Elac Uni-fi 2.0 announced

[sweetchaos]

$300 a pair is a pretty impressive deal. How do these stand up against other passive speakers at $300 a pair?

Funny you should ask...Today, Amir measured the "Hivi 3.1 DIY Speaker With Sahlin Mod", and he gave it the Golfing Panther award....so yeah, that's an excellent choice for US$300.

 

[lightpsycho]

weird that it’s the same price as the Debut Reference bookshelf, and these new tower are actually $100 more expensive.

But yes, would be very interested to see how it stacks up to the DBR62.

I too am dying to know about this. Having listened to the DBR62, I fell in love with them. I never listened to the original unifi, and I'm trying to know how the 2.0's tonal characteristics compares to the DBR. I emailed ELAC about this but got a very bland response which means almost...nothing:

"Hello,

The UniFi 2.0 have a similar tonal character to the Debut Reference speaker. The UniFi 2.0 is better for music as it is a 3-way speaker design where the Debut Reference is a 2-ways speaker.
Also the UniFi 2.0 has a concentric mounted tweeter and midrange driver which gives it really good sound stage and imaging.

For dual use Music and home theater either one can be used. Go with the Debut Reference if you prefer a nicer looking real wood veneer cabinet.
Go with the UniFI 2.0 if having the best sound quality is the number one thing for you.

Respectfully,
ELAC Customer Service"

I mean... seriously?!?

 

[MZKM]

I too am dying to know about this. Having listened to the DBR62, I fell in love with them. I never listened to the original unifi, and I'm trying to know how the 2.0's tonal characteristics compares to the DBR. I emailed ELAC about this but got a very bland response which means almost...nothing:

"Hello,

The UniFi 2.0 have a similar tonal character to the Debut Reference speaker. The UniFi 2.0 is better for music as it is a 3-way speaker design where the Debut Reference is a 2-ways speaker.
Also the UniFi 2.0 has a concentric mounted tweeter and midrange driver which gives it really good sound stage and imaging.

For dual use Music and home theater either one can be used. Go with the Debut Reference if you prefer a nicer looking real wood veneer cabinet.
Go with the UniFI 2.0 if having the best sound quality is the number one thing for you.

Respectfully,
ELAC Customer Service"

I mean... seriously?!?

They just did an AMA on Reddit, and asking for a difference between these models was the top upvoted question, and they didn't answer it. Andrew Jones did say the differences he made compared to the old model (mainly he reduced the peaking at 2kHz as well as better controlled the directivity at 2kHz as well).

 

[sweetchaos]

Go with the Debut Reference if you prefer a nicer looking real wood veneer cabinet.
Go with the UniFI 2.0 if having the best sound quality is the number one thing for you.

That's just asking to be debunked...

 

[amirm]

@amirm this is a very important speaker to test! Any chance of you ordering 1?

I can't find it in single units. Only pairs.

 

[HooStat]

I can't find it in single units. Only pairs.

There is always the center channel. I mention this for purely selfish reasons, of course.

 

[Astrozombie]

What we're going to hear is Uni-Fi is more geared toward "Music" and for people with hefty amplifiers since they're harder to drive. Though if the DBR goes on sale first that'll be what I check out first. I think they should have made it an option to get a better finish on these even if it cost more.

 

[Trouble Maker]

I would agree, it does seem like they are trying to give a 'higher performance' VS looks choice in the Uni 2.0 VS Debut Reference. We will just have to see if that actually plays out once people start to get their hands on the new ones. This does feel like an exceptionally low price point for a 3 way w/coax mid/hi. Which might make it difficult to not compromise too much. I hope they perform well! Well performing options at good price points is never a bad thing. 3 way center options at reasonable price points are especially hard to come by. If these perform OK, they would probably meet my listening levels and have a 3 way center in a pretty small footprint, at a price point I'm OK with.

 

[thewas]

Binaural recording blind test with old vs. new Uni-Fi

and the solution:

In my quick listening though the old ones seem to have a balance error, hope it was a misplacement of the mic rather than a loudspeaker defect.

 

[vidya46]

Thanks for that..Prefer speaker B..guessing that’s the new Unifi

 

[Steve Dallas]

Binaural recording blind test with old vs. new Uni-Fi

and the solution:

In my quick listening though the old ones seem to have a balance error, hope it was a misplacement of the mic rather than a loudspeaker defect.

I am not at all a believer in YouTube listening tests, but I did listen to those through headphones. I could clearly hear what I didn't like about the original Uni-Fi. The new one does appear to have corrected those problems. I will be interested to hear them in a room.

 

[radio3]

I hope they come out with a white model again (i.e., like the previous Slim).

 

[sweetchaos]

ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UB52 vs Original UB5.

-by JoeNTell (posted 3hrs ago).

He showed his in-room measurements at around 14min mark:

Spoiler

Green = Old UB5
Red = New UB52

Then he compared to Debut Reference at around 15min:30sec mark:

Spoiler

Red = New UB52
Green = Debut Reference

At the end of the clip, he ranked UB52 in terms of his preference against other speakers. Answer below:

Spoiler

JoeNTell ranked UB52 above (better ranking) than Debut Reference.
Overall, in terms of overall sound quality, JoeNTell ranked UB52 as 3rd-best speakers.

 

[sweetchaos]

Who's going to purchase and ship these to Amir?

Cmon guys!!

I think we're all anxious to see these measured!

 

[Tatteredmidnight]

The UB5 for $300 is annoying tempting. I just picked up a pair of Studio 530s for $279 (refurb). Wonder how those compare at such a similar price. I’m running out of places to put speakers, so at least that reduces the temptation (gotta find a low profile solution for the wife so she can get music in the kitchen)

 

[richard12511]

Binaural recording blind test with old vs. new Uni-Fi

and the solution:

In my quick listening though the old ones seem to have a balance error, hope it was a misplacement of the mic rather than a loudspeaker defect.

Speaker B sounds slightly better to my ears.

 

[thewas]

Then he compared to Debut Reference at around 15min:30sec mark:

Must say the tonal balance looks quite good being more linear in the important range 100-1000 Hz, looking forward to see them measured here.

 

[mtmpenn]

Nice shout-out to Erin’s Audio Corner in that video review!

 

[bunkbail]

What we're going to hear is Uni-Fi is more geared toward "Music" and for people with hefty amplifiers since they're harder to drive.

If you actually see the video I linked on the second post, you can see that they're much easier to drive than the Debut Reference series.

 

[Fredrickj]

I ordered a pair to A/B with my DBR62. I have a switch so I can A/B seemlessly. they are suppose to arrive Thur- I love my DBR62’s but the 3 way w the concentric driver sounds ideal for the vocals I frequently listen to. Stay tuned!