Price: $699.98 - $489.98
(as of Dec 22, 2024 08:47:20 UTC - Details)

A true upgrade to the award-winning Uni-Fi Originals. Perfect for a premium two-channel music system or home theater
True 3-Way Speaker Design
Newly Developed Concentric Driver Featuring a 4" Aluminum Midrange and a 1" Wide-Roll Surround Tweeter
New Single-piece Aluminum Cone 5-1/4" Bass Driver
6-Ohm Nominal impedance for compatibility with virtually all receivers and amplifiers
Front Firing Ports Allow for Flexible Room Placement
Connector type: 5-Way Binding Post
Reviewer: willdesign
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The most balanced, highest performing speakers available in bookshelf size at any price.
Review: 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.

Reviewer: Mark Alan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Best $600 Speakers In This Part of the Galaxy
Review: • 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.*****

Reviewer: Radamex Bueno
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Las tengo conectadas a un amplificador YAMAHA R-S202BL (140watts @ 6ohms) y las mueve de maravilla. Increíble sonido y calidad de los materiales. Suenan super bien con distintos estilos de musica

Reviewer: Amazon Kunde
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Schon wenige Taqge nach der Bestllung wurden die Lautsprecher geliefert. Verpackung war unbeschädigt, die Ware serh hochwertig und der Klang ist überragend. Ganz sauberer und klarer Sound, egal was man spielt oder wie laut. Super Qualität.

Reviewer: KFamily
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I've had these a few weeks so they're nicely broken in. I've used this in two rooms and with two sets of electronics, with the primary purpose being music. TL;DR stunning sound quality, probably the ideal home hi-fi setup that presents a wide soundstage, excellent clarity, excellent neutrality even at (importantly!) at family-friendly volumes.1. In my basement with an entry level 100W Yamaha stereo receiver on Kanto 26" stands about 2ft from the front wall: very good sound, no issues, but a bit thin. Excellent for movie dialog, and particularly clear at moderate volumes. Difficult to pair with my Monoprice 12" sub. Although the combo sounded great for movies, music was muddied so I kept the sub off most of the time. I couldn't nail the setup where the sub disappeared, it was always competing with the UB52, whose bass was leagues more clear and musical. Verdict: the speakers were too good for my other components and were being held back.2. Moved them to my home office and paired them with a NAD D3045 amp on Kanto 32" stands as far from the wall as I can realistically achieve. WOW! These speakers play beautifully with quality components, which for me is mostly streaming Tidal Hi-Fi and full MQA through my PC into the NAD amp. Super clear, balanced sound. Wonderful at low to medium volumes, which is critical for me given my family is also home 100% due to the pandemic. And when you can crank them up, they deliver. Verdict: that's the ticket! Wish I had a truly high end amp, I think these speakers are worthy.For comparison, these swapped places with my Kef LSX powered monitors. I found the UB52 to be a much more relaxed, naturally-gifted speaker, making them a wonderful fit for my office. The LSX, which have a great sound of their own, always felt like they were overpressuring the air somehow. Wasn't a pleasant near-field experience to be honest. But in my basement the LSX does surprisingly well for such tiny drivers, and was far easier to pair with my sub - seemed a more natural fit. Win/win!

Reviewer: Giuseppe Cassano
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Difficile trovare un difetto a queste casse, suonano pulite, dettagliate, equilibrate, forte. Ho rimpiazzato una coppia di indiana line Tesi 261, che seppur bellissime ed eleganti, suonavano un po' cupe, con queste ho tolto un velo al suono. Nonostante il woofer di queste UB52 sia di diametro limitato i bassi ci sono, sono veloci e diretti, il subwoofer serve sempre se si vuole un' esperienza completa. Medi e alti sono chiari e cristallini, un pelino arretrati a differenza di quello che ci si può aspettare o prababilmente è una sensazione mia ma un +1 o +2 sui toni acuti lo metto sempre. Il cabinet esce sprovvisto di gommini, consiglio di acquistare quelli della 3m, una ventina di gommini a 15 euro su Amazon e vanno benissimo. Lo stand sulla quale posizionarle deve essere da 60cm per ascoltarle all'altezza delle orecchie, non mettetele più alte perché la differenza si sente, io ho dovuto modificarli perché erano a 75cm e perdevo dettagli. In definitiva, dategli una buona amplificazione, lasciate perdere amplificatori poco dettagliati o troppo economici, meritano roba di un certo livello perché sono diffusori di altissima qualità.

Reviewer: LKY
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The bass extension of this small woofer of the speaker is astounding. Its imaging is awesome. A true masterpiece by Andrew Jones.