13 replies to this topic

[Nene]

I recently bought the ELK M1 Gold kit that came with the ELK-73 speaker. Everything seems to be working fine with the exception of the sound quality of the ELK-73. I have it mounted on a flat wall in the great room. I cannot make out what the ELK says. Neither does any family member. I know what it is only because I know what is supposed to be saying. The sound if muffled as if it had a wet towel wrapped around it.
I do not believe it is mounted incorrectly.

All I want to know if if anyone else has experienced this and or have a better alrernative.

Thanks.

[TheEther]

I recently bought the ELK M1 Gold kit that came with the ELK-73 speaker. Everything seems to be working fine with the exception of the sound quality of the ELK-73. I have it mounted on a flat wall in the great room. I cannot make out what the ELK says. Neither does any family member. I know what it is only because I know what is supposed to be saying. The sound if muffled as if it had a wet towel wrapped around it.
I do not believe it is mounted incorrectly.

All I want to know if if anyone else has experienced this and or have a better alrernative.

Thanks.

Funny that you post this, I have the same experience. I currently have a couple ELK-SP12F's mounted in gang boxes and I'm quite unimpressed with the way they sound. Very muffled just like you describe... I have 2 more to connect to drop the ohm load to 8 ohms, wonder if getting the M1's ohm load down will help get more power to the speakers??

Ether..

[gatchel]

I have never been "impressed" with the sound either. They are not exactly audiophile quality. I can make out most of what is said without issue but they do make you really have to focus sometimes.

[Nene]

I don't really think it is an OHM issue. I think is the "echo" feature of the design. When the sound bounces back against the wall you get some sound, but the rest is inside that plastic housing. I think most of the sound waves are being cancelled out. This is just a theory of course. But when I was bench testing the M1, I had this same speaker hanging by a nail without the cover on and it sounded fantastic. I could crank the volume all the way up with no loss in quality. Now that is on the wall and inside the housing, I cannot go past 5 because I sounds awful. That plus not being able to understand anything it says makes me very unhappy of an otherwise excellent setup.

[DELInstallations]

I've used SPF12's in plenty of M1 installs with no complaints or sound quality issues. I run the panel at 8 ohms usually with them, with the lowest being 4 ohm load. I used LV trim rings instead of full blown boxes. Even a single 73 sounds OK to me in a bunch of my installs of the panel.

I've also used Honeywell/Ademco 746F's as well with a slightly louder overall volume.

The sound won't be audiophile, but it is what it is.

[Work2Play]

If you looked at these things before you installed them, you should see why they sound like that (not to mention how cheap they are)... but they're a good choice for that install. I agree they sound horribly muffled and are hard to understand at times. Also irritating in my house - a couple of the keypads are in hallow walls; but one of them is an exterior wall filled with fiberglass - that one is about half the volume of the others yet the most important. Someday I'll likely experiment with resistors to balance power differently and drive more power to that one or add another one nearby to boost volume (or maybe just stuff fiberglass behind the other two!)

[Nene]

OK, well. I feel somewhat better that it is just not me that think these could be a bit better. So, what about the SP12F? Does anyone thinks is may sound better given that the driver is front firing? I am reading conflicting info on whether this is a voice speaker or a siren only driver. Or maybe is both? These are so cheap that maybe I should just get one and give it a try.

[Spanky]

You may want to try turning the volume down on the voice announcements. You could be over driving the speakers and making poor quality sound output.

Either reduce the volume by using Menu 8 from the keypad or ELKRP or you can add a resistor in series with the speaker line at the speaker. Try a 50 to 100 ohm 1 or more watt resistor. Higher ohms will reduce the volume more.

If you are an audiophile, you are not going to get high quality sound reproduction from the low cost speakers that are made to reproduce siren sounds. Sorry!!!

[Nene]

Thanks Spanky. Funny you mention that. I in fact happen to be an audiophile, but I never expected to get hi-fi sound out of it. I did however expected to at least be able to understand what the ELK says. I have played with the volume in the past. I have turn it all the way down to 2 which is barely audible, and still can't make out the words. But if I take the cover off, then it sounds really good. I do believe the driver itself is capable of taking the full output of the ELK as long as it is not inside that enclosure. I have bench tested this already. So, I do not believe this is an overdrive problem. I believe is a combination of rattling of the loose driver inside the housing and sound wave dynamics.

[hagak]

Thanks Spanky. Funny you mention that. I in fact happen to be an audiophile, but I never expected to get hi-fi sound out of it. I did however expected to at least be able to understand what the ELK says. I have played with the volume in the past. I have turn it all the way down to 2 which is barely audible, and still can't make out the words. But if I take the cover off, then it sounds really good. I do believe the driver itself is capable of taking the full output of the ELK as long as it is not inside that enclosure. I have bench tested this already. So, I do not believe this is an overdrive problem. I believe is a combination of rattling of the loose driver inside the housing and sound wave dynamics.

Wonder how it would do if you create a few vent holes in the cover?

[Nene]

I thought about that, but I fear it may damage the slick look. If I am going to do that, I may as well get the SP12F assuming is the same thing.

[mustangcoupe]

........I believe is a combination of rattling of the loose driver inside the housing and sound wave dynamics.

Loose driver? Mine are packed away in storage while I try to sell my house but I thought they snapped under a fer tabs to hold them securely into the housing

[Nene]

Yes. The driver snaps in within the tabs but is by no means tight and at high volumes, it will vibrate around. I have seen this with the cover off. Nothing a dab or two of silicon can't fix though. My biggest consern right now is resonance, which is what I'm addressing in a few different ways.

[Sandpiper]

Could it just be room acoustics? You could experiment with this by taking the speaker down, and tie in a temporary extension cable, then place the speaker in different locations.