Electro-Voice EKX-12 Active Loudspeaker -- initial report

[Mark Schmieder]

Due to a $350 discount during Black Friday, I finally grabbed one of these, and it arrived a couple of days ago. I've been frustrated that I can only use headphones anymore to practice keys, or pipe it through an audio app on my iMac and listen through my active monitors with round-trip AD/DA latency.

 

If not for the steep discount, I was going to buy an ELX-12. I previously owned the Z-series 8" speaker and used it at nursing home jazz gigs with my Fender Precision Bass, and my keyboardist/bandleader used one for his digital keyboard at gigs where there wasn't a house piano. Very flexible design, like all E/V speakers, and balanced/natural.

 

As I don't currently own a digital piano, and don't care about monitoring my Moog Voyager as I never play it live (too risky regarding theft!), I have so far only had a chance to try the EX-12 with my Hammond XK-4.

 

Out of the box, it sounds AWFUL, but what speaker wouldn't? Organ is very specific. It took just a few seconds to apply my intuition and boost the treble by +3 dB, leave the mids at unity gain, and lower the bass by -3 dB. Perfect balance at that point and it sounds very full and organic.

 

We will find out at jazz rehearsal tomorrow night how it sounds with the keyboardist's Korg Whatever (I can't remember the order of their model releases any more, but it's recent). I';m sure we'll need to adjust it, but I doubt it will take much work. It will certainly sound better than his Behringer keyboard amp!

 

There are four basic settings in the DSP menu, and of course I set it to Live. I was surprised that I had to turn the input gain to 9 o'clock, which is actually a significant cut as 12 o'clock is unity gain, but otherwise I had to turn the XK-4 almost down to zero or I'd be deafened! This speaker can deliver 1500 watts!

 

I'll need to figure out the ideal gain staging, which will be determined by whether the XK-4 is strictly gain or has an impedance stage or some other built-in level jump that means that it's OK to ride its volume super-low without getting distortion or non-ideal sound. A lot of devices are trim-only, some are gain-only, and others have unity gain in the middle, like EKX-12.

 

It's interesting that Electro-Voice chose to make this series in just 12" and 15" size, with the subs as 15" or 18". Although the user manual shows applications with the mains stacked atop the subs, I feel it is usually better to have the subs separately stacked, and positioned in the middle (depending on venue, of course).

 

Not sure I'll bother with subs; for larger gigs, I'd depend on FOH and backline. Maybe I'll buy a second 12" main though. Also not sure if I want the pole-mounting or will use mostly as a wedge monitor on stage for the band itself. Time will tell. A big investment, but this was a good time to do it, on steep discount and before more inflation. I spent $60 on the bag though.

 

I was hoping to pump my bass through it tonight as a test for my folk/rock gigs, where I also sing and could use this as my full setup, but tenants are sleeping due to night shift.

[Theo Verelst]

My normal (...) listing system is 5 way, which is 12 inch (and low-mid / mid / band-tweeter) on the sides and one 15 inch sub. The main boxes are a marginally bigger and a bit thicker wood, and aren't vented or ported. I actively filter+multi amp them to above 40Hz, and the 15" works mainly under 40Hz, which makes for a good power distribution. The EKX-12P rates at -10dB from 50Hz-20kHz, that isn't very much in the low frequency range. Also, though my total RMS continuous sine power is a fration of 1400W/side, these built in amps are switched, which similar but not identical to a digital signal path brings along it's own distortions.

 

T

[Delaware Dave]

i have an elx112p.  i can walk hammond bass with that speaker and when i'm using a synth patch that sweeps low i can rattle the stage.  i never thought of needing a subwoofer to accommodate the speaker, I would doubt that you would need one with the ekx.

[RABid]

Also have a ELX112P and it sounds wonderful pushing the low notes from a piano. The only reason I would ever put a sub on it is if it was used for the main PA.

[Greg Mein]

We just bought an EV Evolve 30M stick speaker to replace the JBL Eon One Pro stick speaker that has become intermittent. We've only tried it out briefly. Tomorrow the band will be over for practice and we'll see how that goes. There's no reason to think it won't work great. Fewer buttons than the JBL but on the upside there's an app that works well via bluetooth for adjusting.

Our NYE gig will be the first performance use of it.

[Mark Schmieder]

The EKX-12 shone well on the Korg Kaoss piano patches at jazz quintet rehearsal tonight, and I went flat on the EQ this time (unlike on Hammond Organ).

 

I haven't had a chance to try my bass guitar through it yet, which is a possibility, with vocals on the other channel, for my folk-rock gigs.