ELAC Uni-Fi UB5 3-Way Bookshelf Speakers by Andrew Jones - Pair - Black

I've just been playing the Elac Uni-Fi UB5's for about 12 hours, and I'm loving them so far. My main speakers are Wharfedale Diamond 225's, but I am about to make my mind up on whether to dethrone the Warfedales or not. The Warfedales are a very smooth speaker with a great soundstage and amazing bass. The Elacs seem to have a more forward and detailed vocal quality, but they are not harsh. I've got an album by Vashti Bunyan called "Just Another Diamond Day". She has a very delicate wispy voice, and on the warfedales I can't make out about half of what she is saying in the songs, but on the Elacs I can understand every word. I have a CD from the 80's, Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony on Telarc, and on the Elacs it sounds majestic like it did on my 80's Boston Acoustic BA-150 speakers, minus the 10" woofer, but on the Warfedales it sounds sort of bland. Haven't totally made my mind up yet whether to retire the Warfedales. The Elacs will play louder than the Warfedales, and I guess the reason is my Schiit Vidar amp doubles wattage at 4 ohms, and the Elacs are 4 ohms.Update 1-1-2019:Got about 25 hours on the Elacs, and still digging them. Just played the CD "Charly Antoloni - Knock Out 2000". It's a hardcore percussion CD, with about every percussive instrument there is, and Charly Antolini is about the fastest drummer there is. It's a great CD to test your speakers out. It's a wild CD, and the Elacs seemed like they were designed using this CD. I cranked it to the top, just to see if they would hold together, and they didn't miss a lick. There is also a lot of symbols, triangles, chimes, bongos. The Elacs did the symbols and percussive instruments beautifully. The Warfedales do have a better sound stage, and the bass is a little better, but I believe the Elacs are going to win the fight.Update 1-1-2019:The king is dead! Long live the king! Well, just made my mind up, the Elacs have taken the top spot in my main stereo. Just listened to one of my favorite albums, America by America, yeah, the one with A Horse with No Name, and I've never heard that album sound so good, so the Elacs win for me. The Elacs need an amp, int amp, or receiver rated for 4 ohms, and the more power the better, because they need more power scotty. The Schiit Vidar, which is what I have is a great choice, or an Emotiva or Parasound amp would be great too.Update 1-1-2019:The sound stage just opened up on the Elacs, and it is sounding magical. I'd say allow 30-40 hours for a total breakin. I'm starting to think Andrew Jones put some Voodoo, or made a pack with the devil on these speakers. They are truly Magical Music Boxes.Update 1-5-2019:The Elacs are sounding better and better, so I guess there is a long break-in period with them. They are on a higher plane then any speaker I've ever owned. I've heard some people say they were like the KEF LS50"s, but the LS50"s were even better. I don't know, but I don't see how it could get any better myself, these things are awesome. They'll play Godzilla by BOC, Frankenstein by Edgar Winters better than any speaker I've ever owned, and that includes floor standers with 10" woofers. They'll go from playing rough to playing delicate, and they will take full volume, which is supposed to be 200 watts from my Schiit Vidar at 4 ohms, and it will play at that level with no distortion I can hear. Am I amazed by these speakers? You damn right! I seen where What Hi-Fi? gave these Elacs 4 stars. Man that's bullshit I've got KEF Q300's and Warfedale Diamond 225's, and the Elacs are in outerspace, while the Q300's and 235's are still in the atmosphere. The Warfedale's are definitely great, but the ub5's are up in a higher plane.Update 1-12-2019:These Elacs can play Telarc's CD Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture with digital cannons. The Boston Acoustic BA-150's I had in the mid eighties could play the digital cannons on this cd at high volume with no distortion. I've never had a speaker after that one that could play the cannons on that cd without bad breakup. The Elac ub5's can play the cannons very good, not as good as the BA's did, but they were acoustic suspension with a 10' woofer. I'm amazed that a ported speaker can play this at all. There is a warning on that cd that it may cause damage to your speakers if played too loud, and I have no doubt that is true, so if you try it, play it at a lower volume to start with, so when the cannons go off you don't blow your speakers.

Mission:1. To find, supplant and eliminate three free air excitation devices.2. To coalesce with remaining excitation devices covertly.3. To complete the mission in a fiscally responsible manor.End Result: Mission accomplished!Here's the deal: I found myself in a position that warranted the replacement of my rather large front left/right speakers (Polk Audio SDA-SRS2s) utilized in my surround system. (When I say "warranted" I mean dictated by the Boss of the House.) I needed a speaker system that would blend somewhat with the Polk Audio F/Xi A6 and F/Xi A4 surrounds and the Infinity Kappa center channel. Kicked it into research mode, hit several review sites, watched several demos on youtube ((headphones) and yes I know that youtube compresses the audio but headphones give a better representation than your typical TV audio)) and came to the conclusion that these ELACs would do rather nicely. I knew that I would be faced with a speaker placement problem as these new speakers were to be installed in our new wall unit. My choices were at the top of each "tower" which would place them approximately 5 feet or so off of the ground. Aesthetically I would need to turn each speaker on its side. Not good considering that the dispersion pattern would be messed up big time. Option 2 was to place the speakers at the bottom of the towers in small cabinets that were (optionally) covered with speaker grill cloth. I decided that this would be the preliminary placement location. Now all that remained was the delivery of the wall unit. Delivery day came and I quickly realized that my Infinity center channel no longer blended into the background. I decided to set-up the speaker configuration to utilize the Elacs in a "phantom" center channel profile until I found a suitable replacement for the Infinity.There is a caveat regarding these speakers in that they are rated at 4 ohms. Please ensure that whatever you use to drive these is rated to 4 ohms. Distortion will result at moderate listening levels and ultimately your amp may enter into a clipping situation which can ruin these (or any really) speakers. That problem lies with the amp, not the speaker.The Bottom Line: These speakers perform SO well, even in the configuration I've described that I couldn't be more pleased. The "phantom" center channel is spot on without degradation of the front L/R surround effects. They are outstanding performers with both sound effects and musical score. They blend seamlessly with my surrounds and provide a pleasing, engulfing sound stage. Additionally, they've removed my need for a discrete center channel speaker. They truly DO perform on par with speakers costing many times more than their asking price. They should get a MEDAL!