Elac Uni-Fi 2.0 5 1/4" Center Speaker (UC52BK)

reat home theater sound begins with crisp, clear dialogue and engaging special effects. That means having a top-notch center channel speaker like ELAC's Uni-Fi UC5 in your system. This tidy, unassuming looking speaker packs a real wallop, giving you the power and performance needed to anchor your home theater system's front soundstage to the action on your TV's screen. And since the UC5 was created by renowned speaker design guru Andrew Jones, you can count on true audiophile-quality performance for a steal. 

What's this center channel's secret?

In part, the UC5 owes its clear, detailed sound 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 UC5's concentric driver places a 1" soft dome tweeter directly in the center 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 UC5 uses two 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. Dual 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.