my erd review

[mrcoop]

I am no fanboy...and this is the first time ever buying anything from emo...also bought an xpa3 as well. I didn't even no they had speakers until I saw the website. I heard great reviews of the amps, and when I saw the xmas special, what the heck, I had to give them a shot.

Before these, I had 2 5db aperions and 2 4b's for the rears...and had a pair of inexpensive jbl bookshelf surrounds before those.

First off, they arrived packaged very nice...the speaker had some heft to it for as small as it was and looked very well built...cosmetically, I like the satin look for my theater room...matches the hsu subs satin.

Now it was time for hanging them...I looked at the license plate bracket and thought...pretty cool idea, but I was slightly irritated, that there were no holes down the center, so I can just mount them on a stud. Studs are 16" on center and these babies are only 13" wide...so out to the garage to drill some holes, 2 holes each...(didn't have the hardware to mount them just in the drywall and didn't want to run the the store). After drilling the holes, I hung them up...very solid.

I let them play for over 24 hours before really comparing them to the 5db's.

Now there was one thing that I just didn't like about the 5db's. I thought the imaging was very poor...sounded great, but the angle just wasn't great enough for the tweeters and woofers. The dead zone to the side seemed just to large...I do like direct radiating speakers, but they are just not practical when I have 12 people in the room, so I wanted something in between the direct radiating and the design of the 5db's...so was thinking of getting the qs 8's, 1k for 4 or atlantic tech side surrounds, even more money then the axioms. But then I saw the erd's, liked the angle of the tweeters and liked the direct firing woofer and then I saw the price...I could get 4 of what I paid for 2 5db's or 2 QS 8's...I think I'll try the erd's. I still plan on getting the qs8's and do a comparison to the erd's.

I love these things...they sound as good as the aperions, in fact, to my ears, better...but the imaging, much superior...probably because I prefer a more direct radiating speaker...I had the sides set in dipole and the rears in bipole. I treid variuos configurations, but like the dipole for the sides and bipole for the rears. I compared them to the aperions in both di and bi. Iam truly happy with the sound quality and imaging of these speakers and they are staying and the aperions are going! Now its time for the qs8's...they will be next on my shopping list...

PLEASE take my review with a grain of salt...I loved them, not sure if everyone would like them as much as I, but to "my ears" and in "my room", these are king, as of now...they are staying up!

Wondering if I should look at there other speakers for the front stage...Looks wise, I swear the 6.3's look like Atlantic Technolgy 8200's, just with smaller woofers in the 6.3's...I wonder if the designer had his hands in both of these models.

Hee is a pic of the aperion


and now the erd...the pic doesn't show it very well, but the tweeters fire much more directly then the aperions...which I prefer


sides and rears of the erd's with mbm 12's under the side surrounds


my new xpa3


my front stage...curently aperions and 2 hsu 3.3 subs

[Indycolts]

thanks for the review. Your room looks real nice.

[Deleted]

+1

[bfisher]

nice review. like you - I think the ERD-1s fill the room nicely yet have enough direct sound to be able to really localize surround effects. It's a great blend. I cant remember if I have sides on dipole, rear as bipoles like you... or the reverse!

[Fish Guy]

I used to have 4 qs8 speakers Imo the erd speakers i now have are better in every way possible in my system to the axioms. No comparison to my ears.

[RayoVac]

I too have 4 ERDs. Setup as you do as Dipole on the sides and BiPole (not inverted) in the back. My room is about 20x25 with vaulted ceiling and a big 8 foot opening in the front right corner. I recently replace a Klipsch Ref-7 setup using four RS-7s.

I have been VERY impressed with the ERDs and echo your approval/comments about the imaging. I here things I never heard before... and have been going back to watch movies I have watched before to try and have a fair comparison.

I would love to say I am not an Emotiva "Fanboy"... to late, I have been bitten. I started a couple of years ago with the "Big Dogs" a DMC-1 and MPS-1 and now have the ERT-8.3s, ERM-6.3 and four ERDs sold my DMC-1 and am waiting on a UMC-1 and some X-Series cables.

I don't think I have enough words to express my excitement about the difference improvement of sound with the switch to Emotiva speakers. Is it remarkably better then my Klpsch Ref-7? I would not say better, just way different. But... for me, better... and from an imaging standpoint... DEFINITELY better with those ERD in the Surround and Surround Back positions.

Thanks for the review. Every time I hear positive comments about the Emo stuff, it just makes me feel that much happier for the decision I made to make the switch.

Rayo

[mrcoop]

well I just unloaded my front stage aperions and order klipsch's kl-650's for the front stage. Iam a little concerned how they are going to match up with the erd's. May not match up so well, but Iam hopeful.

[mrcoop]

As I thought, hooked everything up and it doesn't matter they are different. I cannot tell any difference between the front stage and surrounds.