Elemental Designs A7-900 Subwoofer

We don't often get first looks as early as we have for the Elemental Designs A7-900 subwoofer. They don't even have a production model yet! The pictures we've seen are of a constructed but unfinished cabinet. The A7-900 is a redesign of a current subwoofer. Rather than provide a few incremental changes to an already proven product (like other manufacturers are wont to do), eD is doing a ground up redesign. After listening to their customers, they decided that the current design had some inherent flaws. It was a downfiring design in a long rectangular box sporting two 18" drivers. This made for a huge footprint that most people had a hard time placing. At 26" by 49" you can certainly see why.

UPDATE: Elemental Designs now has the A7-900 in production and available as a Build-to-Order subwoofer. The price is $2500 each and UPS Ground shipping is included. Of course, for a mere $536.41 you can upgrade to Next Day Air.

Honestly, this isn't a total redesign. If you took the current sub and stood it up (something it wasn't designed to do), you'd have the rough idea of what the new sub will look like. They've mitered some corners and moved the port so that it is front firing but the basic dimensions are the same. One thing that customers really harped on was that they like to see the drivers of their speakers. Even if they only rarely remove the grill, the fact that they can is a plus. Well, eD isn't going to disappoint with dual 18" drivers facing into the room!

Heavy? Yes. According to eD they utilize their EFS material (denser than MDF) for the cabinets in 1"-2" thicknesses. Brett Bell of eD says about the A7-900, "EFS construction, made using 1-2 layers of 1" EFS through the entire cabinet.  All bracing is done in 2" thick pieces (dual layer 1" EFS) that interlock not only into each other but into the walls of the cabinet as well." When you look at the calculated weight of around 400lbs, you can see that they aren't kidding. While on the website they have listed spikes as the foot option, I'm guessing not. I'm also guessing you're going to want to be SURE of your subwoofer placement when you set this thing up.

The amplifier is the same as the one in the original A7-900. Built for eD by Keiga and based upon an ICEPower module developed by Bang & Olufsen, this sub should have tons of power for all but the most demanding of environments. The amp has 50-100Hz variable crossover, dedicated crossover-defeating LFE input, and speaker level inputs. I was surprised at this price point to see only a 0/180 phase switch and not a variable control. I was also surprised that there wasn't an "always on" option (only off/auto on). ICEPower runs very efficiently and many of their amps don't even have a standby option. The 25Hz boost switch also seems a bit out of place in a sub that certainly looks like the last thing it'll need is more bass.

The new A7-900 will have a 26" by 27.25" footprint - certainly not large by Internet direct standards. It will, however, be over 49" tall! That essentially makes it a very large floorstanding speaker without the mids and tweets. Part of the redesign was to give the owner more flexibility. The new A7-900 can be positioned upright or lying on its side (under a projection screen for instance). The finish on the sub will be the same handcrafted rugged finish on all their new subs (matte black and textured). The in-room response is rated down to 16Hz at 110dB.

Conclusion

The A7-900 is a HUGE sub. The weight alone is going to deter many people. Those who want big performance at a fraction of the price of some of the brick & mortar brands, this may be an option. You're going to need a fairly large room and probably a motion sickness bag as you're likely to be shaken out of your seat. We wouldn't be surprised to see warning labels accompany this sub to the tune of:

Pregnant women, people with a history of heart problems, people with a pacemaker, and whiny neighbors who 'just want to get some sleep already' should not be within 50 yards of the A7-900 when it is in operation. Those with a driving need to feel as much as hear their movies, preferably with strong backs and lots of friends that will risk life and limb for beer, should sit as close as possible to the A7-900. Probably on. The serious bass-o-phile should consider purchasing the A7-900-RH Riding Harness with the optional stirrups and body armor. Damage caused by the A7-900 to your house, marriage, social life, bones, and sanity is in no way the fault of eD as we told you so and that's why you bought it in the first place. If you have any problems with the A7-900, call our customer support line but yell loud as we're probably listening to one right now. If you need to send it back for repair, just play $989 shipping and handling and be prepared to have the UPS guy cast a voodoo hex on you. Enjoy."

For more information, please visit www.edesignaudio.com. Elemental Designs now has the A7-900 in production and available as a Build-to-Order subwoofer. The price is $2500 each and UPS Ground shipping is included.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.