# Gizmo with AV123 ELT525M's



## woofersus (May 6, 2008)

Craig,

I was asking for some advice over on the av123 forums, about a 2-channel amp to use in a 2.1 setup with my ELT525 monitors, and the thought occured to me that perhaps you had tried them together since you have the speakers, and presumably a sample unit Gizmo.

My concern is this. The Gizmo is rated at 25w into 4 ohms. With the ELT's being 8 ohm speakers, I would imagine I'd be looking at 13-14w, and with an efficiency of only 83db I'd be looking at a theoretical maximum volume of only around 90-91 db at 1 meter (87-88db at listening position) assuming I have all theoretical headroom maxed out in my software/hardware and there are no inefficiencies in conversion, and the Gizmo can put out it's max rating with no trouble. Am I calculating right? I'm concerned that I just won't be able to get much volume out of it.

Have you tried them together? Can you say you feel they'll fill a small room adequately? (around 10x12)

Any input you can give would be greatly appreciated.


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## skullguise (Apr 17, 2008)

I'll chime in a bit. I have the ELT525M's in my 14 x 14 room, and for a while was driving them with a NuForce Icon amp. Listening MOSTLY to acoustic, folk, world, and some jazz, the volume is fine.

I have thrown some heavier stuff - Tool, Einsturzende Neubauten, Shpongle, etc. - at it, and it was still OK, but you could start hearing the limitations on dynamics IMO. But the volume was getting uncomfortably loud at that point, and the rest of the music was fine.

Depending on your listening volumes, I would imagine Gizmo would be OK. I have actually found that the ELT525M's seem easier to drive than their rated sensitivity would suggest.....

In any case, I am curious to some "extended specs" from Craig or Doug as well....8 ohm rating, distortion, etc. I will likely be trying my Gizmo (ONE of my Gizmo's? ) with the ELT525M's.


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## shadowlight (Mar 3, 2007)

Some links to comments from folks who heard the Gizmo with ELT525M at the NJ GTG.

http://www.av123forum.com/showpost.php?p=565054&postcount=785

http://www.av123forum.com/showpost.php?p=564576&postcount=756

http://www.av123forum.com/showthread.php?p=564342&highlight=gizmo#post564342


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## craigsub (Sep 9, 2006)

woofersus said:


> Craig,
> 
> I was asking for some advice over on the av123 forums, about a 2-channel amp to use in a 2.1 setup with my ELT525 monitors, and the thought occured to me that perhaps you had tried them together since you have the speakers, and presumably a sample unit Gizmo.
> 
> ...


We should see about 18 Watts @ 8 ohms, which translates to appx. 12.5 dBW ... This puts a single ELT monitor at 95.5 dB @ one meter, and a pair @ 98.5 dB.

Add room gain and subtract for distance, and you will see mid 90's - which is pretty loud. 

That's the math, and as skullguise and shadowlight have also said, or linked to, the ELT's do pretty well with a moderate amp. :yes:


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## woofersus (May 6, 2008)

I guess I hadn't thought about room gain and the 3db from the other speaker. :scratchchin:

I'm not looking for huge volume as this will be for nearfield monitoring. I'll only be about 1.5m-2m away from the speakers at most. Probably closer to 1.3 much of the time. If I actually get mid-90's that will be sufficient.

It sounds like the Gizmo will probably get me the volume I need at 18w. I just want to make sure that I can get it past "intimate listening" to "room-filling volume" when I need to during the mixing process despite not having every last bit of headroom completely used in the signal chain, and before any kind of clipping. Can I take that right up to max output without problems?

This won't be connected directly to a cd player or squeezebox or something with IC's. This will come off of my EMU 1212m's analog outputs and will be fed by it's software mixer, which will be fed either by windows .wav output or by adobe audition using ASIO drivers depending on what I'm doing. I can set my analog outputs to -10 or +4. Will the Gizmo be able to handle the +4dbu signal or should I change it?


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