Big surprise today for those who have been hesitant to get an Elemental Designs (eD) powered subwoofer for their home theater because of the rough and wife-unapproved odye finish!

All subwoofers shipped from January 22nd, 2009 will be matte-finished. Elemental Designs’ blog has stated several reasons for ditching the regular odye finish.

1. Matte is more popular than Odye.
2. Odye is oil based and pretty harsh to work with.
3. Less finishes in paint = less set up. More gets painted in a day cutting down shipping times quickly.
4. Removes the upgrade cost from customers and rolls the better product out to everyone at the lowest cost.

I can definitely confirm that it is indeed pretty harsh to work with since I myself own an eD subwoofer that is odye-finished. While I am not complaining at the overall look of the product, I sometimes wish that I had gotten it matte when I have to move the thing around because it’s very rough like sandpaper.

Another move that eD is taking to “Go green” would be the move from MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) to EFS (Environmentally Friendly Substrate). Comparisons of both materials, along with information, can be found on this page.

eD’s complete powered subwoofers line-up for home theater can be found here.