Are you using the Ultra Bookshelves for this comparison? @twice the price of the Elac's I
would very interested in your final thoughts if
the Uni-fi can hold their own @$499 vs $999, I would go with the cheaper Elac's , I could have 4 Elac's for the price of two SVS, even AJ has mention the laws of diminishing returns when refereeing to cost vs performance.
No, I do not have the Ultras. I used them in my statement because they are very good speakers that I am fairly familiar with. If the ELAC could compete with my MEMORY of the Ultra's, I would probably look at something like the NHT Classic 3's that BSA suggested.
I certainly don't expect them to compete with the Ultra's but if they did, that would be a wonderful thing because I consider the Ultra a very good speaker for $1000/pair!
We have heard a lot of hype, and while I expect the Uni-Fi to be a competitive speaker in its price range, I do not think proper evaluation has been done with the prototypes at the Expo's. With the name recognition Andrew Jones has gotten, He could make a crappy speaker and it would sell well (not everyone reads reviews/forums).
From the Pioneer and Debut speakers A Jones designed, I expect a competent and competitive design:
To my ear, the Pioneer tower ousted the previous ruling Infinity Primus (but there are others who disagree).
To my ear, the ELAC Debut UB-5 did not beat out the Affordable Accuracy speakers, but it is still one of the better options around $200.
I love that someone with his experience and understanding is designing reasonably priced speakers, but he is not the only competent designer in this price range.