American Audio ELS-GO 8BT
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This product has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Please contact us to find a replacement.
Lightweigt and highly efficient, the ELS-GO 8BT from American DJ is perfect for small to mid-level events! This battery-powered speaker with Bluetooth has been designed with low power consumption and plenty of output power, and has a microphone input and volume control for use as a small PA speaker.
Specifications
• Lightweight, battery powered speaker with Blue tooth
• 8" USB Active speaker specifically designed for the DJ and rental market.
• Extremely high efficiency design with low power consumption and plenty of output power for those small, mid level parties.
• Microphone input (XLR+Jack) and volume control great for when you want to use it for a small PA speaker.
• Line inputs
• Line Outputs
• Master Volume control
• Includes Power cable 2 meter
• Total Power
• BLUE TOOTH
• USB/SD BT Playback
The ELS GO 8BT by American Audio (ADJ) is a speaker that I have been waiting for years to see someone develop - a small, pole-mountable, battery-powered speaker cabinet with professional audio connections and output (for linking to additional speakers) with decent sound. I was SO excited when I first learned of it's release earlier this year!<br /> <br /> I run music for wedding ceremonies (about 100 a year) and constantly run speaker & power cables every week at different venues for our sound setup. Being that this speaker is battery powered and has a 'LINK' output to run to an additional speaker, this speaker would save me the hassle (and avoid the sight) of having to run multiple cables at every event. Awesome, right?! Well let's talk about what I found when I purchased a couple of these speakers and set everything up...<br /> <br /> The GOOD:<br /> - The Price! Very affordable!<br /> - Lightweight & Compact<br /> - Bluetooth Connectivity is great - Nice range, responsive and easy to setup<br /> - Battery life is excellent (up to 6hrs), easy to charge and easy to replace the battery if/when needed (takes a common 12V battery)<br /> - Has a decent battery life indicator (3 separate LED lights on back)<br /> - Speaker pole-mountable<br /> - Multiple audio connection options (XLR, TS [1/4"], RCA, and digital options [SD, BT, USB])<br /> - 'LINK' output option for wiring additional speakers (well talk about this in the 'UGLY' section, though)<br /> - Basic Bass/Treble equalizer adjustments (also in the 'BAD' and 'UGLY' section, though)<br /> <br /> The BAD:<br /> - Poor and disappointing sound quality (okay treble, but little bass and lacks any decent mid-range). My 2-way $90 TDK portable Bluetooth speaker has better sound clarity with it's little 4" woofer - seriously.<br /> - The basic Bass/Treble equalizer totally sucks in terms of manipulating to try obtaining decent sound output. Because the woofer produces poor bass to begin with, when you turn up the bass adjustment (anywhere past 12 o'clock on the knob), the sound just becomes muddy and is incredibly noticeable. Same goes for the Treble adjustment here - the sound becomes too tinny when turned past 12 o'clock and also muffled when reduced below 12 o'clock. Though just a 2-way speaker, a Mid-Range adjustment would have been nice here to possibly compensate for the poor Treble/Bass relationship.<br /> <br /> The UGLY:<br /> - WHITE/STATIC NOISE EXTREME!! One thing that I'm sure every person will notice when flipping on the power to this speaker for the first time is the horrible amp hiss that is omitted through both the tweeter and woofer - it's LOUD and incredibly noticeable as you turn-up the volume to ANY of the inputs, including the digital ones. I made sure to check all adjustments and settings (there's not much, really) to eliminate the noise any way I could. It's always present and could easily be heard in a quiet environment.<br /> - The Bass/Treble Equalizer adds to the white noise, immensely! When you completely turn down both the Bass & Treble adjustments, it does lower the amp hiss; however, by doing so, you basically create a sound quality that is completely hollow and unusable, no matter what you set the source volume to. In order to get decent sound quality, you HAVE to place both your Bass/Treble at least to 12 o'clock - welcome back white noise. When increasing Bass or Treble (especially), it amplifies the white noise hiss, exponentially, making the noise unbearably loud, rendering the speaker unusable in professional situations.<br /> - The 'LINK' output. Good God. I'm pretty sure this is my most-hated 'feature' of this product. It turns out that this output is wired as a slaved 'Mixed' output, meaning that any/all unwanted noise and equalizer adjustments from the first speaker are sent out through the line to the next speaker - thus, retaining all white noise from the 1st speaker and stacking onto the noise of the 2nd speaker! Unacceptable! Not only is this noticeably bad with 2 speakers, but what if I needed 3, 4 or more speakers to be linked? By the time the signal reached the final speaker, you would just get extreme, unbearable static! Not good. Not good at all.<br /> <br /> Conclusion:<br /> The ELS GO 8BT battery-powered speaker is a great concept with good battery life and possesses audio features not found in other portable powered speakers. However, unfortunately, it's the poor sound quality, horrendous white/static noise levels, and terrible LINK output design that sinks this product into the 'amateur zone', thus making it undesirable and downright unusable for professionals in the music/entertainment industry. Very poor design from a reputable company. Such a shame.
Sound quality is really not good. BUT. ITS good ENOUGH. for the price. This thing has saved me a ton of times. the onboard usb player is a life saver, its very light and the charge lasts very long. finally its durable, ive straight dropped this thing down a hill here in hawaii, rocks, water, evertying. Its fine!
