Hi Everyone

Just wanted to post a little project I completed in the last week.  I have ER Audio Acorn ESL panels in my main system, and wanted to also use ESLs for a small desktop system.  ER Audio have many different size ESL panels, so some time ago I got a set of the smallest - the 505, which I had temporarily hooked up but didn't get around to building enclosures for them until this week.  The latest version of these 505s go quite low, I do have a small version of a ripole sub that I built for this system as well (my big system has large ripoles which I am a big fan of so did a smaller version for this small set up) just to augment a little at the low end.

The 505 panels come as a flat plane panel with an edge clamping strip to hold the perimeter panels sections together, and an assembled PCB board holding all the electronics needed.  As I have always liked the thin profile of the ESL, I worked with Rob at ER Audio to incorporate a small acrylic spacer panel beneath the ESL itself, which clamps into the same system, and then enables this panel to be the support for the ESL onto the enclosure - two small bolts go straight through the acrylic then into the enclosure.

For the enclosures I used stacked 12mm ply, with a stain and buffing oil finish.

A few pictures of the build:













For a small desktop system these sound superb - a big thanks to Rob at ER Audio for his help and guidance

Very nice - I like the ply enclosures, did the same for my ripole subs - was able to recycle a lot of old ply into them. What is the efficiency of the panels? Where do they roll off in the bottom end?
Well done!

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Looks awesome, wish I had the skills to do that. Well done you.

Mini ESLs. Brilliant!

Very nice. Just checked out the ER Audio website.
I could use some of these on the test bench!

AMR-iFi R&D

Thanks for all the feedback everyone
Papahemi - I’ll need to pull out the response plots but I believe they are good from 200 Hz up - I actually have found them to be very good lower than this, and I currently bring my ripole out at 95Hz using a 2nd order 24 dBa slope using a minidsp (which also sums left and right as it is a 2.1 system) - whilst the ripole uses the dsp for crossover the ESLs use the onboard passive system.
On efficiency I believe they are mid 80s, I drive them with an NCore Hypex 2 channel, with a Hypex on the ripole also. That said I believe Rob has run them with ‘fleawatt’ tube amps so they don’t need a lot

Feb 8, 2021 12:25:20 GMT 12 mattb said:

Thanks for all the feedback everyone
Papahemi - I’ll need to pull out the response plots but I believe they are good from 200 Hz up - I actually have found them to be very good lower than this, and I currently bring my ripole out at 95Hz using a 2nd order 24 dBa slope using a minidsp (which also sums left and right as it is a 2.1 system) - whilst the ripole uses the dsp for crossover the ESLs use the onboard passive system.
On efficiency I believe they are mid 80s, I drive them with an NCore Hypex 2 channel, with a Hypex on the ripole also. That said I believe Rob has run them with ‘fleawatt’ tube amps so they don’t need a lot

I also use minidsp, use 200hz as x0ver point, in 2.2 system - I love it's ease of use, but would really love to have an all analogue system, using minidsp for the second system. Mind you the thing has been powered up since purchase (about 5 years) and it hasn't missed a beat! You got a pic of the sub?

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

Hi Papahemi - yes will post pic, I am just colour matching the sub to blend with the esls so will take a pic when finished
My 4x10 HD minidsp was in use on my main system but I have since gone back to all analog on that one (active and passive crossovers), so using it on the small system instead, and only on bass duty (esl panels have on board passive xover)

Just posting some pics of the mini Ripole.  I took a photo of it on top of my main system's 12" equivalent for comparison.
The ripol sits below and to the side of the ESLs, and I have found the bass trap foam to be beneficial given it is in a corner/close to wall.  I run one sub in the small system for a 2.1, and the main system has two ripoles, one per channel

rgs