electro-voice ekx-18sp review

[conanski]

Tyler where did you get these and what kind of deal did you get?

And where are the pics.. if there aren't any pics it didn't happen. LOL.

[BillESC]

I'm taking advance orders. No money down.

[Robdogg]

Bill any idea when they will hit the streets? My dealer here in Canada says we prob won't see them till mid may which is to late for my timeline and I'm not really into buying unseen unheard product. I've demoed and field tested the ETX line and I really can't see the EKX's being near as good losing 40 pounds. I'm really interested in doing a stack of 4 and putting them up against my pair of LS801's and the pair of ETX's I heard. (FYI ETX's are within a hair of being as loud as 801's and sound light years better doing it). The EKX's would hopefully be a back friendly modular system that would compare volume wise to my current 801's and the ETX's that I was sold on till I seen the EKX release.

[conanski]

ElectroVoice plays fast and lose with max SPL and amplifier specs so it's hard to know what to trust, for example the ZLX and ELX lines both claim 1000w but it's pretty clear these two speaker systems do not deliver the same performance. The EKX18sp is rated 1300w while the ETX18sp is 1800w so right away I don't see the EKX getting as loud but it should sound similar with the advanced DSP they are now including in these cabs. It wouldn't make much sense for them to release another line that is just as good as the pretty much still brand new ETX line so I suspect this will be a step down but still very capable, maybe on par with the JBL PRX718XLF and QSC KW181.

[tylert7]

a friend who owns a music store got them for me. i havn't gotten around to talking pics or anything

[oldschooldj]

conanski,

You are dead on here. I am an EV fan/man and I think EV is playing the big numbers game like all the major mid level gear manufacturers have fallen to. It used to be you expected this from Gemini, Pyle (I wish I was Pro), Pyramid, Sesmic, and Behringer, just to name a few junk manufacturers.

I will tell you I know EV has a very high end testing chamber and if they state that it is a measured SPL number, it is. With that said there is a big difference in continuous SPL and driving an amp into clipping with pink noise at a certain frequency.

What I can't figure out is the different power ratings on their lines. ZLX is easy to figure like old school passive stuff, they say 1000 watts, and if you look at the components in the cabinet they are 250 watt RMS, 500 max continuous, 1000 watt peak components.

ETX is a whole different thing, and I have a friend who is a Bosch Engineer, for the PRO audio side of EV. He does their stadium stuff and their large installs, like Dubai, just recently. He was involved in the testing of ETX. He informed me that my ETX15SP subs, are using top of the line DSP and amp modules, conservatively rated. The 1800 watts if compared to a passive rating on the driver in the cabinet would be a continuous program number and in testing he saw peaks from that amp module over 2500 watts, why didn't the fluff them up then.

We are part of an industry without real standards, and I think the manufacturers want it to stay that way, especially those that sell junk, and lets face it, their are 100 times more people out their that will buy junk, just for pricing.

[oldschooldj]

tylert7,

I think it is great if you really have these, my supplier has sold more EV over the last three years than anyone in the WORLD. They won't have them in stock till the last week of this month or early April. They contacted their area EV manager for the southeast, and he said nobody had the line to sell yet and as far as he knew, no one was selling the manufacturers demos at this time.

I wanted to go demo them as I have a friend on another forum interested in them along with another DJ in my town. I have bought over 50K of EV products from my source in the last 3 years, so they treat me like a pet cat, and I don't have access to the product, even for demo yet.

So lets see the pictures with a dated news paper beside them, so we know that the kidnapped is still alive

[tylert7]

i'll get pics up as soon as i can. im not trying to prove anything. if you believe me great, if not oh well. i just thought id tell you guys what i thought of them

[conanski]

I have a friend who is a Bosch Engineer, for the PRO audio side of EV. He was involved in the testing of ETX. He informed me that my ETX15SP subs are using top of the line DSP and amp modules, conservatively rated. The 1800 watts would be a continuous program number and in testing he saw peaks from that amp module over 2500 watts, why didn't the fluff them up then.

Yes that is exactly what I mean. I think they are publishing the peak specs for the ZLX line(somebody.. may have been you.. with an inside EV source said the ZLX amp is really just 250w RMS) and the program specs for the ETX and possibly the EKX line, only question is why they did this?
Behringer/Turbosound have a couple new speaker lines out the iQ and iX and in typical fashion I bet they are publishing the peak amp specs on these(2500w for the iQ series), they claim to be using the iNuke DSP amps in them so they should be pretty darn good but the calculated max SPL numbers are simply not attainable.
I don't want to sound like I'm all hung up on power specs though so I'll say that regardless how much power an amp module generates its the sound and performance of the speaker system that counts and I'm more than happy with my ZLX speakers so I can see me buying more Electrovoice in the future.

[Desmorider]

Tyler,
Any update on your new speakers?