INTRODUCTION

   Don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this in any of my reviews but there are some dates inside the summer that i like to attend small festivals/events organized by friends and/or family members either at the beach or at my village on the mountain. The reason i even mention this is I also happen to be the one in charge of bringing along “portable” speakers with enough power output to bring those festivals/events to life so I’m always on the lookout for newer and more powerful models which I can use. For the past 2 years E-Lektron products have accompanied me at those festivals with great success (people like their rather “simple” designs a lot more than I was expecting really) so when they recently added the EL12-DA (812.680) professional speaker model in their product line I just had to take a closer look and eventually try it out at one such event.

   E-Lektron started its business in 2007, its target to offer DJ & PA electronics online at competitive prices and with premium service. At that time regular suppliers were not so keen on their products being offered online so E-Lektron started developing their own products, starting with speakers and amplifiers. Our products are being manufactured by contract-manufacturers with E-Lektron’s high standards and are shipped to our customers in the EU with DHL from our warehouse in Paderborn, Germany. Our prices are competitive since there's no “middle man” and our products are covered by a 2-year warranty (after which we can still repair them in our own workshop thanks to our large stock of spare parts, also for older products).

   Just like both the EL225-UHF and the JAD38-B before that the EL12-DA with its 16.5kg heavy body (made out of ABS plastic) is far from what we’d call “portable”. Still the 2-way (bass reflex) digital bi-amp active EL12-DA is not only actually smaller than the former two but it can also deliver an impressive power output of 600WRMS (1600W peak) with a frequency range/response of 45Hz-20KHz and a sensitivity of 102dB. This is actually more powerful compared to both the EL225-UHF and the JAD38-B but unlike the EL225-UHF it does require to be plugged into an electrical socket. The EL12-DA also features Bluetooth v4.2 connectivity via CSR's BlueCore CSR8635 QFN chip (AVCRP v1.4/A2DP v1.2/HFP v1.6/HSP v1.2/DI v1.3), rear mixer (3 individual audio channels), integrated MP3/WMA player (USB), microphone/guitar input, microphone XLR input, mix output, left/right carrying handles, 35mm pole socket and two rigging points. So at least on paper the brand new EL12-DA seems to be a fine alternative to both the EL225-UHF and the JAD38-B (at least if you don’t need the extra features packed by them) so let’s continue our review and see first hand just how good it is.