ELAC Dual 4" Center Speaker

Full disclosure, I bought 2 of these during some sort of magical secret Amazon sale. I *literally* don't know what happened but there was a moment when the price was a joke. It must've been! A pair cost 96 + tax. Read that again. A pair. Two. Right now, this is 3x that price for one. Don't know why, don't care. I got lucky apparently. For less than the price of the Micca gods I got a pair of Elacs for bookshelves. I assume it's a plot to overthrow my dominion but I'm alright with that if it means steep discounts on good speakers.Gushing aside, this is a solid center for the regular price. I wouldn't do a pair at the reg for bookshelves (insert Micca plug here) but it's a capable center with the dual 4" woofers and 1" tweeter. Basic black, oh well nothing is perfect. The terminals are beefy and can easily take bare 12 gauge, maybe 10, if that's your style. The bass is strong and will do you no wrong when it comes to crucial dialogue, but it's not muddy or in-the-way. You want a center that has some mid-range depth but doesn't try to be what it's not (a sub). For that duty, this will do you no wrong.As a pair of bookshelves, these need a sub. There has yet to be a pair of bookshelves that could survive on their own, that's the bottom line. Anyone that says otherwise is lying to you. These are no different. Even with dual 4" woofers, they don't handle those lower frequencies well. They can fake it but you'll know. You'll know. BUT! pair them with a capable sub and set the crossover around 60Hz and you're golden.Ok but what did I use to test these? Glad you asked! Answer: everything. Music? Duh. Movies? Of course. 90s sticoms? My guilty pleasure. They aren't the most transparent speakers around (meaning you'll be able to locate them in a dark room when everything is blurry for "reasons") but for the price, I don't know why you're still reading this rambling review.If you want a center channel for the home theater, you could do worse but you probably won't do better for the money. If you get these on a sale, grab two for bookshelves. But only on sale. Two at full price, for bookshelves, aren't your best choice. Not a bad choice, don't get me wrong, but you're a bang-for-your-buck shopper and that crown goes to Micca. These are better by 20% but cost 100% more at full retail. The math just doesn't add up.

La calidad de sonido y construcción son mejores de lo que esperaba. También es bastante grande.Por el precio y la marca vale totalmente la pena.

I paired this up with a pair of Elac B6 bookshelf speakers for my motor home. The timbre match is near perfect, as you might expect with the tweeters being identical. IMO timbre matching is over-rated, but when you have the chance to make the match, it's good to do it.I'm driving this 3.0 (no sub) setup with a Yamaha Aventage RX-A680, it's a lightweight amongst AVRs but does the job. I can clearly hear dialog with this setup much better than prior when I was using just the two B6 speakers. Dialog was muddy and faint at times. This has cleared that problem up very well. Nice little speaker, just 15" wide and it fits on a coffee table under my display so it's out of the way. Don't have a lot of room for audio toys in a 35' motor home!Sound is generated by an NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 graphics card in a desktop computer. It's a rather modest card that does two five or seven channels along with subwoofer . I set it to 5.0 when I crank up a movie and the Yamaha reads the coding and spits sound out to the proper speaker channels. Works very well.Previously I was using what is known in the audio world as a phantom center, where the center channel sound is split between the the left and right channels. I've always maintained that it's a kludge at best, even with world class tower speakers. How do you turn up the phantom center if you can't hear the dialog in the movie you're watching? Answer: You can't! You'd have to turn up the left and right channels, and the ambient sound goes up too.This is a cheap alternative to that problem.

I purchased two sets of ELAC bookshelf speakers: Uni-Fi UB5 and Debut 2.0 B6.2. They are pretty nice, the Uni-Fi UB5 in particular. Audio quality of this ELAC Dual 4" Center Speaker is average at first. I am about to return it. After few days of speaker break in. The audio becomes better, thus I choose to keep it. I change the review from 2 starts to 4 starts.

Purchase Price at the time: $63.06 // Feb 2nd 2023.Real / True Specifications below: Straight from the manual itself..(Typed up):ELACModel: CS41 - (BK/Black?)* Enclosure Type: 2-Way Bass Reflex* Frequency Response: 48Hz - 35000 Hz* Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms* Sensitivity: 84db @ 2.83v/1m* Crossover Frequency: 2000Hz* Max Power Input: 100watts* Tweeter: 1" Cloth Dome* Woofer: Dual 4" Polypropylene* Cabinet: CARB2 Rated MDF* Cabinet Finish: Black Brushed Vinyl* Port: Dual Flared* Binding Posts: 5-Way Metal* Dimensions(WxHxD): 16.3" x 6.6" x 8.9"- - -Things to note, bottom of speaker, sticker:- Suitable for amplifiers: 4-8ohm- Nominal Impedance: 6 Ohm- Max Input Power 100 Watts- Speaker is definitely Heavy for a small / medium sized speaker.- Quality connectors/binding posts, I Feel. - not plastic lesser / cheap ones.- There's a paper insert between the grill and the speaker face, Not 100% sure what it's for but I will guess it's for added protection against face of the speaker, and / or to prevent the grill from being pushed on and stuck on further, making it difficult to pry off(??..) either way, this is a good addition and shows they care about the product...I plan to use this as a center speaker for my computer surround 5.1 setup. I'll update here in the future once I have it set up and tested.Thanks hope this info and the specs helped.Can't wait to hear it in my setup :)Update:*CON: This center speaker has VERY LOW SENSITIVITY. - I'm using it (temporarily) with my CROWN XLS 1002 as a center channel, I need to turn the Crown level up pretty high to get same level of sound as other speakers in my setup. I know this will vary based of what you or others might use. ~ but in the end I wish the Elac Center had a bit higher sensitivity maybe 87-89 dB would be good. - I'm not a speaker designer .. but I'm guessing they had a reason to make it lower sensitivity. Maybe something to do with the smaller woofers?'makes a great center in 5.1 Computer / desk setup though. - seeing I'm pretty close and always direct in the middle. - I have mine on a tripod stand + shelf behind my desk currently.- I Can't recommend this small/medium center for LARGER theater duty, I would save for something bigger more powerful, and higher sensitivity. .. Also if you're new to Center channels I Recommend checking out video by: Erin's Audio Corner (youtuber) .. I Think the video is something like ... " The Problem with Most Center Channel Speakers " ~ might help you understand why some center channels can be terrible depending on how they're made(woofer positioning etc), and the positioning of where you sit (and not just where you sit but others in your theater setup)...Thanks, and good luck choosing yours'