[John Casler]

Many here know of my association with NuPRIME and that I am a NuPRIME Dealer, but I also am always looking for other complementary lines and products for the NuPRIME gear.

Since NuPRIME is certainly considered "High Performance" for the Price, I recently picked up the ELAC and PIONEER lines to offer to my friends and clients.

Some might already know, or have heard about Pioneer, ELAC, and Andrew Jones Designs.  If you don't you can easily GOOGLE same and find a lot of material and opinion.

That said, I recently placed a pair of ELAC F5 and Pioneer FS-52 (both floor standers) in my IDA-8 DEMO system to compare.  They have been in place for about 10 days, and I finally got a chance to do a well burned in A/B, and was VERY PLEASED 

First off, even those these designs come from the same Designer, they do sound quite different.

Initially I have been burning them in with the BlueTooth dongle and Internet Radio and Pandora, both of which are QUITE GOOD for easy listening and background music.  And to be sure, they sound EXCELLENT compared to most BlueTooth I have heard due to the APT-X implementation.

But, I was not ready for the CLEAR and DISTINCT sonic difference when running optical and coax digital from a reasonably good Denon Transport.

WOW!

Sonically with a good source, BOTH of these speaker offer pretty High Level Sonics for very resaonable prices.

I will write more regarding their difference as I do more listening, but right now the primary difference between the ELAC and the PIONEER models above is that the ELAC has a clearly "fuller" overall sound, and the PIONEER has a distinctly evident HF output.

And as a side note, today with a quick listen, I inserted an "after market" Power Cord, and BOTH models showed immediate improvement in the Bass Freq's.  Some of which is manifest by a Velodyne Subwoofer, and obviously contributed to by the better PowerCord on the IDA-8 (only)

MORE TO COME, but if you are looking for Entry Level (price) with higher than expected performance, I can suggest the Jones designs as a good consideration.

[srb]

What is your Bluetooth® source?

[John Casler]

Just an iPAD Air.

[srb]

The aptX codec must be present in both the transmitter and receiver to take advantage of the better quality of aptX.  As far as I know, no Apple devices to date incorporate aptX.

Although I expect that the pairing of an aptX transmitter and aptX receiver will still not measure up to a wired USB or S/PDIF connection, in this particular case the comparison of non-aptX Bluetooth to S/PDIF would be even more apparent.

Steve

[John Casler]

The aptX codec must be present in both the transmitter and receiver to take advantage of the better quality of aptX.  As far as I know, no Apple devices to date incorporate aptX.

Although I expect that the pairing of an aptX transmitter and aptX receiver will still not measure up to a wired USB or S/PDIF connection, in this particular case the comparison of non-aptX Bluetooth to S/PDIF would be even more apparent.

Steve

Yes, it was a CLEAR and DISTINCT difference. 

I do have an APT-X transmitter and Receiver, I may try.

[John Casler]

The aptX codec must be present in both the transmitter and receiver to take advantage of the better quality of aptX.  As far as I know, no Apple devices to date incorporate aptX.

Although I expect that the pairing of an aptX transmitter and aptX receiver will still not measure up to a wired USB or S/PDIF connection, in this particular case the comparison of non-aptX Bluetooth to S/PDIF would be even more apparent.

Steve

Hi Steve,

You were correct, the APTX transmitter DID make a big (and surprising) difference.

Even with free Pandora, the sound was noticeably better.   

[John Casler]

UPDATE:

Well the ELAC F5 are breaking in and sounding even better than before.

However, I can't say enough about the NEW addition, which is the iPHONE/iPAD controlled 10" S10EQ Subwoofer.

WOW! what a smooth and clean bottom this gives, and the ability to control and equalize (automatic or manual) is exceptional.

The SYSTEM

[/size]

[Genez]

Just received a news letter from an audiophile blog....


 Soon to be released.  Elac Uni-Fi speakers. These look like something I would want to totally live with.   Really intrigued me with the high quality concentric drivers.

                                                                               

Here is a pre-review.

https://youtu.be/sMFSgM3k85c?t=4m14s

[goskers]

I was one sitting next to the reviewer during that demo.  Although I didn't smell anything out of the ordinary he is spot on with his statements.  The Uni-Fi will be another game changer.  The surrounding system was an integrated from Audio Alchemy so no megabuck anything was in use.

[John Casler]

This type of performance is why I picked up the ELAC gear and have been more and more amazed at the quality of line.

I have put together some very attractive NuPRIME/ELAC packages "bundling" them together in matching price performance.

I have not heard the Uni-Fi models yet, but there is little doubt that from these reports, they will match just as well with NuPRIME gear.

[Genez]

I wanted to know about how the Uni-Fi speakers would work in a near field desktop setting.

Here is an email response I got straight from the horse's mouth...  I contacted ELAC.

Hi Gene.
The bookshelf model is perfect for Nearfield listening. The problem with regular speakers with separated tweeter and midrange drivers is that this separation becomes more evident the closer to the speaker you listen.
The concentric driver overcomes this issue because of combining the midrange and tweeter together.

I am locking them on my radar... 

[John Casler]

ELAC is telling me that we will have Uni-Fi models available in April, so save up your pennies for the NuPRIME/ELAC Packages.

Price Performance will be "off the charts".

An IDA-8 and a pair of ELAC Uni-Fi for less than $2k retail?

[maty]

Elac Uni-Fi Series Speaker Preview

-> http://www.audioholics.com/surround-sound-reviews/elac-uni-fi

[RWJR]

ELAC is telling me that we will have Uni-Fi models available in April, so save up your pennies for the NuPRIME/ELAC Packages.

Price Performance will be "off the charts".

An IDA-8 and a pair of ELAC Uni-Fi for less than $2k retail?

Hi John,

I am very interested in these new models.  I'll be sure to assess them when they launch in April.  I am also intrigued about their integrated amp which is supposed to have room correction built in.  It might be a nice solution to my music room sound irregularities.  I just read that Emotiva is launching new speakers with a folded air motion tweeter.  They will have a floorstander for $700/pair-the Airmotiv 1.  It appears more companies are adopting the Elac/Andrew Jones model of building quality designs for less.  As a Dad who is socking away money for retirement and my kids' education, this is a good trend! 

[rustydoglim]

Hi, if the discussion has nothing to do with IDA-8, I suggest moving this to ELAC or PIONEER circle, if they have one. If not, move to some other place.

[John Casler]

Hi, if the discussion has nothing to do with IDA-8, I suggest moving this to ELAC or PIONEER circle, if they have one. If not, move to some other place.

Yes, this thread is about the price performance of NuPRIME with price performance "speakers" only.  thanks

[John Casler]

Hi John,

I am very interested in these new models.  I'll be sure to assess them when they launch in April.  I am also intrigued about their integrated amp which is supposed to have room correction built in.  It might be a nice solution to my music room sound irregularities.  I just read that Emotiva is launching new speakers with a folded air motion tweeter.  They will have a floorstander for $700/pair-the Airmotiv 1.  It appears more companies are adopting the Elac/Andrew Jones model of building quality designs for less.  As a Dad who is socking away money for retirement and my kids' education, this is a good trend! 

As Rustydoglim has indicated above, this thread is for NuPRIME related electronics and great speakers to use with them, thanks.