Modifying the Elac Unifi UB52

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Hooge

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Modifying the Elac Unifi UB52
« on: 20 Apr 2021, 11:05 pm »
Hoping Danny might see this and reply. I've been considering having Danny take a look at modifying the crossover in my Elac Unifi UB52's. These are the newer, updated versions of the original UB51's and there is a thread on this forum about modifying those that Danny responded to. I recently upgraded just the binding posts to much higher quality and was blown away at how much of a difference it made. So, I've been thinking about internal wiring and crossover mods and possibly having Danny take a look at it. These speakers are amazingly good and can only imagine how good they could be with better internal parts. But, I'm seeing a potential problem in getting at the crossover due to the internal layout. As you can see in the illustration below inside the cabinet you have the mid/tweeter concentric driver essentially housed within it's own chamber (as it was in the old Unifi UB51) and then you can see there is a vertical H-brace in the middle of the cabinet. The crossover in the original UB51 was mounted on the bottom of the cabinet but now the UB52 has moved to a front ported design and the port now sits on the bottom of the cabinet. The crossover is now mounted on the rear wall of the cabinet, behind the mid/tweeter enclosure and above the binding posts cups. My question for Danny right off the bat is, how the hell would one access and remove the crossover? Obviously, there's no access to the back of the cabinet from the enclosed mid/tweeter chamber. If one were to remove the bass driver you can likely access the bottom half of the crossover from there but doesn't it appear based on that illustration that the vertical H-brace AND the mid/tweeter chamber would be in the way, potentially making it impossible getting to all crossover board mounting screws? It looks nearly impossible but I may be wrong. The board is mounted up pretty high if you look closely, it's above the binding posts cups and behind the mid/tweeter chamber. Is it possible they mounted the crossover boards before glueing the cabinet together and thereby making it so one could never access or remove the board? Is this is a one-and-done speaker if crossover issues arise or you want to upgrade it? By the way the binding post cup cutout is typical size, not large enough to get a hand through.

Danny, or anybody else have some insight here? Thanks!









Tubefly

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Re: Modifying the Elac Unifi UB52
« Reply #1 on: 21 Apr 2021, 04:16 pm »
I find that to be an astonishing part count in the Xover

Hooge

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Re: Modifying the Elac Unifi UB52
« Reply #2 on: 21 Apr 2021, 05:55 pm »
Ha ha, I agree. It is a true three-way though, but still a lot of parts. The speaker somehow still sounds very detailed and open with good transparency.

E-Zee

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Re: Modifying the Elac Unifi UB52
« Reply #3 on: 22 Apr 2021, 01:50 am »
With that specific cabinet design I do not think that I would overly concern myself with removing the existing crossover.  If you had to leave it in place that would be okay. There is nothing on that board that is high enough value or quality that make me want to reuse it.  If it was my speaker and I were placing a new crossover in that cabinet, I'd start by just pulling the woofer and see what you can see.  I wouldn't lose sleep over running new wire all the way to the coaxial. Replacing it would be great but If removing it was enough of a challenge I'd consider just grabbing onto the coaxial speaker wire where it exits its secondary internal enclosure and connect new wire at that location.  Secondly pick a location to place the new crossover board that is physically accessible from the woofer opening.  I'd consider placement on the floor of cabinet depending on how long the port tube is, adhered to the exterior back wall of the coaxial's internal closure, or against the upper portion of that same internal dividing wall that prevents you from accessing the existing board. The cabinet is large enough that I'm confident that if you can fit it through the woofer opening than you'll be able to find a wall to mount it to.  If needed, you could split the crossover to two boards and put the woofer circuit on a different board than that of the coaxial.  That might be a good option for this design.

It's a great speaker and I think it would be worthy of the upgrades. Good luck whatever you decide.