CONCLUSION

   We received the EL12-DA back in late June and aside using it in the lab for a few days I ended up taking it with me to a beach not very far from here to “help” with one of the events previously mentioned. To my surprise even though the ABS enclosure of the EL12-DA is nothing exciting in terms of quality (although ABS is quite durable) and design (just like with the enclosures of the JAD38-B and the EL225-UHF – it also lacks any kind of RGB lighting) many people liked it and so if that’s one of your concerns it may not be justified. That being said design and even enclosure quality are not nearly as important as audio quality and here the EL12-DA doesn’t do very well, at least not nearly as well as the JAD38-B and the EL225-UHF. Sure, it has nothing to fear in terms of audio output (although it does feel less powerful - that could be due to the smaller woofer surface compared to the other two) but when it comes to mids and highs (clarity/crispness) it’s just not as good (although it does very well in terms of bass). Now if you check the specs of all three speakers you will see that the EL12-DA doesn’t feature the same wide frequency response so that could be the reason as to why it’s not as good in that area but at the end of the day the end result is what matters and so if you want the best possible audio quality both the JAD38-B and the EL225-UHF are simply put better. Worth pointing out is that even though E-Lektron states that the USB port is compatible with 16GB flash drives we used an 128GB one without issues (just remember to format it using the exFAT system). The lack of an SD card slot and a rear LCD screen are also two things we would had liked to see but it seems that E-Lektron focused a lot on the inputs and outputs of this unit along with the ability to control all 3 audio channels separately.

   The E-Lektron EL12-DA Professional Speaker System currently retails for 179.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) and although some potential buyers may consider this as a bit much let’s keep in mind that there are less powerful and feature-rich models in the market that cost quite a bit more. Unfortunately even though the EL12-DA delivers on pretty much everything we care about when testing large portable speakers it does fall short when it comes to audio quality and even though for some professionals primarily looking to use it for its inputs/outputs this may not be such a big deal for people looking for a good speaker to use outdoors or even indoors the JAD38-B or the EL225-UHF are clearly much better choices.

PROS

- Durable ABS Plastic Enclosure
- Power Output (600 WRMS)
- Bluetooth v4.2
- USB Player
- Microphone/Guitar/XLR Inputs
- Rigging Points
- Price (Compared to Similar Models)

CONS

- Size/Weight
- Audio Quality (Compared To The JAD38-B & EL225-UHF)
- No RGB LEDs