In the world of church production, there is no more important, or to put it a better way, “unable to fail” system, than the audio system. As a former pastor of mine says, “If the congregation can't hear (and understand) the teaching, what's the point?” So, as the audio director at my church, my goal is to find the best possible audio system components I can with the resources I have. Whether it's a specific headset mic for the speaking pastor or a loudspeaker system for an auditorium, I want to ensure that the message gets across clearly and without distraction. That said, let's look at the HK Audio Elements loudspeaker rig. The HK Audio brand is no newcomer to the loudspeaker industry, though they are new to the North American market. HK Audio is a 20-year-old company based in Germany that has a pedigree of developing concert-level touring systems—a passion that remains today, even though their offerings now include loudspeakers for installed sound systems and smaller portable systems, including the pole-mounted Elements portable systems.
When the shipment first arrived at our church, I was a little overwhelmed by the 22 boxes sitting in our shipping room, but after unpacking, I realized the Elements system is really quite elegant and simple. There are only three types of loudspeakers, and a total of six different components to the entire Elements system. There is a mid/high box, an amplifier, a powered sub-woofer, an unpowered sub-woofer, a mounting pole and a floor stand. All these parts are used to create systems that are scalable depending on the event. If you have a small room with just a few people speaking, you can bring two subs, the mounting poles and two mid/high boxes. If you have a jazz band outside, with a deep seating area, you can bring four subs, two amps and eight mid/high boxes, which configure into a six-foot line array. If you have a large room with a full rock band, you can bring eight subs, two amps and eight mid/high boxes. During my review time I was able to use this system in all three of these configurations. However, you can customize your system to your situation. HK Audio says there are 44 “officially recognized” systems.
Digging Deeper
Two of the Element components are so visually similar, it was initially a bit confusing. The E435 mid-/high-frequency box contains four 3.5-inch drivers in a line array, and is nearly identical to the EA600 power amp module that delivers up to 600 watts at four ohms and weighs just 6.1 pounds. HK Audio says this is done so that the integration of the amp as the base of up to four High/Mid units is completely discrete. In other words, aesthetically they “match.” The E435 mid/high box weighs just 5.2 pounds and offers a frequency response of 140 Hz-20,000 Hz (-10 dB) and 70-degree horizontal dispersion. Vertical dispersion depends on how many elements are included in the column. The EA600 power amp can drive up to four E435 mid/high boxes, or two E435s and two E110 Sub single 10-inch subwoofers. An E110 Sub A powered subwoofer is also available, which contains the same amp configuration as the EA600. Both the powered and unpowered subs offer frequency response of 45 Hz–150 Hz. The unpowered version weighs 36.4 pounds, and the powered version weighs in at just 41.9 pounds.
Each module has what HK audio calls its E-Connect Bus, a series of ¼-inch connectors that mate with the adjacent component.
From the time I pulled up to the show in my car (yes, it all fit in my four-door sedan) to the time the system was set up and passing audio, roughly 20 minutes had passed—an incredibly short amount of time from what I am used to. The “E-Connect Bus” loudspeaker connector system made it very easy to put together. Each component fits directly into the component below, and with the signal routing built into each box you don't need to worry about having a bunch of cables visible to the audience. This is a particularly important feature if you need a sound system that's relatively invisible.
With the system set up, I was eager to hear how it sounded. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much out of these small, lightweight boxes. I have not had much luck with small full-range sound systems from other manufacturers, some of which had similar characteristics to the HK Audio Elements system. However, this system surprised me. It responded very well in each of the three configurations I tested (see second paragraph for configuration details). The vocals were clear, the instruments were present and distinct from each other, and the low end was punchy.
It's an excellent sounding system at up to 90-95 decibels. At higher levels, say 95-98 decibels and up, I found that the internal limiters kicked in and compressed the overall mix. The manufacturer responded to our finding and says the system is capable of running cleanly up to 110 dB. They suspect the problem may have been in a mismatched input impedance, but other factors could have contributed to the result we were hearing at higher levels. Regardless, our senior high youth group likes the volume a little louder than in their worship services, and I was hoping for a little more out of the internal processing.
In the end, after I had the system packed and ready to go back, I sat down to think where I could use this system in my church. It would be great for our youth retreats, where the instrumentation is small and volumes are lower. Being self-powered with internal processing, the only other piece of equipment needed is a mixing console.
The HK Audio Elements system performs far beyond most compact portable, powered sound systems you'd see in a music store. Its engineering is remarkable and, like many German products, the price tag is hefty. This is a great sounding system within the limits of its design: speech-only, smaller DJ applications, acoustic music and full bands in smaller venues. It is lightweight and very easy to set up—both very important attributes in the volunteer-intensive world of church production—especially for portable churches.
