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Official Elemental Designs Subwoofer Thread - Page 501

post #15001 of 15215
9/19/12 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MarvelousMarvin View Post

So how do you know so much. You joined right at the time when ED was closing its doors. You seem to defend them everytime you can. You know more than anybody else over here. So what is your role in ED?

SPL152 was nothing more than a fan od eD ...and was active on the eD forum for years...and is a pretty decent guy.

On the other hand...show me a single post you have posted in the past few months that is not railing on eD.
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post #15002 of 15215
9/20/12 at 5:49am
For those that would like to discuss legal actions,(who's, what's, where's and why's) ED's closure and resolutions relative to the Iowa Att. Gen's office, please post in this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1423667/resolving-issues-with-elemental-designs

Let's try to keep this thread focused on fixing the physical product or discussing the product's performance etc. Amp repair, amp alternatives etc ...of course would fall into this thread.

I think this would benefit all parties, by dividing up the topic between these two threads.


thanks for your help and understanding

Ron
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post #15003 of 15215
9/20/12 at 6:44am
I asked this question a few pages back, but it probably got buried, so I am going to ask again.

I have two A7s-650 Kits and I am running each one 4 Ohm bridged on a Crown XTi 2002 amp.
Amp is setup bridged with no LPF/HPF.
LPF is done with my Integra DTC-9.8
Using 3 bands of EQ to help tame some of my bad peaks before Audyssey.
Finish with AudysseyXT.

Should I be running a HPF?
What frequency and slope would you recommend.

This is my first experience using external amps for subs, just want to make sure that I'm not missing something basic in my amp setup.

Thanks for any assistance.
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post #15004 of 15215
9/20/12 at 10:14am
I stumbled upon this thread after finding out ED went out of business. Now my current dillema is I have a Nine.1 Amp (paired to a 13aV.2 sub) that has recently gone bad. Is there any way to get an ED amplifier repaired? I don't mind paying for the repair; I think it's outside of the warranty period anyways. I've had the setup for 4 years now and it's been flawless until this week. Here's some details of the problems:


These are the symptoms with the ignition key 'Off':
- Amplifier power wire gets 12.9v when you unhook it from the
amplifier. When it's hooked up to the amplifier it gets 5v.
- The 4 30amp fuses on the amp all get 5v too, with the power wire connected.
- The speaker wire outputs all get 5v too, with the power wire connected.
- The remote wire gets 0v.

These are the symptoms with the ignition key turned 'On':
- Amplifier power wire gets 12.9v when you unhook it from the
amplifier. When it's hooked up to the amplifier it gets 2.8v.
- The speaker outputs all get 8v with the power wire connected.
- The remote turn on gets 12.9v when unhooked from the amplifier.
When it’s hooked up to the amplifier it gets 2.2v.

The amplifier has 4 30amp fuses on the side. When I pull all 4 30amp
fuses out the attached power wire gets 12.9v again. And each fuse
receptacle and each speaker output all get 12.9v with the power wire
disconnected. When I add just one of the fuses back in it goes back
to 5v. So it seems like the fuses getting plugged in trips the
voltage back down low. But the fuses all look brand new.

I also checked voltage before and after the main, inline 125amp fuse;
that gives 12.9v before and after the fuse. So the main fuse is good.

I'm at a loss of what to check next! Thanks guys.
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post #15005 of 15215
9/20/12 at 10:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by onecrazyfoo4u View Post

I stumbled upon this thread after finding out ED went out of business. Now my current dillema is I have a Nine.1 Amp (paired to a 13aV.2 sub) that has recently gone bad. Is there any way to get an ED amplifier repaired? I don't mind paying for the repair; I think it's outside of the warranty period anyways. I've had the setup for 4 years now and it's been flawless until this week. Here's some details of the problems:
These are the symptoms with the ignition key 'Off':
- Amplifier power wire gets 12.9v when you unhook it from the
amplifier. When it's hooked up to the amplifier it gets 5v.
- The 4 30amp fuses on the amp all get 5v too, with the power wire connected.
- The speaker wire outputs all get 5v too, with the power wire connected.
- The remote wire gets 0v.
These are the symptoms with the ignition key turned 'On':
- Amplifier power wire gets 12.9v when you unhook it from the
amplifier. When it's hooked up to the amplifier it gets 2.8v.
- The speaker outputs all get 8v with the power wire connected.
- The remote turn on gets 12.9v when unhooked from the amplifier.
When it’s hooked up to the amplifier it gets 2.2v.
The amplifier has 4 30amp fuses on the side. When I pull all 4 30amp
fuses out the attached power wire gets 12.9v again. And each fuse
receptacle and each speaker output all get 12.9v with the power wire
disconnected. When I add just one of the fuses back in it goes back
to 5v. So it seems like the fuses getting plugged in trips the
voltage back down low. But the fuses all look brand new.
I also checked voltage before and after the main, inline 125amp fuse;
that gives 12.9v before and after the fuse. So the main fuse is good.
I'm at a loss of what to check next! Thanks guys.

This isn't exactly the right place for this post, but I'll help you out. Either your fuse holder is bad, your fuse is bad, your battery connection is bad, your battery terminal is bad, or you've cut or have a short on your main power wire. The amp is most likely fine. the voltage drop cannot be caused by the amp.
Also possible that your ground isn't good.
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post #15006 of 15215
9/20/12 at 10:31am
Quote:
Originally Posted by spl152db View Post

This isn't exactly the right place for this post, but I'll help you out. Either your fuse holder is bad, your fuse is bad, your battery connection is bad, your battery terminal is bad, or you've cut or have a short on your main power wire. The amp is most likely fine. the voltage drop cannot be caused by the amp.
Also possible that your ground isn't good.

^ agreed. however, i have seen a voltage drop when an amps power supply FET's are shorted... but then again, they had way too high of a fuse value on the power cable. what fuse value is on your power cable by your battery ? if it is the correct value, and if the amp power supply is blown up, then, the fuse would pop... unless it is just a bad connection somewhere like spl suggests. ( very likely )
if the amp is bad, you are not out of luck... my business is actually based on car audio. i only started home audio repair 8 years ago. i did quite a few car amps for eD last year.
Edited by daveds50 - 9/20/12 at 10:48am
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post #15007 of 15215
9/20/12 at 10:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mfmathis75 View Post

Does anyone that has an LT500, or even any other eD amps without a bypass switch to select "auto on" feature know if there is a way to set the amp to be "always on" instead of auto turn on?

just to give a little history to everyone, he got a LT500 upgrade from me when his LT550 turned out to have a bad transformer ( that nobody can get ). the 500 has auto turn on/off. the 550 has a auto turn on/off bypass switch to make it so you have to manually turn it on and off.

the problem, is on really low listening levels, the signal is not strong enough to prevent the LT500 from going to auto off. i had the same problem with my non eD subwoofer. ( low end Klipsch )

my solution for my system, was to turn the subwoofer level on my receiver up, and compensate by turning the volume on my plate amp down. effectively sending a stronger signal to the plate amp, but the resulting volume from the sub is the same as before. it never automatically turns off since i did that, even at super low volumes.

but, he does not want to do that. anyone got any suggestions ?

when i get time, i will look into circuit modification... but that may take a week or two.
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post #15008 of 15215
9/20/12 at 11:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveds50 View Post

just to give a little history to everyone, he got a LT500 upgrade from me when his LT550 turned out to have a bad transformer ( that nobody can get ). the 500 has auto turn on/off. the 550 has a auto turn on/off bypass switch to make it so you have to manually turn it on and off.
the problem, is on really low listening levels, the signal is not strong enough to prevent the LT500 from going to auto off. i had the same problem with my non eD subwoofer. ( low end Klipsch )
my solution for my system, was to turn the subwoofer level on my receiver up, and compensate by turning the volume on my plate amp down. effectively sending a stronger signal to the plate amp, but the resulting volume from the sub is the same as before. it never automatically turns off since i did that, even at super low volumes.
but, he does not want to do that. anyone got any suggestions ?
when i get time, i will look into circuit modification... but that may take a week or two.

That was always my suggestion as well.
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post #15009 of 15215
9/20/12 at 11:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by spl152db View Post

This isn't exactly the right place for this post, but I'll help you out. Either your fuse holder is bad, your fuse is bad, your battery connection is bad, your battery terminal is bad, or you've cut or have a short on your main power wire. The amp is most likely fine. the voltage drop cannot be caused by the amp.
Also possible that your ground isn't good.

Quote:
Originally Posted by daveds50 View Post

^ agreed. however, i have seen a voltage drop when an amps power supply FET's are shorted... but then again, they had way too high of a fuse value on the power cable. what fuse value is on your power cable by your battery ? if it is the correct value, and if the amp power supply is blown up, then, the fuse would pop... unless it is just a bad connection somewhere like spl suggests. ( very likely )
if the amp is bad, you are not out of luck... my business is actually based on car audio. i only started home audio repair 8 years ago. i did quite a few car amps for eD last year.


I don't understand how the power line or main fuse could be bad though? I checked voltage at the battery, before the main 125amp fuse, after the 125amp fuse, and at the amplifier (with the 4gauge power line disconnected)...they all registered 12.9v with the key On and Off. Wouldn't I see a voltage drop somewhere along the line if there was a problem with the battery, 125amp fuse, or power line? Can I check something else with the power line/fuse like Ohms or Current? Thanks for the replies!
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post #15010 of 15215
9/20/12 at 11:51am
Quote:
Originally Posted by onecrazyfoo4u View Post

I don't understand how the power line or main fuse could be bad though? I checked voltage at the battery, before the main 125amp fuse, after the 125amp fuse, and at the amplifier (with the 4gauge power line disconnected)...they all registered 12.9v with the key On and Off. Wouldn't I see a voltage drop somewhere along the line if there was a problem with the battery, 125amp fuse, or power line? Can I check something else with the power line/fuse like Ohms or Current? Thanks for the replies!

if there is an iffy connection, it can be good enough to read a voltage with no current draw. once a current draw happens, as in connecting the amp, then the resistance of that iffy connection will drop the voltage.

i see you have a meter... thats good. with the amp completely disconnected, put the meter on ohms, and measure between the power pos and neg terminals on the amp. tell me what reading you get.
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post #15011 of 15215
9/20/12 at 11:53am
What I would do is pull the power cable out of the fuse holder, check for corrosion, put it back in and make sure every connection is clean and tight. Battery should also be clean and clamped properly. If you can pull the wire out of any of the terminals or clamps then you don't have a good connection.
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post #15012 of 15215
9/20/12 at 6:58pm
Well, for ONCE my procrastination paid off! I had an RMA for my LT1300 amp (A7-900 sub) but hadn't gotten around to shipping it to eD. So glad that I didn't. When I couldn't pull up their website, I started poking around. I am MOST grateful that Dave is posting here, so I have pm'd him directly to arrange for repair.

As far as eD as a company, Chris was VERY involved years ago when I began buying eD gear. I have a lot of their car and home audio subs, and some early HT speakers. The home theater speakers are crap (I have the first generation 'tower' speakers, okay for use down in the garage now), but I like the sub drivers, and of course the A7-900 BEAST sub is awesome. I just finished a sealed 16Ov.2 for my SUV (very good sound) and put another one in a ported 5.5 cu-ft box for a home theater sub (also works well). Finally, I will say that Alex came across as full of 'stuff' more than once, and I got a bit of run around with the sub amp while discussing it on the phone (a few months ago). Oh well....
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post #15013 of 15215
9/21/12 at 5:58am
Tedhontz:

Please read post #15012. If you chose to repost the information in that thread...please (as others have also suggested) do so in paragraph form.
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post #15014 of 15215
9/21/12 at 7:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by MTBDOC View Post

Well, for ONCE my procrastination paid off! I had an RMA for my LT1300 amp (A7-900 sub) but hadn't gotten around to shipping it to eD. So glad that I didn't. When I couldn't pull up their website, I started poking around. I am MOST grateful that Dave is posting here, so I have pm'd him directly to arrange for repair.

PM replied.

you guys with 1300's can actually get lucky. yes, the whole amp weighs a lot... like 65 lbs or around there, but i can guide you through a troubleshooting process to determine if the problem is in the preamp/power supply section, or if it is in the Bang and Olufsen ICE module.

if it is the B&O module, then you only have to send me a small 1 lb package. sure saves on shipping costs. i do have a 1300 test setup that i test and burn in the B&O modules, so shipping a 65+ lb package is unnecessary.

unfortunately, the parts in that B&O module are insanely expensive, and the repair could be $80 to $100.

those 1300's are one of my personal favorites. i like it better than a whole lot of amps from other companies that i work on. the odd thing is that there are a lot of other companies that use the same exact B&O module, but i like the 1300 better.
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post #15015 of 15215
9/21/12 at 2:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveds50 View Post

PM replied.
you guys with 1300's can actually get lucky. yes, the whole amp weighs a lot... like 65 lbs or around there, but i can guide you through a troubleshooting process to determine if the problem is in the preamp/power supply section, or if it is in the Bang and Olufsen ICE module.
if it is the B&O module, then you only have to send me a small 1 lb package. sure saves on shipping costs. i do have a 1300 test setup that i test and burn in the B&O modules, so shipping a 65+ lb package is unnecessary.
unfortunately, the parts in that B&O module are insanely expensive, and the repair could be $80 to $100.
those 1300's are one of my personal favorites. i like it better than a whole lot of amps from other companies that i work on. the odd thing is that there are a lot of other companies that use the same exact B&O module, but i like the 1300 better.

i have owned my 1300 for about 6 or 7 years and it is my favorite sub amp ever. I had a Buttkicker and a crown before that and this one IMO beats both of them handily in every way. And like you said, weighs 3 times as much as them too.smile.gif

Was wondering if there was anything sense in preemptively sending the amp in to have it inspected and maybe parts replaced to prolong its life.? It has have zero problems over the years...and i hope to get another 10 years or so out of it.
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post #15016 of 15215
9/22/12 at 12:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tundrSQ View Post


Was wondering if there was anything sense in preemptively sending the amp in to have it inspected and maybe parts replaced to prolong its life.? It has have zero problems over the years...and i hope to get another 10 years or so out of it.

i would not... likely it is going to last for quite some time anyway as long as it is not abused.
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post #15017 of 15215
9/22/12 at 4:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by daveds50 View Post

i would not... likely it is going to last for quite some time anyway as long as it is not abused.

Nope...i am the only owner and it barely breaks a sweat...just checking...thanks!!
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post #15018 of 15215
9/22/12 at 5:35pm
Thanks Dave & Matt !!

I had completely lost hope in getting my LT.500 amp back from eD RMA. I've been without a sub for almost a year now. If it wasn't for the extra effort both of y'all put in, I'd be several hundred dollars into another plate amp that wouldn't fit or work as well as the the original. (It broke last October, but since I'm in the military, I wasn't able to troubleshoot and send in the amp until May).

The little amount that you charged to fix it was WELL worth it. Thanks a million guys. After finding this post on Monday, Dave was a beast...he fixed the amp and shipped it back to me within 5 days time. I received it Saturday and have enjoyed Transformers and Lord of the Rings already.

I don't see why people are complaining about what you are doing...keep up the awesome work.
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post #15019 of 15215
9/24/12 at 8:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joel Devereux View Post

Thanks Dave & Matt !!
I had completely lost hope in getting my LT.500 amp back from eD RMA. I've been without a sub for almost a year now. If it wasn't for the extra effort both of y'all put in, I'd be several hundred dollars into another plate amp that wouldn't fit or work as well as the the original. (It broke last October, but since I'm in the military, I wasn't able to troubleshoot and send in the amp until May).
The little amount that you charged to fix it was WELL worth it. Thanks a million guys. After finding this post on Monday, Dave was a beast...he fixed the amp and shipped it back to me within 5 days time. I received it Saturday and have enjoyed Transformers and Lord of the Rings already.
I don't see why people are complaining about what you are doing...keep up the awesome work.

I am in a similar situation. The amp broke about 2 years ago but just never got around to trouble shooting and then when I finally got a hold of them and through several more weeks of trouble shooting and finally sending it in in June, well.... this stuff happens.

Thanks to Dave and Matt but I just wish I would have known all this before.
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post #15020 of 15215
9/24/12 at 5:41pm
Well, I just received a letter from the Iowa Attorney Generals Office.

To sum up the letter.....

My complaint has been filed with the Consumer Protection Division. They will be contacting ED and asking them for a written response to my complaint and including an explanation of what actions they propose to take.

So, I guess I am playing the waiting game now as the letter read that it could take 4 to 6 weeks to get a response.

This is all I have to update for now.
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post #15021 of 15215
9/25/12 at 5:31pm
Just wanted to say daveds50 is a class act.

Repaired my fried LT550 in just a few hours, and it's ready to ship back to me.

People with amp problems, don't hesitate to use Dave...
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post #15022 of 15215
9/25/12 at 6:31pm
Dave is awesome. Fixed and shipped my LT200 AMP in record time. I second norcasjason. Don't hesitate to contact Dave. I sat with my broken amp for months waiting for ed rma. never happened. now I am up and running. Thanks to Dave.
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post #15023 of 15215
9/26/12 at 8:14am
Dave does seem like a class act guy, my LT550 was too far gone I guess and I will be getting a LT500 instead. Any recommendations on how to make the hold bigger for the plate amp?

I do have a router and a good assortment of bits but sad to say I have never used them so I will need to practice on some cheap wood
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post #15024 of 15215
9/26/12 at 4:34pm
I finally got my refund from amx and paypal. Elemental Designs would not contact either CC vendor back. Its crazy to think of how much money they ran away with. My total was over 6k alone.
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post #15025 of 15215
9/26/12 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdohman View Post

I finally got my refund from amx and paypal. Elemental Designs would not contact either CC vendor back. Its crazy to think of how much money they ran away with. My total was over 6k alone.
Wow, that's a lot of money! If you don't mind saying, when did you place your order and how long did it take to get your monies after you filed a complaint?
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post #15026 of 15215
9/27/12 at 10:05am
K-razy......how i ended up seeing this thread is even crazier.....


chris, how's the old lady?
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post #15027 of 15215
10/1/12 at 8:31am
I got my, well not mine, but I got an amp back from Dave, now I need to find the time to route out the extra space to put in the LT500 in a LT550 hole. Any suggestions to help a semi-tool literate person?

I do have a router with many bits. I am thinking of using a straight edge like a level and clamping it down measured out to the extra space I need and use the router to make the cuts.
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post #15028 of 15215
10/1/12 at 8:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by maxpower2078 View Post

I got my, well not mine, but I got an amp back from Dave, now I need to find the time to route out the extra space to put in the LT500 in a LT550 hole. Any suggestions to help a semi-tool literate person?
I do have a router with many bits. I am thinking of using a straight edge like a level and clamping it down measured out to the extra space I need and use the router to make the cuts.

Probably the best/easiest way to do it. Of course, the amp will stick out a bit unless you go super hardcore and also route in the flush mount. Should be about .15" deep or so to get it mounted flush.
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post #15029 of 15215
10/1/12 at 9:22am
Hey Chris... Can you clear up the confusion about the LT550/LT500 amps?

They're clearly not the same... What do you know about the differences?
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post #15030 of 15215
10/1/12 at 2:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by NorCalJason View Post

Hey Chris... Can you clear up the confusion about the LT550/LT500 amps?
They're clearly not the same... What do you know about the differences?

While I was there it was all LT/550 so no idea. The 200W amp was the only one that changed while I was with the company.
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