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Rega ELA set up help please

bob atherton

bob atherton

pfm Member
I have just posted this on the Naim Forum but I think I might get more help here. Thanks, Bob


I have been after a good condition pair of IBL mk II’s for quite a while now. Lots of scruffy mk 1’s but not, as yet, the elusive 2’s.

As a stop gap I recently bought a pair of Rega ELA mk 1’s or at least I think they are mk 1’s. They have three feet and a half fluted front. They look a bit IBLish but sound quite a bit different. All in all I don’t think they are a bad speaker.

The problem that I have with them is that they have to be tight against a wall. This is a problem as there is a rear port at the top of the enclosure. I think they must be some sort of transmission line design. The bass is just too much with the port fully operating. Any suggestions for set up and maybe reducing the output of the port?

I have some sheep’s wool speaker wadding and was considering removing the bass drivers and loosely filling the enclosure with it to dampen the low bass. Is this a good or bad idea? As I think these speakers have become a bit cultish, though not as much as the IBL’s, I wondered if anyone has ever done an ELA set up piece before?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
 
Try angling them slightly from the wall and if still too much, roll up a piece of that wadding you have and place it in the port. Should reduce the bass a bit.

So far as I can remember, the drivers are screwed and stuck onto the baffle and are a pain in't ass to remove without damaging them and/or cabinet. So, I would suggest the easier options above first.
 
ELA's with too much bass? Crikey, you DO have a problem, as I could never get any bass to speak of at all out of them. You playing dull thuddy Vinyl or something? ;) Are these the angled back ones?

Ideal positioning for ELA's is a hands breadth out from the wall. Can you not bring them forward just three - six inches or so?

The cabs are filled loosely with wool as I remember and not a lot comes out of the port to be honest. Doesn't the port have sponge or something as a trim to cover it?

You know, rather than dismantling a perfectly good speaker, the best option IMO would be to try to find some cheap Kytes. These are the leanest of all the Rega speakers (Ara's fleshed the upper bass/mid out a bit as I recall) and Rega still make the speaker brackets for them (they fit the R1 I think). Most on here love the Kytes and you'll have little difficulty selling them on when the IBL's you require come up.
 
Will agree with DJSR about the Kytes, you certainly won't get over powering bass, in fact i don't think you will get any bass at all. I have a pair playing Dire Straits - Alchemy right now, although i also have a sub plugged in.

The Kytes may share the same bass driver as the Ela's but they are very differnt speakers, I thought the Bass from my Ela's was very light ( mine are Mk1.5's with square driver surounds) , but the more i listened to them the more i came to ralise that they have qute a lot of bass. It is a bit weird though the bass seems to be contained within the air of the room so it is very fast, light and airy ,rather than driving the floors and walls, say likew my sub is doing at the moment ( if that makes sense) .

I have a pair of excellent condition Kytes in lovely walnut veneer sat atop a pair of Mk2 Kan stands , but thei aint a patch on the Ela's, the tweeter in the Kytes isn't early as good as the one in the Ela's.

I am still trying to get around to re-veneering my Ela's I have evey elemnt in place ( space, glue, veneer, clamps, cutting equipment, etc, etc,) to do this apart from spare time at the moment.

What i did with my Ela's was to place them on top of some granite plinths that i have. This seems to serve quite a few purposes, it damps down my lightweight suspended wooden floor underneath the speakers ( it's bit like a drum skin with crawl space underneath) and it also seems to de-cople the speaker spikes from the floor so that the speakers aren't sinking all of the bass into the floor and exciting it , the vibration seems to dissipate within the granite plinths ( made from 3 x Granite chopping boards seperated by small rubber 3M bumpon rubber feet.

It works for me anyway.

Your Rega Ela's are excellent speakers make no mistake about this , you just need to optimise them a bit more to get them singing to how you want - it is achievable.
 
I have a pair of Ela's ( Which are going to be replaced with TDL speakers), they are half fluted with 4 normal spikes and they have the normal rega driver. Like the ones you see in the kytes.

The Ela's sound better when they are toed in.
 
I had mine six inches from the rear wall pointing straight ahead.The bass was nice and tight if a little lightweight.
 
Shane2468 said:
Bloody hell DSJR, you know to much!!!

Go take a holiday to disneyland. And I'm serious.
Click to expand...

Shane, I'm really hurt by that remark. :(

I sold this bloody gear for over thirty years and it was my whole life until I married late and discovered what harrased male customers had to go through at home once herself got her hooks in deep......

Such Aspergic fanaticism brings knowledge and many, many memories and now it's gone, along with a lot of other things. Posting on here is something of a comfort blanket at the moment.

All I'm trying to do is help and have a discussion about the one thing that I know a little bit about.

And I don't like Disney either!
 
muzzer said:
I had mine six inches from the rear wall pointing straight ahead.The bass was nice and tight if a little lightweight.
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This is spot on as far as I am concerned - ELA bass is lightweight. In some ways I would like a situation that was half way between my ELAs and the PMC DB1+s I have now which seem to me to be bass heavy, but maybe that is just in contrast to the ELAs.

Guy
 
DSJR said:
Shane, I'm really hurt by that remark. :(

I sold this bloody gear for over thirty years and it was my whole life until I married late and discovered what harrased male customers had to go through at home once herself got her hooks in deep......

Such Aspergic fanaticism brings knowledge and many, many memories and now it's gone, along with a lot of other things. Posting on here is something of a comfort blanket at the moment.

All I'm trying to do is help and have a discussion about the one thing that I know a little bit about.

And I don't like Disney either!
Click to expand...



Yes, I think you should stay away from Disney, because you might go all critical on how badly the speakers are set up on the rides.


Anyway, I'm just joking mate.


YOUR A LEGEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
When I had Elas it was best to get them right up close to the rear wall - only about 2 inches gap.

Half fluted and three feet is known as version 1.5 and the best IMO.

I wouldn't say they were inferior to IBLs either, just a different blend of characteristics but similarly fast and coherent.
 
Thank you so much to everybody for your quick and helpful responses. I will give the ELA’s another go. At the moment my system is LP 12, Naim CDX,XPS,72,180, Kan mk1’s. The Kans are great but I just wanted a bit more scale and maybe a speaker without quite the character of the Kan.

I got the ELA’s recently and they are in good shape apart from the front spikes that are totally loose. They can’t be tightened as I think the whole assembly has rusted through. It will be fun wringing the last bit of performance from them.

It is a very friendly place here and it has been pretty much my first visit. I think I may be sticking around as my day job, commercial photographer and my night job, bass guitarist appear to be well catered for under the diverse umbrella that is Pink Fish.

Thanks again, Bob:)
 
Bob.
Is the port completely open.If I remember rightly the ports on mine had a foam filling which is how they came from the manufacturer, I never bothered removing it.
 
Hi Muzzer, you are right it comes with a foam kind of grill. I've just looked again at the front feet and they haven't rusted though at all. Both of the threaded nuts inside the stand had come loose. All fixed now. I will give them a good try again on Friday. BTW where was it that one can get cheap granite chopping boards to use under speakers? Was it Ikea?
 
Dear Moderator,

Shane is a severe time waster on this forum. DSJR has given Shane an extensive number of helpful postings, and this is how he's repaid.

DSJR is such a valuable asset to this forum. His knowledge and experience of different bits of kit is outstanding. Some people have different tastes to him; thats just the nature of a forum. If we all nodded and agreed it would be very boring.

<Rob - Moderating> - agreed. Thread pruned to remove noise/childishness.
 
I feel sorry for Bob Atherton here, who is asking for and recieving good advice from the community - many of us are lurking and checking in out of interest and the hope of learning something.

The abusive tone of Shane is strongly offputting to say the least, and his aggressive retorts seem quite unnecessary and ignorant. Why does he have to hijack this thread with his personal agenda anyway? His need to defend himself from criticism will never be sated as more & more people will be disgusted by his petty squabbles and abuse.

I wish there was a report button on the board so that thread crapping trolls can be quickly bought to the attention of the mods.:(

At least the people Shane spits at have contributed good advice & experience to discussions on this forum, which is more than I remember him doing.
 
Alan Brown said:
I wish there was a report button on the board so that thread crapping trolls can be quickly bought to the attention of the mods.:(
Click to expand...

There is - it's the 'r' button to the right of the post number. And it's already been used.

Steve.
 
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