Koss Totem Mani-2 - Manual (Page 36)

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D
oes the name ring a bell?
Mention ELAC and we
think of turntables of long
ago, or more recently of
phono cartridges. Indeed, ELAC (the
name is a contraction of Electroacustic)
was the first to make a relatively inex-
pensive phono cartridge with a Van den
Hul profiled stylus. That turned out not
to be a great idea, but its heart was in the
right place.
And now ELAC has brought out the
first inexpensive speaker with a Heil
tweeter. Not all the company’s speakers
are this size or this price either, but once
again its heart is in the right place. Oskar
Heil’s famous tweeter has long been
admired for its exemplary smoothness,
and indeed for the lack of peakiness
that is found in nearly all conventional
tweeters.
So where have we seen it before?
Well, the Oskar Aulos, a smallish
speaker with a similar tweeter was on
the cover of UHF No. 57. And its larger
brother, the Kithara, was reviewed in
issue No. 59. Subsequently Albert pur-
chased it. But none of these speakers cost
as little as this one. The finish, designed
for modern decors, belies the cost, as do
of course the drivers used. The woofer
is a sandwich of paper and aluminum.
And the “JET” tweeter is ELAC’s own
version of Oskar Heil’s “Air Motion
Transformer.” From 2.8 kHz up it does
the heavy lifting.
We set the speakers up on our Foun-
dation stands and connected them to our
Alpha system. It took very little fiddling
with the placement before we were happy
with the image and the balance. The
speakers come with foam “muffs” that
can be placed in the rear port for place-
ment close to a wall, but we didn’t use
them.
We opened the session with the
SACD version of the famed Proprius
choral recording, Now the Green Blade
Riseth (PRSACD9093). We’ve heard
both the male and female voices sound
hideous on speakers far more expen-
sive than these, and we were pleased
to note that the ELACs reproduced
them pleasantly. We were hoping for
great smoothness in the highs from the
famous tweeter, and we got it, except
for…
Except for what? Do check out the
full version of this review in the print
or electronic version.
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Elac 204
Brand/model: ELAC 204.2
Price: C$1650
Size (HWD): 33 x 20 x 28.5 cm
Sensitivity: 88 dB
Impedance (claimed): 4 ohms
Most liked: Deliciously smooth highs
Least liked: It’s a little speaker,
remember?
Verdict: A high end that’s really high
end
Summing it up…
34 ULTRA HIGH FIDELITY Magazine