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

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

1. 

   5 out of 5

   CSCS – January 23, 2020

   These speakers create a sound stage that extends far beyond their placement in the room. Instruments and voices are heard as placed in the mix. Listen to “Walk on the Wild Side” and experience ‘the coloured girls’ sweep from the background to the centre of your listening room. Listen to “Billie Jean” the way Quincy Jones mixed it!The Elac UB52 is a neutral speaker. Never boomy or bright unless the source is. A piano sounds as though it’s in your room rather than in your speakers! The concentrically aligned tweeter and midrange drivers provide the phase accuracy necessary for a convincing soundstage’s width and depth.You could spend more than twice as much for the KEF LS50 Metas and find the Elacs comparable to the much more expensive, concentrically designed KEFs. (Though to be honest, the LS50 Metas are a more desirable product.)The UB52s vertical and horizontal dispersion is great, and allows a greater flexibility of placement, which is aided by the front-firing port.Designer Andrew Jones provides a speaker here with an incredibly flat frequency response from ~40Hz to 60Khz. That’s not a typo.While Klipsh and others offer competitive products in this price range, if you seek a truly neutral set of speakers that present the music as recorded, nothing more or less, the Elac UB52s will do nicely.

2. 

   5 out of 5

   Mark Alan – March 25, 2020

   • I’ve auditioned quite a few “bookshelf” speakers in this price range recently, and even purchased a couple. The ELAC UB52 pair are the clear winners. Hands down. Slam dunk. Mike drop.• After reading & watching scores of reviews, and listening to several promising candidates in stores, I thought that I’d landed on a set of main speakers for my smallish “music room”, the KEF Q150. So, I bought a pair of white ones at the end of the holiday 50% off sale. I went out for ice cream with a bounce in my step and a colorful mask on my face. After they arrived (almost a month later), I broke them in for a week or so, and experimented with room placement, height, toe-in, etc. I then did a basic calibration and settled in for some serious listening. There were a couple of nagging issues that I was never able to resolve, despite more than 4 days of almost nonstop measure-adjust-remeasure-listen cycles. Issue 1: They got harsh at higher volume levels, despite being mellow otherwise. Issue 2: Around 3200 Hz, their musical output dropped, and was replaced with an audible “chuffing” sound. The sound seemed to be caused by a rubbing at the junction of the cone and concentric tweeter. Was this also happening at other frequencies, but being masked by the audio? I couldn’t seem to find solutions, and was unwilling to live with the issues. So, a-shopping I went again.• I hadn’t auditioned the Elac UB52 model. They were starting to get some serious attention by several respected YouTube reviewers. I caught the beginning of this wave (thanks, Randy “CheapAudioMan”!) right after ordering the KEFs, which were backordered. But, hey, the ELACs were twice the price of what I’d paid for the KEFs. Decisions, decisions. Then I saw a UB52 pair for about $475 (vs $599) as an Amazon “packaging damaged” warehouse deal. I pulled the trigger.• The ELAC replacements arrived in perfect condition (and the box was in pretty good shape, too). I quickly swapped the speakers, set all equalization to “flat”, and threw on an album that I’d been listening to on the KEFs repeatedly for a month (The Decemberists, “The Crane Wife”). The ELACs are reported as being neutral. Golly were they! Everything was there, and in balance. Plus, they imaged as well or better than the KEFs (the ELACs also have a concentric midrange-tweeter pair). I quickly cycled through the test music from the previous month—all of it sounded absolutely fantastic. Even at higher-than-you-really-want levels, they remained smooth and clear. No honking, no buzzing, and—you guessed it—no chafing. I ordered a “Happy Camper” t-shirt and arranged to return the KEFs.• Celebrity loudspeaker designer Andrew Jones had worked at KEF when they developed the Uni-Q family of concentric drivers. He left there and joined Pioneer, where he learned to work within a very tight budget. The speakers he designed there raised a lot of eyebrows, and—in my estimation—kicked off a race to quality in the budget loudspeaker category. When he left Pioneer for German firm ELAC, he found a company that wanted to up their loudspeaker game at every price point. He used a trickle-down/trickle-up approach, solidly anchored in the mid-tier. The UB52 is his second generation in the lower mid-tier category. They employ totally new, custom-engineered drivers with quality crossover components. Where they cut costs is the cabinet materials, input terminals, and grill.• So, if you think the ELAC UB52s are ugly, just make—or have someone else make—new cabinets for them (of the same internal volume). Knock yourself out. Then, you’d have the best bookshelf speakers under $1200. Either way, you’ll find yourself listening to a lot more music with your eyes closed and a little grin on your face. That can make staying inside a destination.*****

3. 

   5 out of 5

   Bob in GA – March 25, 2020

   I had tried a set of KEF Q350s. My tube amp by Decware 2.3W couldn’t drive them. Plugged them into my Cambridge AXR100 and they played but just seemed flat… ok, they sucked! Returned them. Three days later the ELACs arrived, bought them open box from Amazon for $530. The box is beat up a little but speakers in excellent shape. My Decware tube amp drives these effortlessly. Bass is plenty for my ears.. They are all what the reviewers claimed they are! My reference speakers are Heresy IV but the Elacs are quite different and most enjoyable 😄

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Michael GrecoMichael Greco – April 23, 2020

   I’ve been in this hobby a long time and have spent money on way more expensive speakers. I could never really find the pair I wanted to keep long term until I got these out of curiosity. I’ve had speakers up to $3k that can’t produce music in the way that these do. I’m running them with a Yamaha as2100 and in no way are these speakers being outclassed. Fabulous pairing. Love the sound more than the kef ls50, paradigms, focal, revel, and many others. Are they perfect? No. The other speakers I mentioned are better at some things but these elacs are hands down the best value I can think of for the sound they produce. I find myself listening to all my old music that might not be “audiophile” recordings and they just do their thing and make music sound right. If you’re curious, just buy them. I bet you’ll keep them like I am. Awesome value for money and cannot go wrong

5. 

   5 out of 5

   Christopher J Doland – July 12, 2020

   These are incredible speakers. There is a clarity and separation to these that will surprise you. Imaging is spot on. I toed these in incrementally and I could hear when one was slightly off. This makes surround effects spot on for location in the theater environment. I hear a phone ring and actually think it’s mine so I check it. It’s the fact that it reproduces audio so true to the source that makes these great. These are not Klipsch! Your not getting a dynamic speaker that will shock you with awe inspiring bass and highs from a 15watt amp. Your paying for refinement, clarity, imaging, accuracy, a true audiophile speaker. If you think these sound bad then you may have champagne wishes and beer money. There are other speakers that sound amazing in other aspects and can come close. These are a level above. I wish there was a flaw so I could return them and try something more affordable. I have a 5.1.4 atmos setup and these are the last speakers I will own. I wish they had a trade in program like Samsung does when they introduce a new cellphone model to market, that would make these an even better investment.

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – August 13, 2020

   It’s often the room acoustics that restricts you from fully extract what a speaker can deliver. Then, there is line noise etc that creates ‘mudiness’ and lack of clarity in the lower frequencies. Then, there is noise from the source that does not allow the speaker to show what it can really do in terms of soundstaging, imaging and instrument seperation. Then! there is placementwhich is another huge factor. It’s unfortunate that all these factors are neglected and thousands are spent on speakers, hoping somehow, magically all such issues will be fixed by the speakers themselves! Most rooms, cables, sources, amplification etc wouldn’t allow one to get 50% of what the speaker is capable of. Once I adressed all these issue to the best of my budget, these ELACs sounded completely different and simply INCREDIBLE. The bass extension and clarity I got after making the changes just mentioned, made me think I changed my speakers to a much more expensive pair. These are the easiest speakers to place since they are front ported. Enjoy the journey to HiFi sound! These are fantastic value for money, provided you get the other factors sorted and really milk them! Otherwise, even a million dollar pair will give you nothing.

7. 

   5 out of 5

   David – August 24, 2020

   I A/B’d these along side the JBL Studio 570s, Fluance Signature, Emotiva E2+ all on the same system. They are better or let’s say better-different from the JBL & the Emotiva which are also great. All have characteristics of their own. I’m keeping these in my 9.1 rig. The sound stage is so big it sounded like all my speakers were playing. They should be better being a 3-way concentric design. If nothing else check them out. They are not a dull or laid back sound. As I’ve read they are not even broke in yet. I’ll report back if they get even better.

8. 

   5 out of 5

   Mike – September 5, 2020

   Mind blowing presence and imaging. Easier to drive than predecessor but can but can be pushed harder than my what my 100w amp can provide (but already pissing off wife so no need for me to get more power). No sub needed. Even my 8 year old can hear music in 3D with these – meaning a child can get imaging with these.If they are in your budget, don’t hesitate.

9. 

   5 out of 5

   Zachary J. Hansen – February 18, 2021

   I ended up with much more expensive speakers, but that’s not saying anything bad about these.I bought the ub5 and debut reference speakers as well. I never ended up opening the UB5’s, but comparing the UB52s against the debut reference, these were a little quieter (they have infamously bad efficiency/sensitivity) and a little less bass, but wow did they sound good.BUTThey really open up when hooked up to a good amp. I was blown away when I switched from my (higher end) 100 watt sony receiver to a 10 watt tube amp. They sounded so much different. They really started to sing.After testing against other Elacs I put them against a $3000-range dynaudio special 40s and $6000-range B&W 805 D3s. The dynaudios were better, but I would have stayed with the Elacs to save almost $3000 – it was that close. In the end, though, the B&Ws were that much better and that’s what I ended up with. I almost kept these Elacs for a secondary system, but I’ll revisit that at a later date and may repurchase these.For the price, I didn’t listen to anything else that came close.

10. 

    5 out of 5

    willdesign – February 18, 2021

    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.