Elac FS 207.2

"Many audio companies like to highlight their long and glorious histories, but few can hold a candle to Germany's ELAC, which traces its history all the way back to April 15, 1908, although it didn't start to manufacture under the ELAC brand until 1948, in which year it started manufacture ELAC turntables. ...Loudspeaker manufacturing started in 1984, building on technology developed by Axiom Electroakustik, which became part of ELAC, and by legendary loudspeaker pioneer Oskar Heil, whose famous air-motion transformer tweeter revolutionised the hi-fi world in the late 70s and early 80s, following its invention in 1972."

"The beauty of Heil`s system is that because the 'pleats'in the membrane are highly efficient, the motor system has neither to be large nor high-powered. Also because the pleated membrane is inherently 'loose', its resonant frequency is well outside its operating range – something that can't be said of any dome tweeter. ... ELAC calls its version a 'JET' tweeter."
"Positioned midway between the two bass/midrange drivers on the upper portion of the FS 207.2, front baffle, the pleated diaphragm is almost hidden behind five slots, each of which is approximately 25mm wide and 5mm high, that are cut into the plastic faceplate. As with all the other components used to build the FS 207.2, the tweeter is build in Germany by ELAC itself."
"The JET tweeter has a high-frequency performance that extends all the way up to SCAD and DVD-A, as well extended-range PCM. ..."

"ELAC's technology isn't limited to just the JET tweeter: the two bass/midrange drivers used in the FS 207.2 are also quite unusual, which you might guess even by looking them. ... Instead of the cones being made from just the one material, ELAC`s engineers bond a thin layer of aluminium sheet to a underlying layer of wood pulp. The layer of aluminium acts to stiffen the cone, so it operates more like a piston at low frequencies, so reducing distortion, while the wood pulp backing prevents the aluminium from 'ringing' at high frequencies. In other words, you get all the advantages of a metal-cone driver without any of the disadvantages! The drivers are rated with a diameter of 150mm, but their Theile/Small diameter is much smaller, at 117mm. The chassis is made from pressed steel, at the business end of which is a very large, heavily shielded double-magnet assembly. This drives a voice coil wound on a Kapton former. ... "

"Because the FS 207.2 is set up for bi-wiring, there are actually two completely separate filter network, each on its own PCB. ... "

"Size-wise, I thought ELAC had struck a perfect balance with the FS 207.2s. At just 935mm high, 170mm wide and 285mm deep, they're visually appealing from virtually any angle, with or without the grilles fitted. This size enables a good internal volume, as well, in the order of 43 litres, to help out the bass. ... "


"I can honestly say there wasn't a moment during my time with the FS 207.2s – with any type of music – that I thought I'd made a bad call in leaving the jumpers in their original position. Which is by the way of saying that I found the balance of the sound was superb. The weight of the bass meshed perfectly with the delivery of the midrange, which then segued so effortlessly into the treble that there was not even the slightest sense of there being a transition from one driver to another. The sense of naturalness to the sound that this imbues cannot be overstated, particularly with instruments that have a wide frequency range, such as keyboards of all kinds. I was particularly reminded of this when playing a new CD. By Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen. ... "
"The ELAC's handled keyboard sound wonderfully well, capturing the attack and sustain and excelling at the extremes, delivering depth to the bass and pearly trills in the upper reaches. The JET tweeter proved absolutely brilliant not only at the reproduction of pianoforte, but also reproducing harpsichord and harp, where the clarity and purity of the sound in the higher octaves were second to none. ... "

"ELAC has scored big-time, because the sound is exactly neutral, yet doesn't have the 'soft' sound that most speakers acquire in the process of attaining this neutrality.
Indeed the ELAC midrange is light, airy and immediate, sounding forward without being forward, and 'full of live' without being bright. The performance is so good there's not even the slightest suggestion when listening that one musical style might be handled by the speakers better than any other; the ELAC FS 207.2 takes everything in its stride, from rock, to jazz, to popular, through the various 'world music' sub-genres. The clarity and crispness on vocals is revelatory - you won't be straining to decipher a lyric if you own a pair of FS 207.2s !"

Conclusion

"German engineering has been one of the world's marvels for many decades (think BMW, Mercedes, Porsche…) so it's really no surprise that the ELAC FS 207.2 loudspeakers follow in the same fine tradition."

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