"Excellent" Rating – Germany's Audio Test Magazine
"They Show Their Strengths with a Lot of Energy And Precision"
Elac's VELA BS 403 bookshelf speaker boasts an eye-catching modern design that's all in the service of superior sonic performance. It's the ideal speaker for so many systems, including a full-range two-channel hi-fi. It is also the speaker of choice for front channel duties in a multi-channel music and home theater system, and for many there will be no need for larger main speakers, because the BS 403 has such impressive sonic muscle.
"What ELAC offers with the Vela BS 403 is simply outstanding," reports Thomas Kirche in his July 2018 review for Germany's Audio Test magazine, which gave the BS 403 its top rating of Excellent. "They feel good in all musical genres and show their strengths with a lot of energy and precision. Despite their precision, they never sound analytical and allow hours of fatigue-free listening."
The Vela BS 403 is a bass reflex design with a 6" diameter AS XR aluminum-sandwich cone driver and Elac's new high performance, lightning-fast JET 5 tweeter.
Elac's Crystal Membrane AS-XR Bass / Midrange Drivers
The eye-catching surface of the crystal membrane is more than just an attractive design feature. Woofers and midrange drivers in the VELA product line employ the Crystal Membrane (patent pending) and their design is based on ELAC’s Aluminum-Sandwich AS Technology. The crystal-shaped inverse aluminum dome is joined to the paper cone in a special gluing process to result in the desired sandwich construction. Resembling the surface of a large crystal, the aluminum-foil stamping stiffens the aluminum dome, diminishing resonances and minimizing coloration, while improving power handling and dynamics. The voice coil design of the midrange and bass drivers results in an expanded range of the respective drivers by nearly an octave.
Lightning-Fast JET 5 Tweeter
Delivering true high-definition sound, ELAC’s JET 5 tweeter enthralls with its lightning-fast response and wide dynamic range, offering minimal distortion, lots of headroom and a distinctly wider frequency range than conventional dome tweeters. The ELAC JET tweeter is one of the most legendary tweeters in the industry and has won international praise with its transparent and effortless sound image.
The JET tweeter was developed to perfection on the basis of the famous Air Motion Transformer by loudspeaker pioneer Dr. Oskar Heil. Its operating principle is based on a concertinaed-foil membrane, driven by a strong magnet system of neodymium rods. This motor drives the air considerably faster than the pistonic motion of a conventional driver, with gains in higher sensitivity and extraordinary dynamics. Due to many additional design changes, like an improved new neodymium magnet system, even higher efficiency, higher sound pressure levels and frequency response up to 50 kHz was achieved.
The core of the JET tweeter is the folded foil membrane. With a fold width of only 0.84 mm, a major requirement in the JET production is precision. To guarantee repeated accuracy and unchanging quality even with high production capacity, gluing and handling are now executed by two SCARA robots. The folding and fixing of the membrane, however, are executed by hand, since for production steps requiring extreme precision, the manual dexterity of skilled technicians is irreplaceable. Due to continuous improvement, the JET 5 tweeter creates an effortless, airy and resonance-free image up to 50,000 Hz, and with its linear frequency response is ideally suited for the reproduction of DVD-A and SACD.
Exciting, Progressive, and Elegant – The New VELA Series
The new VELA series takes advantage of a complex design using high-class lacquered and wooden veneered cabinets, which have a trapezoid shape and are angled rearward, combined with aluminum and glass.
The design catches the eye, but it is conducive to acoustics, too. The advantages are distinct. The angling of the cabinet in combination with the new wave-guide of the JET tweeter improves the definition of stereo and multi-channel audio. But there are more than the obviously visible changes, too. For example, the optimized drivers are able to reproduce high-energy transients more precisely. The sound of VELA shows its shared family background with Elac's successful series 400.
Form Supports Function
The convex shaped baffle and the big radius of the cabinet promotes the acoustics, because influences of the cabinet to the frequencies produced are reduced. The bottom plate of the speaker cabinet is made of aluminum and features a down-firing bass reflex port, which gives advantages in positioning the speaker.
Flexible Connectivity
Thanks to its flexible connections, the VELA series offers the ability of using bi-wiring and bi-amping, if you choose to go that way. The choice is yours. Vela sounds phenomenal no matter how you wire it.
