ELAC B5 vs Philharmonic Affordable Accuracy New Monitor

KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord

AA MONITOR on left, ELAC B5 on right.
Between the aluminum trim rings (I don’t know if they are Al or plastic with Al finish. Either way, they look nice) and the brushed aluminum (my name for it) vinyl, the ELAC is designed to be a pretty classy looking speaker! The AA’s are clearly utilitarian (though solid) looking speakers in comparison.








Unfortunately both of my ELAC’s revealed poor tolerances/assembly where the trim rings (which is actually one piece) was proud of the baffle between the drivers, but recessed above the tweeter and below the mid/woofer, as shown below. It is slight, but in today’s CAD/CAM/CNC manufacturing world, and with stable materials like mdf, plastic, and aluminum, there is no reasonable explanation. These speakers were ordered from Amazon on October 23, 2015 so were among the earlier production runs, but definitely not pre-production samples.



Did I somehow get a fluke pair? If you have B5’s, let us know how your’s look. It would be good to know that ELAC fixed this!

The ELAC B5 has received a tremendous amount of press generating plenty of buzz on the audio forums. On the heels of the Andrew Jones budget Pioneers, which arguably represented one of the best values in low-budget speakers. With a 1” soft dome tweeter mounted in a waveguide, a 5-1/4” mid/woofer, and a rear firing port; the ELAC B5 cost $229.99 including shipping from Amazon. It measures 12-3/4”x7-7/8”x8-3/4” (HxWxD) and weighs 11.5 pounds.

http://elac.us/speakers/

The AA MONITOR is essentially a Dayton Audio kit which has benefited from a crossover redesign by Dennis Murphy (this is a new and improved mod, not the old one posted on the Murphyblaster website). The kit (BR-1) runs $180 from Parts Express and uses a 6.5" mid-woof and 1-1/8" silk dome tweeter with a rear port. Dennis Murphy builds the crossover (with new parts), and assembles the speakers. Murphy’s offerings have been great bargains because he is not trying to capture typical profit margins or grow a business. The cost before shipping is $195, Fedex shipping to GA was $25 for a total of $220 (but shipping cost will vary depending on you location). 14-1/4" x 8-5/8" x 11" and about 22 pounds each.

http://philharmonicaudio.com/aa.html

Listening session.

Norah Jones - Don't Know Why (Come Away with Me)


Norah's voice is a favorite proving ground for sound reproduction. She has lots of nuances such as subtly lilting and bending notes with a soft vibrato. The ability to produce these details is a good litmus test for speakers.

The B5 did a very good job of imaging, locating her voice more precisely than the AA Monitor.

Norah’s voice is more relaxed and open on the AA Monitors. With the B5’s, her voice sounded narrower with a hint of strain. I also noticed that the B5’s high frequencies fell-off below the highest harmonics/breath of her voice.


Ed Palermo - Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (Album of the same title)

There is a lot going on in most Big Band Jazz ensembles! I play Baritone Sax in a big band, so know these sounds.

This piece has a drum-set lead-in which revealed the most dramatic difference between these two speakers. The AA’s sounded pretty good, but on the B5’s, the snare (springs against the drum skin) was muted, while the drum hit sounded strong. You could tell it was a snare, but it sounded too much like the snare lever was not engaged. After listening through the rest of my audition CD, I would guess the “bass” note of the drum was over-emphasized while the comparative suppression of higher frequencies kept the snare from being balanced.

The Alto Sax solo sounded as if it was father back in a hall with worse acoustics on the B5.

The Trombone solo sounded as if the player had his hand partially over the bell. Certainly nothing like a full cup mute, but definitely a little veiled. On the AA’s and my better speakers this is a properly bold and even brash solo!

This song really sank any hopes I had that the B5 would be an exceptional product. The above comments are about individual sounds, but more telling was the overall impression of the performance. A Big Band is a powerful ensemble; full of energy. This song opens with high dynamics and a quick hard-driving pace with accented attacks on every note and the B5 just did not carry that excitement into my room. Compared to the AA Monitor, I can only find the word “dull” to describe the sound. To double check things, I bumped the volume on the B5’s up 1dB so they were clearly louder than the AA’s and, while this helped them, the AA’s still carried more excitement!


Pink Floyd – Time (Dark Side of the Moon)

I like this piece because in the first few minutes it presents a variety of sounds.

The first seconds of the piece is white noise. Usually, this doesn’t get my attention because any differences are minor and it is pretty quick before the clock mechanisms start to gain attention. However, with these two speakers, I heard a distinct difference. The B5’s were stronger in bass and sounded more distant. I really had not noticed white noise having a “distance” before, but there it was! I think the distance/presence issue goes back to the B5 tweeters not having as much extension.

At 8s, for the clockwork (preceding the alarms), the speakers were tied, with both showing good detail.
At 19s, when the alarms/chimes fire off, the AA’s had a clear advantage. It simply has more high frequency extension which translates into more realistic and present sounds for bells and chimes.

At 54s, chords are presented using sustained bass and guitar for the lower notes of the chord with light electric piano playing higher notes to fill out the chords. The B5’s placed more emphasis on the mid bass, which gave a good strong character to those notes; however, the AA’s provided deeper bass, resulting in a more solid/grounded nature to those notes, and better shared the stage with the electric piano.

Again, the B5’s were dull. I noted for the vocals that the attacks at the start of hard constants were much softer on the B5’s and at 6 minutes into it, the snare was subject to the same effect as in the previous Ed Palermo piece. Overall, crispness was lost and the sound was dull.


Yes - Heart of the Sunrise (Fragile - Master Series)

The intro to this song is hard driving with bass and drums carrying the song. As with the Ed Palermo piece the energy was mostly lost on the B5’s.

At 3:25, the air in Jon Anderson’s voice was missing from the B5’s.

At 4:10, there is a soft section which is mostly a duet between Squire’s bass and Anderson’s vocals. I though the B5 might have an advantage here because it presents strong mid-bass. While this mid-bass was indeed strong, the B5 did not reproduce the metal string edginess which is Squires signature sound (and a major reason I have this song on my audition CD).

At the end of this song, there is an abrupt snippet of “We Have Heaven” (recording on the same album). While I have never understood the musical decision to include this, it made clear that the AA’s were better at resolving multiple voices.


Steely Dan - I Got the News (Aja)

At this point, things are starting to get redundant. My notes say the B5’s were “closed, thin, and veiled”. The vocals were more distant and lacking high frequencies (which translated as openness). The snare and cymbals sounded dull.


Chet Atkins – Sunrise (Stay Tuned)

At 57s, the triangle gets lost with the B5’s making it very clear that the ELAC tweeter just lacked extension.
I can say that the bass throughout this song sounded rich and lush on the B5’s, but it is at the expense of the overall balance with the guitar work.


Emilie-Claire Barlow – C’est Si Bon (the very thought of you)

Again, most of what I might say would be redundant. At this point, I am looking for something new or a very clear demonstration of a difference.

At 2s the alto sax lead-in has a grace note. The AA’s solidify it, but it is more of a ghost note on the B5. The difference is pretty strong.

I don’t know if it has to do with transient response or if this information is carried in the higher frequencies. Either way – the advantage goes to AA Monitors.

Lyle Lovett - She's No Lady (Pontiac)

I consider Lyle Lovett the male equivalent of Norah Jones. His voice has so much richness, often carrying a playfulness in its nuanced details. I was a bit surprised at how much of the character of his voice was lost on the B5’s.

At 1:36, there is a piano trill that presents the same loss of detail as noted with the sax grace notes in the Emilie-Claire Barlow piece above. The B5 has a hard time with quick notes. The percussive attacks are muted. I’d guess this ties back to the loss of excitement except on softer pieces.


Conclusion.
In a word, I found the ELAC B5 “disappointing”. Maybe it was all of the professional reviews that were not just positive, but full of superlatives and my expectations were too high, but I found the ELAC’s to fall behind the AA’s in about every situation and found very little to recommend the ELAC’s on!

Most notably, the ELAC’s lagged in presence and excitement

Don’t misunderstand, the ELAC’s are not horrible speakers, but while I found the WaveCrest HVL-1’s to occasionally sound better than the AA’s (to my ears), this essentially never happened with the ELAC’s.

I went into this comparison expecting (and hoping for) greatness from the ELAC B5’s. I expected them to be match or better or at least be fair competition for the AA Monitors. Perhaps to lag in one area and excel in another, but I never expected them to fall short across the board as they have to my ear. In my opinion, the hype behind these speakers is not warranted.

Competition.
In the same price range, I compared the AA Monitor to the WaveCrest HVL-1(link below, post #3). The AA’s were more accurate and clearly a better speaker (by any normal standards) and better value; however, unlike the B5's, I could find specific places in music where the HVL-1 sounded better than the AA's.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/threads/new-2015-affordable-accuracy-speakers-by-dennis-murphy.95661/#post-1092558
 
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S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
Thanks for taking the time to write this comparison, a very good read! Hopefully this is not the last of your comparisons.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
Man this was very interesting. Maybe a bad Elac tweeter perhaps? Can you return them and ask for another pair? Muffled yuck reminds me of those Infinities I had and sold. Maybe we are spoiled with airy soundstage type speakers. :D
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I already returned them. It didn't make sense to keep them. Both speakers had the same character so unless I got two bad tweeters, I doubt that is the issue, but it is possible they are having QC/tweeter issues and got a batch of bad tweeters. I think the F5's use the same tweeters, so if Adam doesn't have a similar experience, that will suggest that I got a bad pair.
 
D

Dennis Murphy

Audioholic General
Man this was very interesting. Maybe a bad Elac tweeter perhaps? Can you return them and ask for another pair? Muffled yuck reminds me of those Infinities I had and sold. Maybe we are spoiled with airy soundstage type speakers. :D
There's another comparo of budget speakers on AVS. The reviewer reported on the B6 rather than the B5, but the tweeter is the same, and the woofer very similar except for slightly larger size. http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speakers/2233954-2-0-bookshelf-compared-wharfedale-philharmonic-chane-musichall-elac-energy-kef.html

I bought the B5's to compare with my AA's, and the quality control on the tweeters seemed fine. The on-axis response is very smooth and extended. But the aggressive wave guide built into the tweeter baffle, while producing a very smooth fall off in off-axis response, will also restrict dispersion. I think that's what the reviewers are picking up on. Like most approaches to speaker design, wave guides have pluses and minuses.
 
afterlife2

afterlife2

Audioholic Warlord
That's sad about the Elacs. I mean you both share the same thoughts. Thanks for the link. I subcribed I wanna see what he says about the HVL-1's
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
There's another comparo of budget speakers on AVS. The reviewer reported on the B6 rather than the B5, but the tweeter is the same, and the woofer very similar except for slightly larger size. http://www.avsforum.com/forum/89-speakers/2233954-2-0-bookshelf-compared-wharfedale-philharmonic-chane-musichall-elac-energy-kef.html

I bought the B5's to compare with my AA's, and the quality control on the tweeters seemed fine. The on-axis response is very smooth and extended. But the aggressive wave guide built into the tweeter baffle, while producing a very smooth fall off in off-axis response, will also restrict dispersion. I think that's what the reviewers are picking up on. Like most approaches to speaker design, wave guides have pluses and minuses.
Thanks for that. I must admit to having some insecurities going against so many professional reviews where they are falling over themselves about the ELAC's! It is good to see that I am not the only one who doesn't see these as a new benchmark of quality for their price-point.
 
TheWarrior

TheWarrior

Audioholic Ninja
Great write up!

I only got to hear these two compared one time, but from memory, I have to agree with everything KEW posted. The ELACs are perfectly decent speakers, for the money. Hopefully it was an isolated issue with the proud drivers/baffle issue, but it was quite obvious to spot.

But there is no denying what Dennis Murphy was able to accomplish with a kit speaker! KEW and I keep recommending these because we honestly believe that for $200, the AA Monitors will compete (and win) with many speakers costing hundreds more.
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
I bought the B5's to compare with my AA's, and the quality control on the tweeters seemed fine. The on-axis response is very smooth and extended. But the aggressive wave guide built into the tweeter baffle, while producing a very smooth fall off in off-axis response, will also restrict dispersion. I think that's what the reviewers are picking up on. Like most approaches to speaker design, wave guides have pluses and minuses.
Thanks for that explanation. I would be really perplexed if I saw the Frequency Response graph of the B5 and it showed extension equivalent to the AA Monitors, without knowing that the wave guide is responsible for this phenomenon.
 
Adam

Adam

Audioholic Jedi
I wrote my review on the F5s a little while ago on Amazon. It's difficult for me to describe sound to other people, but I can compare them against my 18-year-old NHT 1.5 bookshelf speakers. The F5 towers sound very similar to me in midrange and bass (even though the 1.5s are much smaller), but they lack some of the high end of the NHTs. They have a "smoother" and less crisp sound to them, which some may prefer...but I'm used to the response of the NHTs. I did give them five stars, though, as I believe that they are quite good for the price. My NHTs with stands would cost over $1000 in today's money, versus the $560 current price on Amazon for the F5s. I don't like them as well as my NHTs, but I sure do like them well enough to recommend saving over $400 on them if given a choice between the two. Of course, the 1.5s don't cost near that much used these days, but you know what I'm saying...
 
Alex2507

Alex2507

Audioholic Slumlord
those Infinities I had and sold
I'm curious which model that was. TIA :)

Kurt, I think I owe you some money. Our agreement that I write a review comparing your Infinities to my Infinities may well have not satisfied your expectations. As Adam said, "It's difficult for me to describe sound to other people". You don't seem to have any difficulty getting your meaning across. Thanks for the write up.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I already returned them. It didn't make sense to keep them. Both speakers had the same character so unless I got two bad tweeters, I doubt that is the issue, but it is possible they are having QC/tweeter issues and got a batch of bad tweeters. I think the F5's use the same tweeters, so if Adam doesn't have a similar experience, that will suggest that I got a bad pair.
Did you look at the response on some kind of RTA? I would like to see if the Elac had a dip in the crossover region or if the tweeter polarity should be reversed, but wasn't. I have heard the kind of perceived loss of presence and it was more a problem with crossover than lack of extreme high frequencies. The first harmonic of a triangle, guitar, snare drum and a hole in the crossover or reversed tweeter wiring can cause these problems.

Did you try tilting them back a bit?
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Kurt, I think I owe you some money. Our agreement that I write a review comparing your Infinities to my Infinities may well have not satisfied your expectations. As Adam said, "It's difficult for me to describe sound to other people". You don't seem to have any difficulty getting your meaning across. Thanks for the write up.
Thanks for the complement!

I have absolutely no concerns. Just wish I had not been so freaking sick when I went up there!!!
 
KEW

KEW

Audioholic Overlord
Did you look at the response on some kind of RTA? I would like to see if the Elac had a dip in the crossover region or if the tweeter polarity should be reversed, but wasn't. I have heard the kind of perceived loss of presence and it was more a problem with crossover than lack of extreme high frequencies. The first harmonic of a triangle, guitar, snare drum and a hole in the crossover or reversed tweeter wiring can cause these problems.

Did you try tilting them back a bit?
Unfortunately, I did not get measurements. However, I would defer to Dennis Murphy's explanation (in post #5). He says the extension is there and it is the effect of the wave guide that is causing my perception.
I'm certain he has measured them and also feel comfortable that he has the level of experience to understand the actual source of the issue.
I thought about going back and modifying my review to explain this, but:
1) I wasn't comfortable explaining something I really don't understand, and
2) I think most people would relate to/care about/understand audio perceptions, rather than a technical analysis of how the wave guide influences perceptions of high frequencies.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Dennis- have you checked out the Tymphany BC25TG15-04 and Peerless 830874?
 
D

Dennis Murphy

Audioholic General
Dennis- have you checked out the Tymphany BC25TG15-04 and Peerless 830874?
Hi. I'm not sure I understand the question. The Tymphany tweet (AKA Vifa) is the one I used in the Pioneer mod. And I'm sure the Peerless woof is a nice unit. But I was restricted to drivers that would fit the Parts Express cabinet routing, which isn't standard size. Also, the Parts Express drivers are the best value out there. Both of them together cost considerably less than one Peerless woof.
 
zieglj01

zieglj01

Audioholic Spartan
Thanks for taking the time to write this comparison, a very good read! Hopefully this is not the last of your comparisons.
Agree - that way He can spend the money, and I can save money.
Plus, he does a better job with spelling than I do.
 

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