Speaker Asylum: REVIEW: Creative Sounds ELF 1.0 Speakers by chuck55

Model:	ELF 1.0
Category:	Speakers
Suggested Retail Price:	$165
Description:	Single driver, rear ported speaker
Manufacturer URL:	Creative Sounds
Model Picture:	View

Review by chuck55 ( A ) on December 08, 2004 at 10:20:57
IP Address: 209.176.9.121

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for the ELF 1.0

First I want to thank BradV for mentioning the ELF 1.0 and Dr. Jim Griffin, the speaker's designer. I spend a lot of time searching the internet and once in a while I find that one magic bit of information that makes it worthwhile.
Second, these are only my opinions and since this is an audio chat site, they as just food for discussion, perhaps a chance to discuss and to reach a better understanding of audio.
The holy grail of speakers is a point source. The closest thing to this is a single driver speaker. Anything else may give an improvement in one area but trade off performance in some other area. A single driver is perfectly time and phase coherent . There is no change in tonality with different driver materials. There is no crossover to absorb power and deatil. The single driver Tang Band 871s used in the ELF is +/-1.5 dB from 100 to 10,000 Hz, +/-3dB from 10k to 20k.
Here is the data sheet: http://www.nuera-acoustic.ca/products/datasheets/w3-871s.jpg
It has no whizzer cone. This is NOT a high efficiency driver with the associated frequency peaks, etc.
For a long time I felt I have been on the wrong path. Like a drug addict, how do you feel better? Take more drugs. And you go deeper down the wrong path in your attempt to feel better. It's a bottomless pit and you never really feel better. Only less bad. So I've been searching for the correct path to get on. I think getting hung up on sounds is a big trap in audio. You try to get the sounds right but forget about the music. You fall in the trap of hyped frequency balance or other manipulations. Different, not better and all the while getting further from the basic starting point - music. While a recording engineer needs to hear everything to get the mix right, hearing everything leads to dissatisfaction as you hear all the faults, can only listen to "audiophile" recordings, and you get drawn further and further away from the music. It's like having sensory overload and can't relax with the music.The wrong path, for me at least.
Setup:
The Elf's sit 6 feet apart on my mantle. They are only 1" from the front wall. This give bass flat to 80 hz and useful to below 55hz. Room is 13x15 and bright. I run them with Denon UDM31 minisystem and 1) 22 ga / 2) 26 ga. Radio Shack magnet wire wound in an Audioquest-type SST configuration. The dedicated power line and rooftop antennae probably cost me as much as this whole system.
Apparently Creative Sound does not offer the cabinets anymore. If not, Brian Bunge from Rutledge Audio Design (www.rutledgeaudiodesign.com 706-557-8694) offered to make me unfinished cabinets for $125. BTW he also makes RAD micros which is a very similar design except front not rear ported.
GOOD POINTS:
Pleasing sound quality.
Perhaps the ELF's best feature. The Denon is brutal with both B&W 600 s3 and Infinity Primus 140's probably due the the metal and/or kevlar drivers. But a perfect match with the Elf's paper driver. Japanese electronics, Chinese paper cones. An excellent match. I turn the tone to +2 bass (100 hz) and -1 or -2 treble (10,000 hz). This is due to the recordings, room, and electronics NOT the speakers.
Bad recordings sound jumbled but not harsh. Good recordings are quite well done. More flat sounding than a "reference" studio monitor speaker but if you want to give you ears some excitement you'll have to pay the price on lesser recordings.
The air and space around vocals and instruments is great. And I'm not doing it with tubes - it's in the speaker itself.
This speaker makes MUSIC NOT SOUND. I can tell you this speaker does not sound (ie makes sound) as good as my big rig but there is something intoxicating about it. I play songs on the ELF and then I can't stop humming them all day. I never do this after listening the the "big rig". Music is done with one voice - no switch in tone going from a metal tweeter to polypro mid or whatever.
SURPRISE FACTOR: I hear special effects on songs like Smashmouth's "The in set" and swear something is going on in the kitchen or outside. This never happens on my big rig. Maybe it has to do with the natural sound quality of the ELF's.
Piano is done very well. Not the ultimate in transparency but otherwise excellent. This is a hard instrument to get the dynamics and sound right These speakers are quite dynamic and my Radio Shack SPL meter needle is really jumping around when music plays.
This system thumbs its nose at audio tweaks. Sure you can treat the CD, upgrade the CDP and the speakers will respond. But that misses the whole to what these speakers offer - pleasing sound quality, excellent air, space and soundstaging, natural not hyped sound, consistent tonality top to bottom, and flat FR (while still sounding good). I know I'm shouldn't be talking about sound - just music. Well switching from these to the big rig the response is WOW! Something about them just sounds really good but I can't put my finger on it such as transparency, detail, etc. as I usually point out when critically listening to a stereo. Everything just interacts and blends in a really nice way.
I know for me, if I couldn't be happy with this little system, I would never be happy with anything out there. I will also say for me anything beyond this system is a hobby and not requisite to listening pleasure.
PRAT
The biggest surpise is the toe-tapping way these speakers boogie. All I can figure is when a band gets into the groove the whole band gets the rhythm and this single driver picks up the event as a whole.
WEAKNESSES:
This system is only good to 70-75 dB at 12 feet. Any higher and the treble gets harsh, sibilance appears, the speakers walls start to audibly "talk" (Maybe I should not have thinned the MDF to 1/2" from 3/4" in the center section). Bass which is already distorted gets too muddy and one-note. Switching to a 2 volt CDP and 75 db average is fine but really no more.
I lose treble extension when I sit 2 feet lower than the tweeter's axis (they are on the mantle). Even up against the wall and the bass boosted, bass extension is really marginal. Forget pipe organ music but everything else is pretty good. These speakers would be no good out in the room if you want any bass at all. Also there just isn't the presence (X max is only .5mm) to pressurize the room. Although I listen to plenty of rock music and NO chamber music so they do work for me.
As for detail, the fine inflections in a singer's voice are missing, sound detail is pretty 2 dimensional compared to what an expensive speaker can do, and fine high frequency details in cymbals for example are there but at very low volume levels ie: have to listen real hard to pick up on them. But the question is, are these things necessary for musical enjoyment or just to be impressive? Of course it depends on how you listen and what you listen for. For me, the loss of cohesiveness and natural sound is as big a drawback as the loss of detail. Maybe more so. Like I said, anything other than a single driver is better in some ways, but will be worse in others. That's what makes this hobby so frustrating. There never seems to be a clearly better design, only tradeoffs in one way or another.
So I don't know if I'm enamored with the sound or only because it comes at such a cheap price. Is this system some head game or is the big rig the head game? All I know is this system makes me question what is really important in music reproduction and is a heck of a lot of fun.

Product Weakness: 75dB max volume level. Bass to 100hz or 65hz against wall
Product Strengths: Natural sound, good prat

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	Denon UD-m31
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	none
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	Denon UD-m31
Speakers:	ELF 1.0
Cables/Interconnects:	Radio Shack magnet wire
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	rock, pop
Room Size (LxWxH):	15 ft x 13 ft x 8 ft
Room Comments/Treatments:	none
Time Period/Length of Audition:	1 year
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	Musical Fidelity Nautilus 804

Product Weakness:	75dB max volume level. Bass to 100hz or 65hz against wall
Product Strengths:	Natural sound, good prat