Elemental Designs A3 A5 Subwoofers

We got an email from Elemental Designs this week that seemed worthy of being passed on. Apparently they are getting caught up in terms of their manufacturing, so those waiting for their new subwoofers can now pick up the new A3-300 and A5-350 subs directly from the website. They are also using a new "greener" cabinet material called EFS (Environmentally Friendly Substrate). From the manufacturer:

EFS is built using a different process then MDF, and it does not contain urea-formaldehyde which is the bonding agent used as MDF is baked into the panels commonly used in construction. Without using urea-formaldehyde EFS is also a safer material for us to work with as well; because it does not emit the fumes while we are building enclosures. EFS is also built using whole wood logs (these are logs not suitable for construction in raw form), wood chips, and sawmill waste. The differences in the process help EFS be a material that has a higher density than MDF as well.

Well, while we could care less about environmentally friendly subwoofers (at least as to how that affects sound) if it is denser than MDF, then at least the change will, at worst, yield an even exchange in terms of sound quality. Ie. it appears that it can't hurt anything.

As we are in the midst of the season of growth and change, Elemental Designs has done something that they have been working towards for over 2 years. “I’m so proud of the staff here that we finally have a growing number of models of our powered subwoofers in stock and shipping,” says Ben Milne, founder of Elemental Designs. “Eventually we’d love to have the whole line in stock and shipping same day; we’ve got our eyes on the goal and our customers have responded extremely positive to the steps done to achieve this goal.”

It is worth noting that at the current time Elemental Designs does have two models in stock and shipping; their newly redesigned A3-300 and A5-350. These are two designs that Milne says, “Are something that we received a lot of customer feedback about what they’d like to see in some of our powered subs moving forward. We definitely made changes to these designs to match up to the feedback we received.”

Now this may not seem like a big step when you look at a lot of the big hitters in the powered subwoofer world, but for Elemental Designs it is a step in evolving to meet the demand of customers in a competitive marketplace. It is a good thing to see a home grown company that takes Made in Iowa, USA as an honor badge; continue to evolve and grow.

The release of this stage in growth and evolution is especially impressive following their large November 3, 2008 release of moving away from the industry standard MDF to a greener substance called EFS. It would appear that even though Elemental Designs may be somewhat of a “new kid on the block,” they definitely have their eyes set on evolving and growing. It might be a good thing to keep our eyes on them as well.

Well, that's a good start.