RED SOUND FRFR Speakers now offered through the Fractal Audio online store!

My Elis.8's arrive on Thursday. I'll report back with my (highly subjective, by no means expert) opinion on listening to music through them, as a secondary use. I have no doubt they'll excel with my FM9 -- primary use, of course.
 
I have the Elis 8 active. I am going to buy the Elis 8 passive soon. When you buy the Elis 8 passive, is the speak on cable included? Also, if the cable gets damaged, where can you buy another one?
 
I recently bought a pair of Elis8 Pros from Fractal. This isn't really a review... not enough experience with 'em yet. But so far, I've used a stereo pair on smaller jazz room gigs, and I'm diggin' em. As others have previously noted, mids are somewhat enhanced and highs are a bit less glassy and "hi-fi", compared to my CLR Neo. So, not what I'd choose for my steel-string acoustic gtr gigs... but terrific for jazz gtr sound.

Now, for my idiot newbie question...;)

To date, I've simply been running two 1/4", TS unbalanced gtr cables out of my AX8 into each Elis8. No noticeable hum/buzz problems... but I'm a bit puzzled that I have the output vol knobs set at 8-9 on the Elis, and the AX8 out around 11-1PM, depending on the room. I've certainly got enough volume for these gigs... but I'm wondering if using the unbalanced cables (as opposed to BALANCED cables, as has been specified) is causing me to lose not only volume but freq response?
In short... am I missing a better result by not using balanced 1/4" cables?
 
paulasbell said:
I recently bought a pair of Elis8 Pros from Fractal. This isn't really a review... not enough experience with 'em yet. But so far, I've used a stereo pair on smaller jazz room gigs, and I'm diggin' em. As others have previously noted, mids are somewhat enhanced and highs are a bit less glassy and "hi-fi", compared to my CLR Neo. So, not what I'd choose for my steel-string acoustic gtr gigs... but terrific for jazz gtr sound.

Now, for my idiot newbie question...;)

To date, I've simply been running two 1/4", TS unbalanced gtr cables out of my AX8 into each Elis8. No noticeable hum/buzz problems... but I'm a bit puzzled that I have the output vol knobs set at 8-9 on the Elis, and the AX8 out around 11-1PM, depending on the room. I've certainly got enough volume for these gigs... but I'm wondering if using the unbalanced cables (as opposed to BALANCED cables, as has been specified) is causing me to lose not only volume but freq response?
In short... am I missing a better result by not using balanced 1/4" cables?
Click to expand...
If all other things are equal, the difference between balanced and unbalanced is 6 dB. There is no difference in frequency response.

Note that Fractal’s 1/4” Outputs are unbalanced. If you want balanced out, use the XLR outputs.
 
Rex said:
If all other things are equal, the difference between balanced and unbalanced is 6 dB. There is no difference in frequency response.

Note that Fractal’s 1/4” Outputs are unbalanced. If you want balanced out, use the XLR outputs.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Rex! So, to clarify...

I'm presently running out of Output 2, using the two 1/4" outs. (I prefer doing that consistently, so that when I'm on larger stages, I can use my same backline setup, and run XLR out of Output 1.)

So, for me, if I was to run TRS 1/4" cables out of Out 2, I wouldn't notice any difference in vol or freq response?
But, if I was to run XLRs out of Out 1, then I'd be 4x louder, but no freq response difference?
 
paulasbell said:
So, for me, if I was to run TRS 1/4" cables out of Out 2, I wouldn't notice any difference in vol or freq response?
But, if I was to run XLRs out of Out 1, then I'd be 4x louder, but no freq response difference?
Click to expand...
Fractal’s 1/4” Outputs are Humbuster, not balanced. You can’t get a balanced signal out of them, no matter what you do. A TRS cable will not help, and may introduce noise because the Humbuster function needs a Humbuster cable.

Switching to XLRs will add 6 dB, which is four times the power, but you won’t hear it as four times louder. It takes about a 10 dB increase to be perceived as twice as loud. And there will be no difference in frequency response, other than what Fletcher-Munson fools your ears into hearing.
 
Diego said:
where are going to use them (rehearsal room, bedroom, studio)? As already said Elis.8 has a lot of power and can be the right solution if you have to fight with your neighbors 😉
I tried MF.10 and then switched to Eli’s.8 in my studio since they are more than enough for tracking (FAS unit out1 direct to my SSL board - or digitally directly to my DAW - and Elis.8 right in front of the guitar player for feeling and feedback).
Click to expand...
And they only weigh 8.5 kg.
 
paulasbell said:
So, for me, if I was to run TRS 1/4" cables out of Out 2
Click to expand...
As was said, don’t use the 1/4” outs with TRS, expecting to get a balanced signal, ‘cause that won’t work.

You can use the 1/4” Humbuster outputs with a TS/guitar cable into unbalanced 1/4” inputs on the other units. See the rear panel description (#20) in the manual on p. 23 in the FM3 manual.

IMG_0030.jpeg
The same information is in the FM9 manual.
 
Just got a MF.10 Pro/M in.
Short comparison to my CLR's:
  • very similar when the CLR's are on Backline setting
  • I don't find it dark at all
  • I seem to get sustain a bit easier with the Redsound
  • Plenty of power although at first glance not as powerful as the CLR
  • Sounds very good when placed on the floor - that was a surprise
  • Very light

I just might get me another one :cool:
 
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Part Deux....
I checked against the CLR's when using them as monitors instead of as a backline.
Now the difference in clarity was a bit more apparent.
Latyer, when I took the little guy home, it was a bit of a different story.
Not so great.
I started checking frequency responses and so on and after a while, when testing with various EQ settings and so,
I was testing frequency response with the signal generator and a Phonic PAAZ Analyzer.
Even with some shielding with foam for reflections, you could see that there was some comb filtering going on due to the room.
It seemed to have a dip in the frequency response around 600-800 Hz.
I tried compensating but nothing seemed to help.
So I I added a little 2 dB shelve at 2500 Hz and filtered out some annoying frequencies.
Better.
But putting the speaker not on the floor but on some foam for nearfield monitors seemed to make a bit of a difference.
Then some experimentation with differnet presets.
I must say, it doesn't sound as crisp as my Equator D8's.
A bit darker, hence the boost at 2.5KHz but it's not quite there yet.
To clarify a bit further. I am experimenting with mono presets.
But they always lacked something. When comparing my MF.10 to my D8's I noticed when using them together, although I'm using a mono preset, it sounded much better.
I had the same experience when combining the MF.10 with my CLR's.
So, I think that, even when playing mono, you get a fuller sound when using multiple speakers spaced a bit apart.
This might seem like obvious to anyone, but when being used to playing stereo for a very long time, I thought of playing mono would work well with only one speaker.
The thing is that even choruses sound better with multiple mono speakers.
So I can send a mono signal to FOH and still use my dual mono speaker setup with no fear of FOH incidentally summing two channels to mono and having phase issues.
Which leads me to think further about getting another one......
 
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