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Review 1 of 1
Price Paid:
$200.00
from Lintone, Metrocentre Summary:
Partnering Equipment:-
Rotel RA-01 integrated amplifier
PC source with Terratec EWX 2496 soundcard
VDH The Bay C5 Interconnect
NAIM NAC A4 Speaker Cable
Music Tastes:-
1. Trance, 2. Other Electronica, 3. Pop, 4. Rock, 5. Female Vocal
This was something of an impulse buy for me. I was relatively happy with my old Mission M51 bookshelf speakers which I felt were good performers for the price. However, living at home with the parents, I found it hard to use the Missions as they had an exagerrated bass which probably suited bigger rooms and/or AV use more, and it was upsetting my parents!! The problem was made worse by the fact the Missions really liked to be driven fairly loud. They did not work too well at low volumes where they had a slightly dull sound.
I rang up my dealer and asked if he had any speakers which would suit me and he pointed me in the direction of the Ela's, which are known apparently as Mk 1.5 models. They have a sloped baffle, with the top half of the speaker fluted/ridged and 3 spikes, mirror imaged tweeters.
I listened to them in the shop and was blown away by how crisp and dynamic they sounded compared to my Missions. So naturally I bought them and took them home for a bit of a play.
Hooking them up to the above system, and they do very little wrong. For starters, they are transmission line speakers and have relatively small ~5" main drive units. Therefore, dont expect earth shattering bass performance, but they dig quite deep, I would guess probably into the 50 Hz range or so (I dont have any specifications so I cannot confirm this), and the bass they do have is very fast and is quite punchy in this system. These speakers are said to specialise in PRaT (Pace Rythym And Timing) and they are not wrong. When listening to dance music, the sound simply flows out of the speakers and makes your foot tap. If you enjoy listening to music rather than analysing it you will absolutely love these speakers.
That does not mean to say that they dont do other things well, these speakers do very good soundstaging, and it can sound like the singer is in your room, singing just for you. This is helped by a superbly smooth midrange and treble that is quite forward sounding, so the result is very lively indeed, but very realistic and not fatiguing in the slightest. This is thanks to its silk dome tweeter that needs careful partnering not to sound too bright, and the Rotel is an excellent partner to this speaker, every aspect of the amps performance appears to suit these speakers perfectly. To test this, I tried a Pioneer A400 in the place of the Rotel, and I personally found it way too bright and lacking the warmth and punch of the Rotel amp.
The speakers also dig up a good amount of detail, and they handle busy passages very well, I can always clearly hear all of the detail, and yet because of their excellent timing, the whole thing gels together in a most coherent fashion, and sounds like beautiful music. The fact these speakers appear to be an easy load is another good reason to partner them with amps like the Rotel, which although good for its 40 watts a channel rating, still seems to appreciate the easier to drive speakers like these, and it can drive them to very loud levels in my medium sized bedroom, and frankly my ears practically give up before the amp and speakers do!
Overall, I am truly delighted with these speakers, for the price I paid they are truly outstanding bits of kit. With the right amp they sound so alive with all types of music, very realistic, agile and dynamic. All I would say is that if you need more bass depth than these offer then you may wish to invest in a sub, however, they deliver enough bass for my needs and in my room.
If you can find a pair of these speakers second hand then I urge you to go for them instead of a new pair of budget speakers. I have owned and heard quite a lot of brand new budget speakers, like Wharfedale Diamond 8 series, B&W 600 series, Monitor Audio Silvers, Quad 11L's, KEF Q-series, Mission M5x series and these speakers are just so much better and more enjoyable than any of those speakers in my opinion. Strengths:
Good non bloated and agile bass with good punch, unfussy about room placement up to a point, lively and smooth at the same time, non fatiguing, can sound extremely realistic with the right recording, excellent bargains at their current second hand price. Thoroughly recommended. Weaknesses:
Ugly looking speakers, but that probably explains their good value for money. Cant be bi-amped, but then I think if you wish to you are probably missing the point. Similar Products Used:
Wharfedale Diamond 8.2, Mission M51, KEF Q1, Monitor Audio S1, Quad 11L, B&W 602 S3.
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