ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 Bookshelf Speakers (Pair), Black (UB52-BK)

The Elac Uni-Fi speakers deliver exceptional audio quality at a price that competes with much higher-end models. Designed by renowned audio engineer Andrew Jones, these speakers offer a rich, detailed, and well-balanced sound profile that impresses both audiophiles and casual listeners alike.One of their standout features is the concentric driver design, which provides a more cohesive and accurate soundstage. The midrange is warm and natural, the highs are crisp without being harsh, and the bass is surprisingly deep for their size. Whether you’re listening to music or watching movies, these speakers produce a level of clarity and detail that brings every note and dialogue to life.Build quality is also impressive, with a solid, well-constructed cabinet that minimizes unwanted vibrations. While they may require a good amplifier to truly shine, once properly powered, the Elac Uni-Fi speakers perform exceptionally well across different genres and audio formats.Overall, if you’re looking for high-fidelity sound at a reasonable price, the Elac Uni-Fi series is a fantastic choice. Highly recommended for those who appreciate clear, immersive, and dynamic audio!

This is my second pair of UB52's. The first pair went into a classic two channel stereo system in my den recently, replacing my beloved 1970ish AR3-a speakers one of which had begun to develop a noise issue. After 50 years, who can complain? These are the first true bookshelf speakers I've auditioned capable of replacing them. They are amazingly compact considering their stunning performance. The designer Andrew Jones, is rightly renowned as the king of affordable speakers today just as Edgar Villchur and Henry Kloss were in AR's day in the sixties and early seventies.This new pair forms the core of my newly revamped home theatre setup along with a matching UC52 center speaker. These are paired with my new Denon AVR-X4700H AVR. My other surround speakers are older but quite decent Bose units. My subwooffer is an Elac SUB3010 which I highly recommend.Why do I love these?Spectacular imaging: If you don't believe a stereo pair can create a convincing audio image, you haven't heard a really capable pair of properly placed speakers reproducing a well engineered recording. The concentric mid-range and tweeter seem to be the key here. The off-axis dispersion is amazingly frequency-independent and wide. These speakers sound far bigger than they are. They can and do disappear into the audio image.Flat frequency response, freedom from resonances (stored energy): These speakers measure as well as they sound. The 3dB point on the low end is 46Hz which means all the directionally discernable sound your ears can hear is covered. If you are using a sub-woofer in a home theatre setup as I am, it can spend its effort on the really low stuff where the direction of origin can't be perceived. For a two-channel stereo setup, only a few of the lowest organ notes will be down even slightly. I love Bach, and my recordings of his organ music have never sounded better than they do on these speakers.Front reflex port: This allows these speakers to be placed very close to a wall or on a bookshelf without destroying or creating resonances in the bass response. A rear port is considered best for a two-way system because the mid-range sound tends to leak from the port out of phase and tends to be full of resonances. This is not a problem with a 3-way system like these since the woofer crosses over at 200Hz and therefore pumps almost no mid-range energy into its partition of the enclosure. Mid range and up frequencies are thus isolated from the port. The fact that the woofer crosses at a low 200Hz also means that it sees much less higher frequency energy than in a two-way system. This reduces inter-modulation distortion. A low frequency driver is inherently less linear than a mid-range or tweeter due to the long cone excursions necessary to pump out low frequency energy. When two or more different frequency signals are applied to a non-linear system, intermodulation products are generated. This results in spurious sound energy at sum and difference frequencies being produced. Not a good thing.Note: Though you can get great performance from these on a bookshelf, seriously consider tower mounting them to allow you to optimize their placement for best stereo imaging. Against the wall is almost never optimum placement for any type of speaker. At least with these speakers you can get quite close without serious issues.Serious power handling and decent efficiency: At an 85dB rating, these are not the most efficient speakers in the world, but 50 watts will drive them beautifully and 100 watts is all they will ever need. These can make your ears bleed before they'll saturate if you're into that sort of thing. If you have a huge listening room, (Mine is 14 x 20) and you want to vibrate the nails out of your walls most efficiently, you might want to consider the tower version with multiple woofers, but I frankly think they're mostly for show. (Hey! Look how big my speakers are!)Another plus on the power side is the 6 Ohm nominal impedence. The trough of the impedence is at 4.8 Ohms and over a very narrow frequency range. Everywhere else, they're above 5 Ohms and mostly above 6. This is important with multi-channel AVR internal amplifiers. They tend to run out of oomph when trying to drive a bunch of low impedence loads. This can result in clipping which sounds awful. Too many speakers out there go well below 3 Ohms over a large portion of their frequency range. Avoid them for home theatre.What's not to like?The looks are a little plain-jane, but clean and simple. The drivers look classy and expensive with their anodized aluminum cones, so these boxes look best with the grill off which is best anyway because they measure and perform best grill-less. They do make these in a sleek enameled look cabinet for a couple hundred more, but I prefer to spend my money on performance.The binding posts are sturdy, but too close together and not well knurled. Doesn't matter if you use banana plugs, but I prefer to strip and bunch-tin my wires for clamping. It's cheaper and easier. At least if you have a soldering iron.Bottom line:If they are in your budget range and you respect and desire faithful clarity and purity without showiness, these are your choice. Period.

I don't want to make this lengthy. Suffice it to say, I would buy these speakers 10 times over. I ordered them used for $450 and can't think of any purchase that was as good of a bang for the buck.I CANNOT find anything I'm missing after nearly a year of use. Keep in mind, I have these paired with a 10" Sony subwoofer, because by themselves these bookshelves lack the full range of sub bass tones. I'm very ok with that, and they weren't designed to have such complete performance on their own. I also am using a Schiit DAQ, EQ, and a custom built 250W RMS stereo amp.My point is, regardless of your gear preference, THESE SPEAKERS CAN SOUND MINDBLOWING. I do think, however, that good and appropriately selected gear is necessary to bring out everything these speakers have to offer.Image is absolutely unparalleled at this price point. With the right setup, soundstage is wide and precise, made easier by switching the port directions from rear-facing in the original unify bookshelves to front facing on these 2.0 units. The attack and decay of every instrument sounds like they should. With the right volume and sitting position and toe adjustments, I literally cannot tell that there isn't a band playing in front of me when I close my eyes. When my eyes are open, I have trouble rectifying the fact that I'm staring at my wall, and even in this case these speakers disappear better than John Cena in the ring.Maybe with time I'll try other speakers, but again, if you have decent gear and need to choose speakers, these can play it all VERY well. Jazz sounds warm and smooth. Electronic sounds snappy and has amazing separation between the many components of the tracks. Rock is loud, punchy, and loses very little clarity even on objectively poor recordings. When I finished tweaking my gear to my liking, I found these have a pleasantly airy vocal quality that cuts through other frequencies with high accuracy while maintaining the integrity of every single frequency band.And this was my condensed review. You will have to be looking for problems to dislike these speakers.