ELAC Uni-Fi 2.0 UC52 Center review (by Erin)

[Larry B. Larabee]

This thing is a steal at 3 times the price. Decent output to 40hz is a big deal for centers and it passifies the 'lousy hor. dispersion' guys. Now great specs aren't enough, I guess.

 

[3125b]

Not for me, at least. I wouldn't mind a center upgrade (using a Q Acoustics 3090Ci right now) but I'd like to stay below €500.

How about this Elac? It's 250€ in Germany (the seller ships internationally), for that price it's gonna be hard to beat. It's not perfect but there isn't exactly a surplus of options if you don't want a sideways 2-way coaxial.

 

[sword]

This actually looks considerably worse than the Uni-Fi bookshelf Amir reviewed. Dispersion is quite uneven for a coaxial. That one got headless for a specific resonance though. Looking at the THD graphs, this one seems to have the same spike around 550hz, less visible than in Amir's review due to graph formatting.

Be curious to find out if Erin heard anything or checked on that specific problem.

Not sure what you're looking at, but horizontal dispersion is great up to 30 or 40 degrees. How much more do you need?

On-axis linearity looks good.

Estimated in room response has the desired slight downslope and is very linear.

 

[sword]

This thing is a steal at 3 times the price. Decent output to 40hz is a big deal for centers and it passifies the 'lousy hor. dispersion' guys. Now great specs aren't enough, I guess.

To be fair, only the very first post says it's bad. No idea what that person is looking at.

 

[Sancus]

Not sure what you're looking at, but horizontal dispersion is great up to 30 or 40 degrees. How much more do you need?

I think you're misunderstanding. I wasn't saying it was a bad speaker. Read both my posts. I thought both these unifis were pretty good overall, this one isn't as good as the other one and the other one got a bad review *purely* due to that resonance. Which I thought was a bit unfair, if you read my 2nd post.

Anyway, you can't just look at +/-20 degrees and say 'ah seems good', the shape of the whole falloff matters, it needs to be even. The stuff going on between 1-10khz tells me this likely has the usual coaxial problem of tweeter diffraction caused by the midrange. My standard for "good coaxial" is Kef or Genelec. They don't have this unevenness.

That doesn't make this a bad speaker! It's quite good considering the price. Just because I say something negative about a speaker, doesn't mean I think it's bad overall. There is no such thing as a speaker in this price that doesn't have audible problems. I'm personally not bothered much by price(obviously) so I don't think of everything in terms of it.

This is definitely A LOT better than the raging dumpster fire of all those 2-way MTMs.

 

[Taddpole]

How about this Elac? It's 250€ in Germany (the seller ships internationally), for that price it's gonna be hard to beat. It's not perfect but there isn't exactly a surplus of options if you don't want a sideways 2-way coaxial.

Did you mean to link something?

 

[Triliza]

Did you mean to link something?

Seems to me he means the speaker this topic is about.

 

[Jdunk54nl]

This doesn't seem that great to me....what am I missing? Looks like ~ +/- 20 degrees.

Edit, scale was different for colors.

 

[sword]

I think you're misunderstanding. I wasn't saying it was a bad speaker. Read both my posts. I thought both these unifis were pretty good overall, this one isn't as good as the other one and the other one got a bad review *purely* due to that resonance. Which I thought was a bit unfair, if you read my 2nd post.

Anyway, you can't just look at +/-20 degrees and say 'ah seems good', the shape of the whole falloff matters, it needs to be even. The stuff going on between 1-10khz tells me this likely has the usual coaxial problem of tweeter diffraction caused by the midrange. My standard for "good coaxial" is Kef or Genelec. They don't have this unevenness.

That doesn't make this a bad speaker! It's quite good considering the price. Just because I say something negative about a speaker, doesn't mean I think it's bad overall. There is no such thing as a speaker in this price that doesn't have audible problems. I'm personally not bothered much by price(obviously) so I don't think of everything in terms of it.

This is definitely A LOT better than the raging dumpster fire of all those 2-way MTMs.


View attachment 178889

That "stuff going on" is outside 35 or 40 degrees from center, not 20 degrees, and would not directly reach typical seating. The center is also less subject to side reflections at the seating position than the left and right speakers.

You say this is an audible "problem". I say it isn't at typical seating positions for home theater, which is what this speaker built for.

 

[Sancus]

You say this is an audible "problem". I say it isn't at typical seating positions for home theater, which is what this speaker built for.

I mean that's fine, we can agree to disagree. It's not possible to buy a speaker at this price point that doesn't have some audible problems, period. Pretending the problems don't matter doesn't make them go away, but in context of what else you can buy it's a good speaker. Not sure what's tough to understand about that.

 

[Taddpole]

Seems to me he means the speaker this topic is about.

But knowing which seller may be beneficial

 

[Vict0r]

How about this Elac? It's 250€ in Germany (the seller ships internationally), for that price it's gonna be hard to beat. It's not perfect but there isn't exactly a surplus of options if you don't want a sideways 2-way coaxial.

I could give this one a demo. It's available here in The Netherlands as well, but I think it might be more like a side-grade than an actual upgrade of my current Q Acoustics 3090Ci. The one I'm really interested in (the Monolith THX-365C) is unobtainium here, though.

 

[3125b]

The one I'm really interested in (the Monolith THX-365C) is unobtainium here, though.

Seems you can get that on Amazon.de sold directly by Monoprice: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07RBC78W3...geizhals10-21&ascsubtag=iRLbiab8CHK0xBvzCDAtQ
They deliver to the Neatherlands for 3.49€. You can just use your regular Amazon account with any countries Amazon page, you just won’t benefit from Prime if you have it.

ut knowing which seller may be beneficial

I assumed he‘d be familiar with German comparison shopping sites, those are much more prevalent here than in most other countries and really helpful. If I‘ve learned one thing from being on international forums than that for some reason many products are only available in some EU countries but ordering them there is absolutely no issue.

 

[Vict0r]

Seems you can get that on Amazon.de sold directly by Monoprice: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07RBC78W3...geizhals10-21&ascsubtag=iRLbiab8CHK0xBvzCDAtQ
They deliver to the Neatherlands for 3.49€. You can just use your regular Amazon account with any countries Amazon page, you just won’t benefit from Prime if you have it.


I assumed he‘d be familiar with German comparison shopping sites, those are much more prevalent here than in most other countries and really helpful. If I‘ve learned one thing from being on international forums than that for some reason many products are only available in some EU countries but ordering them there is absolutely no issue.

I can't believe I missed that amazon.de listing! That's incredibly helpful! Thank you.

 

[Manlycookiebear]

A big thanks for publishing the data and helping me making a more informed speaker choice!

I got one question. I'm trying to use the AutomaticEQ Data from Spinorama. I'm using a PC with EqualizerAPO and the import of the file worked I think. But what about the Preamp Gain? It's set by EQAPO to the value specified in the txt file, but do I have to change anything on my AVR now? From my understanding, the Center speaker is now quieter than my AVR thinks it is, correct?

 

[pajacek89]

I can get 2 x UC52 for the same price as 2xUB52. Is it worth to try UC52 as bookshelf fronts?