Eltax Symphony 8.4 floorstanders

mrk

mrk

mrk

Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
105,130
Location
South Coast
Yo :D

I have a pair of Tannoy M3 Cherry which i bought for £100 a year or so ago, they looked smart and sounded great but at higher volumes I can tell one of the speakers has an air leak as it waffles on deep bass sounds from the edges of the driver mounting.

I've been looking around for comparable speakers on the cheap and this time would rather go brand new to benefit from the store warranty should the new ones begin to waffle as well and noticed a local store is selling the Eltax Symphony 8.4 at £99. [Eltax site]

As far as floorstanding speakers go they are of standard basic spec (bi wirable, 92db, 115w rms) so I was unsure as to the quality of them, they certainly look smart though:

304529nt2.jpg


I did do a google for them and found this user review which convinced me to really consider them and may well just pick them up tomorrow morning.

My uncle had a pair of Eltax speakers many years ago connected to a Sherwood amp and that rounded ace as far as I can remember it further giving me positive thoughts.

What do you guys reckon? at £99 I don't think I could go wrong and I'll be driving them using a NAD C320BEE btw.

and will be used for movies, music and gaming. I will not be playing music too loud but do desire some volume at times with a nice bass note but not subwoofer bassy. Sometimes I wished the Tannoy M3 had a little more bass so perhaps this is the ticket?
 
do you like your current speakers otherwise? couldnt you just seal the driver up rather than buy a new set of speakers? gaffa tape works wonders you know....
 
I do like them yes and I'm sure I can seal it up nicely with some sealant glue on the insides but the bass desire would still be there! front firing bass ports often tend to have weaker bass when you're closer to the speaker so need to be further away to hear the bass properly - since I use the speakers on my computer I can't sit back so would like something with a bit more bass hence the Eltax!

I'm also quite certain that when I do fix the Tannoy I can resell them for close to what I paid for them as they are mint so I would not be losing out on too much money if anything at all.

I just need a little push to say "sounds good go for it" or otherwise I guess !
 
i dont know, im not really sure i would in your situation. remember rear firing ports need ample room to breath to avoid sounding overly boomy. it doesnt sound like you have a lot of room to play with if they are next to your desk?
 
james.miller said:
i dont know, im not really sure i would in your situation. remember rear firing ports need ample room to breath to avoid sounding overly boomy. it doesnt sound like you have a lot of room to play with if they are next to your desk?
Click to expand...

I have the room behind the speakers (at least 30cm which is the advised distance from a wall) but the reason I can't sit back is because I'm at the PC using it so won't be able to read anything on the screen if I'm all the way back!

Is there any other tricks I can do to improve the bass? Does filling the bottom bit of the cabinet with sand really help?

I have laminate flooring btw and I do have the speakers on their spikes to stop them sliding if people bump into them when walking around if that helps

Edit*

Or would you say a better alternative would be to just upgrade the amp to something with a little more output power? that would certainly give the Tannoys more drive no doubt thus increasing bass too?
 
umm, it depends. if they have a seperate chamber that is there to be filled sure, try it. i doubt it would give you any more bass at the bottom end, though it might tighten up the speakers a little. id be very unusual for budget speakers to have these chambers though. its not recommended to fill the main enclosure with anything as it will definitely have the opposite effect. it'll decrease the volume inside the cabinets which would in turn increase the tuning of the boxes and give you less bass...

sitting near-field to speakers, especially against a wall, can be a problem. I dont really think it can be done satisfactory, or at least ive never ben satisfied, which was why i went with smaller speakers on my desk and a subwoofer at the other end of the room. with a little playing, you can get them working together and along with the boundary reinforcement you get from being against the opposite wall to the sub, you get all the bottom end you'd ever need (flat down to 10hz more or less) this doesnt help you though.


im not sure what else you can try. have you tried bunging the ports?it might reduce bass above the tuning point but it would increase the output below it. it may or may not work. having the speakers on spikes is a good idea, but be careful of the floor, they can mark and leave holes in laminate flooring very easily. i have mine sitting on some felt pads i got from ikea to stop this happening:)

Or would you say a better alternative would be to just upgrade the amp to something with a little more output power? that would certainly give the Tannoys more drive no doubt thus increasing bass too?
Click to expand...

oh do you just want more bass or lower bass? an amp might help but youd need to double the amp power for a 3db increase in volume. i dont think even with the nad that power is your problem. if you just want more bass then new speakers may be the way to go. id seriously try to get a demo of them first in a similar setup to yours if you can, as im convinced it would end up very boomy using rear ported floor standers.
 
Last edited:
Aye my floor has tiny surface dents where the speakers have been sitting on the spikes :p not noticeable unless you're up close though.

Actually thinking about it I do really like the Tannoys, the treble is awesome and detailed and the bass is there on movies just sometimes not as apparent in music though having thought about this too I think I may need to check the sources those music tracks came from and re-rip/acquire them to retest.

Thanks for the advice, has helped me save some hassle for the meantime while I fix this :D
 
hifi shops sell metal cups that you can sit the spikes on to protect youre floor. they are supposed to isolate you speakers from the floor a bit more and help them sound better.a mate had some i couldnt tell the differance but they did stop the scratches on his floor.
 
I've not heard the M3s but they do look very similar to the R3 which I once owned. Having also heard the Symphony 8.4s I would say that for the money they are excellent value, if considerably less refined than the R3s (but what do you expect for a fifth of the RRP?).

The name is a little misleading because their very forward presentation makes the Symphony's better suited to home theatre than music playback.
 
Ah that makes sense then! so it's more Grado than Sennheiser if I were to put a comparison together as I prefer the Senn soundstage over the central forward presentation of Grado headphones.

I will seek out those cups stutekat mentioned, they sound the business :D
 
Take out the 5 year guarantee for a tenner :) And get some nice pics up when you have hooked them up!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom