Head over heels: The ELAC BS403s

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Head over heels: The ELAC BS403s. Rapallo’s new kid on the block Deano is making investments. Not in real estate or some fancy overseas bond. No, he’s putting some money towards his ever-evolving audio room. Not that it was in the plans. Sometimes good audio equipment just finds you, rather than the other way around.

Here’s what happened: As part of his ‘training’, long-term audiophile Deano has made it a habit to take some of our demo material home for an in-depth familiarization with the products. After all, it is important for us to know the ins and outs of the products we recommend to our customers. This is the story of how a pair of the ELAC BS403’s unexpectedly found a permanent place in his set-up.

‘I’ve listened to an awful lot of speakers in my lifetime, but I found out that the Elac BS403 bookshelf speakers have got something which can hardly be described. They are not the typical boring bookshelf design at all. With the obvious vent space at the bottom, and with the nice shiny chrome pillars they are different to anything else out there.

But it’s not really the design that hooked me. What got me into trouble is the fact that I have rarely enjoyed my music as stress free as with these ELAC speakers.

Having lived in Europe for a big part of my young life, I was familiar with the ELAC brand. The name, that is. When I took home the BS403s, I put them to a listening test that lasted for hours and hours without pausing. I didn’t mean for it to go on for that long. It just happened because the BS403s are so amazing pleasant to listen to. There was absolutely no annoying sound or absurd frequency that would normally drive me up the wall. It was a story that we thought had to be shared with our customers.

But let’s go back to the beginning.

Remember that design that I mentioned earlier? Let’s start with the Ribbon tweeters at the top of the cabinet. These are based and designed on the principle of the legendary “Air motion transformer” invented by Dr. Oskar Heil. JET stands for a tweeter design which Elac has perfected and patented. Elac has constantly refined this design over the years and its sound is markedly different from that of the otherwise used dome tweeter designs.

The tweeters folded foil diaphragm with its lamellar construction is driven by an extremely strong magnet system composed of neodymium rods. This design – contrary to diaphragms that move like pistons and merely compress the air – is folded like an accordion and squeezes the air out of its foldings. In addition, the diaphragm surface of the JET tweeter is about ten times larger than in a conventional 25mm dome tweeter.

Although the thin foil has an unfolded diaphragm surface that’s several times larger, the effective radiating surface is small which results in a high efficiency with exceptional dynamics and a low directivity. Therefore, the JET tweeter can -theoretically speaking- take even high dynamic peaks without complaint. This design is the fifth upgraded version of the JET tweeter and is now able to reproduce the incoming electrical signals with even greater precision, and practically zero inertia at all.

The low/mid woofer is also a masterpiece and at first glance you can see that there is no way these came off the shelf from an outside source. The crystal cone is a remarkable design within itself, each individual triangle is specifically placed to diffuse the sound directionally. Another function is to not color the sound emitted from the mid-range woofer, and in turn this achieves very low partial resonances.

Separating the main cabinet from the base plate are four chromed elegant pillars, two centimeters of space separate these 2 parts. The bass driver sits in the bottom of the main cabinet and the 2cm clearance is necessary for the down-firing bass. This space allows for the driver to easily push out its low Helmholtz resonances wholeheartedly.

Listening

Tonality and the reproduction of detail and spatial imaging are just darn perfect. There is nothing that makes you want to get up and walk away, and trust me many speakers have done just that.

Listening to Eva Cassidy album (Songbird) on vinyl was an ear opener (literally), the fragility of her voice via the Elacs is breathtaking, every minute milligram of air that she breathes is heard, and the emotion of what Eva feels is easily portrayed and heard.

Another track that I listened to a lot was Chris Botti’s album (Impressions) on CD, track number thirteen “what a wonderful world” featuring Mark Knopfler. How was the sound? All I can say is WOW! The sound was so real and powerful that it made my wife cry. As I said: Wow!

The Elacs made me scan through every record and cd in my collection hunting for that particular album that I know has hidden nuances and timbres of sound and energy that the 403s will reveal and reveal so truthfully and naturally.

But I am not alone in my love for the BS403’s. For a non-British loudspeaker to win a Group Test in a respected UK hi-fi magazine it has got to be fantastically good.

Awarded as ‘Outstanding Product’ by the prestigious Hi-Fi News magazine in a group test with its closest rivals, these speakers have a genuine pedigree and unquestionable audiophile status.

The BS403’s saw off some very strong competition, including speakers from PMC, Sonus Faber and Bowers & Wilkins to win the Hi-Fi News “stand mount loudspeaker group test”.

So here’s what I have to say: If you have a chance to audition the 403s do not hesitate they will blow your socks off and leave you open mouthed. The bottomline of the story is that I liked the BS403’s so much, I was unable to part with them and they ended up getting a permanent place in my listening room. I had no plans whatsoever to have my speakers upgraded. Sometimes, it simply is love at first sight and there is no turning back to your old ways….