About the ELAC Uni-Fi UF5
A simply brilliant tower
A simply brilliant tower
From the top of its robust, well-braced cabinet to the beefy, stabilizer bars and adjustable spiked feet at its base, the ELAC UF5 floor-standing speaker is all business. That's because speaker design guru Andrew Jones has engineered out all the "fat", leaving nothing behind but pure, lean, muscular sound. Just in case you weren't familiar with his work, Mr. Jones has a well-deserved reputation, and a genuine knack, for wringing out every last drop of sound quality from his designs, allowing them to perform far beyond their price range.
What's the secret?
The ELAC concentric driver places its tweeter at the centre of its midrange cone for enhanced imaging and clarity.
In part, the UF5 owes its clear, detailed sound, impressive imaging, and deep soundstage to a custom-designed concentric driver. Conventional speakers place the midrange and tweeter in different locations on the front baffle — causing their sound to reach your ears at slightly different times, and smearing subtle details. Instead, the UF5's concentric driver places a 1" soft dome tweeter directly in the centre of a 4" aluminum midrange cone. This precise alignment creates a "unified source," ensuring that all frequencies arrive at your ears at the same instant, producing a more coherent and accurate sound.
How about that bass?
The UF5 uses three custom-designed 5-1/4" aluminum cone woofers to supply articulate bass that blends in precisely with the concentric driver. The woofers' large magnets and vented pole pieces increase power handling for bass that's clean, clear, and powerful. Three rear-firing ports extend bass performance, but keep it tight and tuneful.
Crossovers — the unsung heroes
I don't usually mention a speaker's crossover. That's partly because crossovers are not very glamorous, and to be honest, it's also because many of them aren't really worth mentioning in the first place. But proper crossovers are never an afterthought with a well-designed speaker. In fact, they're one of the most critical elements in any speaker's design and sound, and potentially, one of the most costly.
When Andrew Jones passed around a crossover from one of his Uni-Fi speakers, it was remarkably substantial — chock full of large, high-quality capacitors, precision resistors, and massive copper coils embedded on a heavy PC board with thick copper traces. The fact that ELAC was willing to spend their resources on something that's inside their speakers where you can't even see it, speaks volumes to the integrity of their designs.
Product highlights:
- true 3-way speaker design
- custom-designed 1" soft dome tweeter concentrically mounted in a 4" aluminum cone midrange
- three custom-designed 5-1/4" aluminum cone woofers
- frequency response: 42-25,000 Hz
- sensitivity: 85 dB
- impedance: 4 ohms
- maximum power input: 140 watts
- sophisticated multi-element crossover with high-grade components to ensure smooth transition between drivers
- bass-reflex (ported) cabinet design
- thick MDF enclosure with internal bracing reduces cabinet vibration that causes unwanted sonic coloration
- custom-designed binding post speaker terminals
- included stabilizer bars and adjustable feet reduce resonance and vibration
- magnetically attached cloth grille
- black brushed vinyl finish
- 7-7/8"W x 38"H x 10-3/4"D
- weight: 39.6 lbs.
- warranty: 3 years
- MFR # UF51-BK
What's in the box:
ELAC Uni-Fi UF5 owner's manual
- Floorstanding loudspeaker
- Grille
- 2 Stabilizer-bars
- 4 Spike-feet
- 4 Protective discs
- 4 Knobs
- 4 Machine screws
- 4 Hex-nuts
- Hex-key
- Operating Instructions
Customer reviews for ELAC Uni-Fi UF5
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Average review:
4.5 out of 5 starsCustomer photos
This review was collected as part of a promotion
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More details on the ELAC Uni-Fi UF5
Features & specs
General | ||
---|---|---|
Enclosure | Bass Reflex | |
Finish | MDF/Vinyl | |
Color | Black | |
Tweeter | Soft-Dome | |
Tweeter Size (inches) | 1 | |
Midrange Size (inches) | 4 | |
Woofer Size (inches) | 5.25 | |
Woofer Composition | Aluminum | |
Woofer Surround | Rubber | |
Built-in Powered Sub | No | |
Dolby Atmos Drivers | No | |
Connector Type | Post | |
Bi-amp Inputs | No | |
Parts Warranty | 3 Years | |
Labor Warranty | 3 Years | |
Specifications | ||
Power Range | 40-140 | |
Frequency Response | 42-25k Hz | |
Sensitivity | 85 dB | |
Impedance (Ohms) | 4 | |
Subwoofer Amp Power | --- | |
Height (inches) | 39-1/8 | |
Width (inches) | 11-1/16 | |
Depth (inches) | 12-1/2 | |
Weight | 39.6 lbs |
Product Research
Features
3-Way Speaker Design: The Elac Uni-Fi UF5 floorstanding loudspeaker employs a 3-way design with a new in-house developed concentric driver. A 3-way speaker offers many advantages in the design of a full-range system. By assigning dedicated drivers to high, midrange, and bass frequencies, each is optimized for the frequency range for which its design and material composition is best suited. The UF5 floorstanding speaker consists of a concentric midrange-tweeter driver for high and midrange frequencies, while one aluminum-cone woofer handles lower-frequency midbass and bass. At the same time, a 3-way speaker allows for a more straightforward crossover and cabinet design.
Custom-Designed Concentric Driver: The Elac Uni-Fi UF5 floorstanding loudspeaker employs a concentric driver design, combining the 1" soft-dome tweeter and 4" midrange cone diaphragm within a single voice coil. Because of its ideal time-domain characteristics, a concentric driver design delivers the most coherent and accurate reproduction across the treble and midrange frequency spectrums. Positioning the tweeter concentrically within the midrange voice coil achieves a uniform directivity pattern, for flat frequency response and formidable power handling, along with enhanced imaging for both on- and off-axis listening positions.
5.25" Aluminum Woofer: In addition to the concentric midrange-tweeter driver, the Elac Uni-Fi UF5 features one 5.25" aluminum cone woofer. Through the use of aluminum, resonances that affect the linearity of common paper cones can be placed beyond the driver's operating frequency range. An extended size magnet with vented pole piece increases power handling, for accurate reproduction of bass frequencies that are clean, clear and powerful.
Sophisticated Crossover: One secret to the great sound of the Uni-Fi series loudspeaker is the high quality, audio-grade components specified in the manufacture of each custom, 3-way crossover. This careful 3-way crossover design provides a smooth transition between the high, mid, and bass drivers.
Triple Bass Ports: The Elac UF5 floorstanding loudspeaker utilizes a bass reflex enclosure with three rear-firing flared ports for greater efficiency and bigger bass response.
Robust MDF Cabinet: The Uni-Fi speaker enclosure is engineered for the long run with thick MDF outer walls and a luxurious textured vinyl finish. The Uni-Fi series cabinet incorporates specially designed internal bracing to add stiffness and strength to the cabinet's outer walls. This bracing greatly reduces cabinet vibration, which causes unwanted coloration to the sound. ELAC believes that the only parts of a speaker that should be moving are the speaker drivers themselves.
Magnetic Grille: When the protective grille is removed, hidden magnets beneath the surface of the cabinet keeps the front-panel free of attachment holes, for a clean appearance.
Binding Posts: The Elac Uni-Fi series floorstanding loudspeaker is fitted with a set of heavy-duty, binding-post terminals which will accept bare-wire (up to 10AWG), pin-connectors, and banana plugs (single only).
Outrigger Base: An outrigger base design used for the UF5 provides a larger, more stable footprint and adds stability and optimum coupling of the speaker cabinet to the floor. Molded knobs dial in precise leveling of the four corners, which are supplied with spike-feet and protective discs, used according to whether the loudspeaker is placed on a soft or hard floor surface. The protective discs add approximately 0.1875" to the overall height of the speaker.
Applications: The Elac UF5 floorstanding loudspeaker can be used in a 2ch stereo application, or used as your front speakers and/or rear surround speakers in a multichannel home theater application.
- 2Ch Stereo or Front Speaker Placement: For optimum stereo imaging, place the speakers so that an equilateral triangle is created between the speakers your main listening position. You can also angle ("toe in") the speakers towards the listening position to gain a more focused central image.
- Rear Surround Placement: In a 5.1-channel surround setup, avoid placing the speakers forward of your listening position. The speakers should be spread apart wider than the front speakers.
Elac Uni-Fi Series: The Elac Uni-Fi series family of loudspeakers consists of a floorstanding loudspeaker, a bookshelf loudspeaker, and a center-channel loudspeaker (all sold separately). All of the Uni-Fi series of speakers feature concentric driver technology. The Uni-Fi series can be the basis of an outstanding two-channel system, or used to build an awe-inspiring multi-channel surround-sound system.
Optional Powered Subwoofer: Add an ELAC powered subwoofer (sold separately) to the Uni-Fi series to bring more bass to your movie and music soundtracks.
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Customer Q&A
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Awesome sound and great value. Replaced an old 1990's pair of MTX AAL speakers for me. Vocal clarity is outstanding. I'm hearing nuances in my music collection that I have not heard before. Lucy at Crutchfield guided me to the ELAC Uni-Fi UF5's and they do not disappoint!
David from Neshkoro, WI