Elac BS-U5
Contents
Elac… we never test any of it. But we didn’t want to pass up this opportunity. After all, there are a lot of roaring stories to read on the internet. What’s true about that? We have a budget model: the BS-U5, where BS does not stand for Bullshit. On the contrary. Elac is German, so he’s a very serious company… no jokes here!
The Elac is a model with a coaxial unit for the middle and high. Underneath is a compact woofer for the low frequencies. So it’s a three-way bass reflex. The only one in this test. The tweeter is a 25mm silk dome, surrounded by a 10cm aluminium midrange. Underneath an aluminium woofer of 13cm. So very comact. Still, the range should be about 46 – 25,000 Hz. Crossovers are at 270 Hz and 2700 Hz. Nominal impedance is 4 Ohms and the efficiency is an average 85dB. So… we’ve had specs!
Sound
Immediately after the first notes we hear that this speaker is balanced. Just like the Dynaudio… it just falls into place. The presentation is fluent and calm. We don’t actually hear any distracting fraying, hardness or imbalance. A power you wouldn’t expect for 349 per speaker. But as is often proven in this test… cheap speakers can also sound very good!
It doesn’t really matter what kind of music we play. Massive Attack enters the room full of glow and detail. Angel doesn’t distort and we can play pretty loud. Steven Wilson is stable and spacious in the listening room. Everything stays neat and tidy. Also at Luminol, which is a complex song. And when we reach for quieter work, the Elac knows how to make music from that too. It’s a pure all-rounder. No preference, though… and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Neat. Andrew Jones clearly knows what he’s doing.
Measurements Elac BS-U5
The measurements do not directly reflect the power of the Elac strikes us. We see a lump in the distortion. And also with a 3rd harmonic. Also an extra yaw in the impulse measurement. Now the Elac is a coaxial speaker. And our experience is that you have to measure it differently. Off axis, for example, gives better results. And we’ll see about that. The off axis measurement at 1 meter / 12ms already shows a better frequency response. Less comb filter effect. However, the impulse behaviour is still not perfect.
Distortion between 100 and 500 Hz is too high in our opinion. Now the 2nd harmonic is dominant which is less critical than the 3rd. So we hear a pleasant warmth there. And that’s also in line with our findings with respect to the Dynaudio which has a somewhat equal character, but less ‘warmth’.
Conclusion
Elac uses the BS-U5 to create a very fine loudspeaker. Overall, the Elac sounds well balanced with a fine mid/low. Maybe this is because of the 2nd harmonic we measure. But who cares. It sounds nice. For us this is the winner at the bottom of the line. Just a little something for the Dynaudio. Approved!
