Rega Ela MkI

- sloping front top houses an asymmetrically mounted tweeter and small narrow puck mid/bass driver.
- vertical front bottom has a fluted (?) look seen in older rega kit tops.
- T shaped square tubular stand fitted to base with 2 rear/1 front-center floor spikes.
- rectagular port along the top rear edge, stuffed with foam...kinda like SBL grille.
- ~2mm rectangular (cloth fitted) wire frame slots into holes at the four corners of the sloping surface.
- your current kit fine, although more communicative as it improves.
- rumour is that they are the most musical ELA.
- i would replace their floor spikes if they looked it.

[This message was edited by rohit on FRIDAY 13 December 2002 at 22:29.]

Here's some comments I posted a few years ago at Audio Asylum-

"The Ela is a wonderfully rhythmic and tuneful instrument.It hasn't much weight in the lower registers but makes up in articulation.You can separate instrumental lines like very few loudspeakers at any price.The transmission line enclosure is very free of resonances and port chuffing.It takes a bit to get used to the characteristic of loading the room with bass info rather than thumping your chest,tho.However it is more like the bass that is experienced in an auditorium.The soundstage is broad and deep, extending well past the enclosures and spread across with out clumping of the performers.It is a chameleon , rendering warmth on recordings biased this direction and can be cold on some others, but always informative and communicative. It's not got the most refined presentation but engages the listener with forward motion, paceyness and timing. Very coherent from top to bottom with no indication of crossover.
The Ela's are amoungst the fastest speakers at any price and just get out of the way and jam.I've been a Ela owner for almost 10 years and am still amazed at what they can do.Careful matching and cabling is a requirement, tho it should be a natural mate to the Rega amp."

"I ran the original Rega Ela at a distance of 21" from the rear wall and approx 3 feet to the sidewalls, again with a slight amount of toe in.Any closer than that and the bass became muddy and slow plus the soundstage pretty much collapsed.
If I recall correctly, nominal impedance was an easy 8ohms and the sensitivity was 90/dB/w/m.I still miss them on occassion.One of the most underated loudspeakers in recent memory.Great fun."

FYI- they were eventually replaced by Neat Elite SE's
Best,
Ken

Bet you won't get that for the Kestrels on eBay .The Ela With the "Royd" woofer, round frame, will play a tune all around the Kesrels . I've got a pair of "hot rods"they suck !!!!!!!!!
I guess I should say that they are "not my cup of tea ", na, they SUCK...........

...the last set of Kestrels to sell on eBay (non-Hot Rod) went for $770, which is well more than I paid for mine. If the Elas work out, as I'm starting to suspect they might, I'm thinking of trading the Kestrels in toward a Naim cd player. Woohoo!

As far as the Kestrels themselves go, I haven't been happy with them since I got the Nait. I keep expecting them to do the round earth stuff they did with my Primare amp, which they don't of course, nor do they really engage me the way the Allaes in the store did. (I know the Elas aren't Allaes, but they're a step in the right direction, I hope.)

The Kestrels aren't bad speakers, IMO, just a bad match for my current tastes and equipment.

I have just got a pair for, unfortunately more than TWICE what you paid!! But I always was a sucker. Anyway-- I have them hooked to my CDX/72/Hi/140. I think they are lovely sounding speakers with good pace and a sweet treble. Not a heck of a lot on the bottom end-- unless people think they should be closer to the front wall than 9 or 10 inches, which they are at. Unfortunately, I heard the NEAT Critiques on in-house demo just before getting these.
The NEATS were more involving and they CERTAINLY had a more tuneful, punchy and deep bass. Mostly, they are just more involving . I ordered the floor-standing Mystiques cause I love to spend more money though, and I am sick of dealing with stands.
Anyway, I would say the Rega tweeter is a bit more "refined" than the NEAT, but again, the overal fun factor -- even with string quartets and concertos (which the Ela does really well) is not as high as with the NEATs. My 4 cents.

A fine speaker for Jonathan Scull and the boys. Otherwise, I dont think they are too flat-earthed. At least they weren't too much FUN when I heard them briefly a couple years back. Nice even sound though and good soundstaging.

and them move to REGA XEL...

I have done so, and happily

Jay,

I have had ELAs mkI and mkII. I used the Is with a Rotel amp and a Nait1. The II's with a 110 and 250.

They are similar shaped but the I has 3 spikes and the II has 4 spikes. I am not sure if they are too different on the inside. They sound similar and I never had them together for an A/B test.

IMHO they are excellent value for money. They are very fast and transparent. They have the clearest voice reporduction that I have heard anywhere and are very musical.

As the others already pointed out they don't do deep bass well. If you listen to lots of drum and bass or similar you may be dissapointed.

After listening to the ELAs for about 10 years I upgraded last year and the ELAs now do duty in the yamaha AV system. They work very well in movies and put the centre speaker to shame. All the LFE goes into the subwoofer so their one limitation is sidelined.


To get the most bass out of your ELAs put them with their back to the wall. With wall skirting and the connectors you should be able to get them an inch or two from the wall.


cheers
Gus

I rang up Rega themselfs a couple of years ago on the differences between tye mk1 & II....

The Rega Ela MK1 is distinguishable from the MK2. The difference being that the "fluting" on the front of the cabinet,on the MK 1 goes all the way down the front,whereas the MK2 has the "fluting" only on the top half.

Also on the spike arrangement,the 4 spike arrangement was introduced for "customer request" type thing....less prone to being knocked over by rampaging kids / pets. (apparently the only reason).

Play around with positioning,I believe the "book" says "flat against a solid wall with no toe-in". Mine work best with a little "breathing room" behind them and with a little toe-in.

The Ela's also respond very well to using Nac A5.

Chris

Gus,

I was wondering if you could just confirm two things for me; are Mk.1's mirror-imaged, and are Mk.2's not???

Dave

Dave,

In the mkII the tweeter is above and slightly to the right of the woofer.

I sold my mkIs some time ago and can't check that one speaker had the tweeter slightly to the left of the woofer. But it does ring a bell.

I am not sure why this changed, probably warehouse logistics.

Yes, the speakers are pretty forgiving about positioning. I just found I got the most bass by placing them close to the backwall. In various houses I had them off the backwall, backing a window, near the sidewall with and without toe-in and they sounded similar in all setups.

Gus

Well, two days before Christmas, there they were on my doorstep, in the original box (bonus!). Cosmetically, they're in pretty nice shape, grilles are perfect. I sat and listened to my system as it was (Planet/Nait3/NACA5/Meadowlark Kestrels) for awhile just to get a good reference point, then swapped in the Elas. I put them fairly close to the back wall (maybe 14") and listened to Kevin Eubanks "Live at Bradley's", a really great piano/bass/guitar trio disc. Sounded nice enough, nothing shocking, then... "Chuff!!!" The bass hit this NOTE... "Chuff!!!" there it is again... this isn't good. Very cardboard-box-sounding, just in that certain freq. range.

Ok, so I shoved them back as close to the wall as I could get them (about 3") and tried again. Worse, if anything. I fumed, put on some different music... Fiona Apple, "When the Pawn". Ahh, better. Kinda fun, but there's the big fluffy "Thump" again. Damn.

Out they come, back go the Kestrels, and my home theater gets new front speakers. Oh well.

Later that day, I was watching a Christmas cantata of some sort on tv (orchestra and huge choir), not so much watching as just having it on in the background. It's playing through the Regas, and I think... "Whoa. That sounds pretty damn great. Hmm. What's different?" Turns out, when I stuck the Regas in my HT setup, I hadn't futzed with placement; they were exactly where my old HT speakers had been, about 2 feet out. Hmm...

Later that evening, curiosity gets the better of me, and back into my stereo go the Regas, this time 22" from the back wall, carefully measured, ever-so-slightly toed in. Put on "Set" by Youssou N'Dour, settled in, pressed play... Hey! Where'd the speakers go? And who let Youssou N'Dour in my house? Tried the Kevin Eubanks again - chuffing gone. Buh-bye. Happiness ensues. Fiona Apple drops by and sings her "When the Pawn" disc for me. Beautiful. Then Nat King Cole plays his "After Midnight" sessions right in front of me. Most realistic piano sound ever heard in my listening room.

Many listening-hours later... these things are FAST. I'm not sure I ever really knew what that term meant in association with speaker performance, but I do now. And paper cones are my new best friends. Yes, there are things the Kestrels do that the Elas don't, but the things the Elas do, they do so right, it's worth it. And they are a much better match for my current system and tastes.

A related observation: I moved the Kestrels to the HT, and they were FAR inferior to the Elas in that role, so much so that I had to take them out and put my small Tannoys back in. Now all is well, or will be, as soon as the Kestrels are listed on eBay.

Interesting Jayd, as I seemed to have the opposite problem with my Elas. I first put them 20 inches or so from the back wall and quickly asked "where'd the bass go"? There was hardly any. Then I moved them like 10 inches from the back wall and there was too much (well, it was bloated anyway).

Then I put them SBL-like against the back wall. Perfect. For some reason this was a better place for them. But still, I was not getting great image focus between the speakers. So I moved them closer together-- now at 6 feet apart. That was much better.

I still prefer the much more expensive NEATs, but the Ela is indeed a little darling. Interestingly, my Elas have morror imaged tweeters. Do they go to the inside or outside-- anyone know? Oh well. I am gonna sell mine anyway to help pay for the NEATs-- anyone interested?

Onlythat, sorry I don't know your 1st name... The Tweeters should go on the inside.

Dave

Jay,

I am glad you gave them a second go.

I'll have to try mine again miles off the back wall now. I like the bass my briks give me but they are not as fast as the ELAs. At least not without a mana scaffolding.

Is Set by Youssou N'Dour the same song and Set by Cheik Lo? One of my favourites.

cheers
Gus

quote:

---

Enjoy your ELA´s

and them move to REGA XEL...

---

The ELA 1 was replaced by the ELA 2, and the XEL was replaced by the Naos.

I have had Naos's in my sistem for nearly three years now, and I have to say that they are the most under-rated speaker.

Does anyone else like them?



Regards,

Steve.

Nope

I heard the same demo you describe at the Chester Show. I was there too, as it was organised by my dealer. It was on Sunday 22nd October 2000 that I was there.

As for the P25/Mira/Naos setup as I heard it at Chester, it sounded flat, limp, and dynamically lacking, imho.

Despite what Rega say, a Mira just isn't up to the job of driving the Naos properly. I even said this to them. They agreed with me, but said that they wanted to show their new 2000 range of electronics that didn't at that time include the newer Cursa/Maia pre/power combo which would be more suited to driving these speakers.

Indeed, I bought these speakers back in early 2000 on the strength of a demo using the old-style Jupiter/Io/Cursa/Maia electronics.

I sold my own P25 in the summer of this year as I felt that it lacked the dynamics I strive for and get with a naked CDX on QS Ref. through my Densen B200/B300XS pre/power combo.

I don't believe that Rega make amps or digital sources that will do justice to these loudspeakers. I was very impressed by their musical peformance on the end of CDS2/XPS/52/Super/Hi/250, and I've heard them see off a few speakers in the sub £1800 bracket.



Regards,

Steve.

quote:

---

Incidentally, Rega state that the Naos can be driven by the Brio.

---

I know, that is their official line.

However, driving them is one thing; making them sing is another.

Given their high sensitivity @ a rated 92 dB/W/m, and impedance between 4 and 6 ohms, they are not the tough load that will cause even a modest amp such as a Mira or even a Brio to shut down at moderate levels, but they do seem to thrive on big amps with plenty of muscle, control, and current delivery, as well as top-notch sources such as a CDS2 or P9 turntable.

Regarding cables, the manual provided with the Naos states,

"Be cautious of of very expensive 'solid core' and OFC types as they often do not offer value for money."

This may explain why they sound more musical with Naca5 than the superior-in-most-other-applications Townsend Isolda.


Regards,

Steve.

[This message was edited by Steven Toy on SUNDAY 29 December 2002 at 04:08.]

That's kind of confusing. What do you do with this Quattro cable if you only have one stereo power amp?

Biwiring Rega speakers is a no-no according to Rega.



Regards,

Steve.

2 x Densen B300XS!

Bloody hell.



Regards,

Steve.

I used to sell Mk.2's and loved them. However, one thing irked - they weren't mirror imaged. Every other Rega speaker was. The reason - the cabinet work was carried out by a single craftsmen and it wasn't viable to build alternative cabinets... (or so the story goes). The Mk.3, again apparently, came about when he retired....

I'd love to hear Mk1's, I think I even know where I can find a piar; but right now am pennyless...

Dave

After reading all the recent ELA threads I recently hooked mine up again. This time to a 250 and placed them about 50cm off the rear wall making sure the drivers poke out 4" beyond the cabinets between them.

Surprisingly there is lots more bass and fast bass too. Dub reggea sounds great even massive attack sounds ok, though still not as bassy as on the briks.

Now the next trick will be to get the briks as fast as the ELAs...

Seriously though I am now covinced that they are much cleanerwith a bit of air behind them.

cheers
Gus

My Mk1s are currently boxed, as I'm moving house on Thursday - eeek!!!

Anyway, I had enough bass in a Victorian terrace with wooden floors and a fireplace and 1 'cardboard' wall - am I likely to hear a big slowdown when putting them in the 1993 concrete box I'll be renting??

Also, I only paid £50 for mine as the tweeters are slightly dented due to a kid damaging them - how much will that balls up the sound, bearing in mind they are way more clean and revealing in the context of my system than the old Epos ES14s (which I've loaned to a mate - yuk - grainy treble - never got on with them but only paid £150 so not the end of the world...)... I suspect my wimpy Mira 2000 didn't do them any favours...

Incidentally, Massive Attack's "Blue lines" and Dreadzone's "Second light" sound ace on the Elas....

When the music's over turn out the lights

Gus,

Good to hear that the Elas are sounding good with the 250. I always thought that this amp would transform the Elas like it did the Briks. When I went from 110 to 250 with my Es22s the sound got much much larger somehow, and also more detailed as the drivers are under more control.

Elas are certainly easier to accommodate than Briks in your Singaporean flat, unles you start living inside the speaker itself like some of those S'pore-based DBL devotees must do!

Cheers,
Jens