Полочная акустика — ELAC Elegant BS 305

The BS 305 is a compact two-way speaker in ELAC's aluminium-bodied series, brought back three decades after the original model became known as the Little Wonder. Like its predecessor, it keeps the aluminium housing that has defined the design since its first appearance, now fitted with a newly developed tweeter and woofer. The pair is priced at EUR 995, and the aluminium body is painted either black or white, both in a high-gloss finish.

Key specs that matter

A 25 mm fabric dome tweeter works with a 115 mm woofer using ELAC's AS (Aluminium Sandwich) cone, and the crossover sits at 3,500 Hz. The frequency range is 42 Hz to 23,000 Hz measured to IEC 268-5, while the tweeter alone is specified as linear up to 28 kHz. Sensitivity is 86 dB at 2.83 V and 1 m. Nominal impedance is 4 ohm, with a minimum of 3.4 ohm at 300 Hz. Power handling is 70 W nominal and 90 W music, and ELAC recommends amplifiers of 50 to 150 W per channel rated for 4 to 8 ohm loads. The housing measures 208 x 123 x 270 mm, growing to 282 mm in depth with the grille fitted, and each speaker weighs 5.5 kg.

Engineering and use context

Because the aluminium enclosure has very thin walls, it does away with a conventional thick front baffle, and the metal also helps carry heat away while keeping the speaker light. The fabric dome tweeter is cooled with ferrofluid, which ELAC uses to prevent thermal compression at high levels, and the dome is light enough to stay free of its own resonances. The bass-midrange unit has an optimised magnet system behind its AS cone. Bass reflex loading is handled by dual flared port tubes that exit at the rear and are shaped to minimise port noise. Gold-plated 5-way binding posts take the speaker cable. Grilles are sold in metal or fabric in a range of colours, and ELAC offers the LS 60 Base stand, which is acoustically decoupled and available in the same two colours. The radiation pattern is angled upward, so the speaker can sit on a sideboard below ear height.

Pairing

The low nominal rating, the impedance dip and the modest sensitivity point to a transistor amplifier that copes with low impedances, and the minimum of the suggested power band rules out very small amplifiers. Its compact size also makes it a candidate for a desktop or near-field setup with a stereo amplifier of suitable output.

Alternatives

ELAC also lists the BS 312.2, a compact model from the 300 line of the same aluminium series.