday 11 May, 2012

Lt/550 block plate and terminal cup

Products

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40 x Custom Sealed Enclosure (Custom Sealed) = $5.60

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Sub-Total: $5.60
United Parcel Service (1 x 0.8lbs) (Ground): $12.17
Total: $17.77

Delivery Address

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Tedd Hontz
336 Dunbar Lane
Fort Wayne, IN 46816
United States

To be honest, when I bought my last sub from them, a A7s-650 kit, I used a Dayton amp instead of any of their offerings. I did use the 13" drivers though. Knock on wood, I have not had any problems with their woofers. I have owned an A5-350 and an A7-350 in the past, both had their plate amps in it, and I never had any trouble with them either. I did have to wait on the grill for the 350 for several months, but that wasn't a huge concern with me.