04.2008

ELAC FS 247

This review first appeared in the April 2008 issue of fairaudio.de and can be read in its original German version here. It is herewith translated and presented to an English-only audience through a mutual syndication arrangement with fairaudio.de. As is customary for our own reviews, the writer's signature at review's end has a link below it to his e-mail should you have questions or feedback you wish to send. All images contained in this review are the property of fairaudio.de - Ed.

"Anything but chicken liver, ELAC's signature JET tweeter is their advanced development of Dr. Heil's Air Motion Transformer, a transducer without conventional voice coil assembly. A heavily folded Kapton foil membrane sports a chemically bonded aluminum layer etched into which is a quasi voice coil. 0.84mm wide, this driver operates like an accordion, squeezing air out of its folds at high velocities, albeit with the mechanical motion -- and this is the trick -- not in the direction of the listener but crosswise. This concept displaces a lot of air with minimal effort to explain the general claims for high dynamics and good efficiency with AMTs.

Below the 2.500Hz high-pass operate two 15cm cones whose cooperation ends at 450Hz where one continues onward into the bass while the other rolls out to turn the ELAC FS 247 into a typical 2.5-way affair. The network filter employs two discrete PCBs. Something special continues with those mid/woofers. While the terminology crystal membrane conjures up some ominous utensil hawked for good coin in one of the many esoterica boutiques that crop up like mushrooms in our local Kreuzberg, ELAC's breakdown sketch shows something quite specific - an aluminum diaphragm which, to avoid common breakup modes, is strategically bonded to a textile substrate; albeit not across the board or with just any glue. A big part of the proprietary recipe involves identification of exactly where to glue and what to glue with. The voice coils too are glued - straight to diaphragm which translates input signal impulses directly to the alu and textile skins. The faceted aluminum surfaces are said to undermine standing waves while increasing stiffness.

Conclusion

Should your biases or tastes favor a laid-back bodacious sound, an audition with the ELAC FS 247 will likely not end in merry toasts of brotherhood - but the speaker would feel the same about you. The 247's character is unequivocal and clearly carries the maker's imprimatur of philosophy and design brief, a statement of purpose I cherish in products. In this case, the aim was to create a speaker of extraordinary staging, timing and high resolution for a direct, energetic, intense listening experience - with mission patently accomplished. Compared to other speakers with similar virtues, ELAC's FS 247 offers pronounced long-term utility not least because of its special tweeter. Considering the asking price, this package of qualities is anything but common. Ideally, you'd not leash this speaker to components or cables suspected of undue bite or sharpness since such matters would be magnified by a transducer of this caliber accuracy."

ELAC's FS 247 is characterized by...

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