Elipson Prestige Facet 8B
“The 8Bs are smooth. There’s no harshness, even when the music becomes difficult”
We’re a little disappointed with Elipson’s Prestige Facet 8Bs. While there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with these standmounters, they are hampered by a few sonic shortcomings that mar what otherwise would appear to be a strong proposition, on paper at least.
Not that we know any of this when we first take the Elipsons out of their packaging and admire them. These are relatively big speakers for the money, with each cabinet packing a chunky 17cm mid/ bass unit. The combination of generous cabinet volume and sizable mid/bass driver promises deep bass, plenty of authority and strong dynamics. The distinctively patterned rubber rings around the drivers aren’t there just for show – they’re shaped to help dispersion and reduce baffle effects.
The 36cm high cabinet is almost as deep as it is tall. It’s a nicely made MDF box with rounded edges and a contrasting, lacquercovered front panel. There are three standard finishes: black, white or walnut. And around the back you’ll find the usual set of biwire terminals and rear firing port.
A conventional 25mm soft-dome tweeter completes the driver array. While there’s nothing obviously unusual about the engineering behind the high-frequency or mid/bass units – bar possibly the prominent phase plug at the centre of the larger driver – Elipson has managed to squeeze a relatively high sensitivity of 91db/w/m out of the Facet 8B design.
A good spread
That high sensitivity means we get plenty of volume from the Rega Brio’s 50W per channel power output. We also use our reference system’s Gamut D3i/d200i pre/ power combination to push the Elipsons harder, both in terms of power and transparency. Our sources include Naim’s NDS/555PS music streamer, Clearaudio’s Concept MM turntable and Marantz’s CD6006 UK Edition CD player.
We place the Elipsons on some Custom Design FS104 Signature stands, a little way into the room. This gives us reasonably balanced tonality combined with a good stereo spread.
And our first impressions of the 8Bs are positive. The authority suggested by the large cabinet and mid/bass unit materialises, the speakers delivering large-scale classical pieces such as Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with substance. There’s a good amount of low-end heft, but also a pleasing amount of fluidity through the higher frequencies.
Creeping doubts
These are smooth speakers. There's no trace of harshness when the music becomes difficult – everything stays listenable and undemanding. That’s great if you have a collection of poorly recorded music or use low-resolution music files – yet, as we try different genres of music, doubts creep in. Listening to Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A
Butterfly set, we find that the 8Bs’ easy-going nature starts to count against them as they fail to capture the drive and aggression of the recording. These standmounters just aren’t particularly dynamic or detailed, and low bass, while strong, isn’t taut.
Where the best of the Elipsons’ rivals are able to lay a recording bare, uncovering subtle instrumental strands and acoustic clues in the process, these mash the different elements together, sounding congested and confused in comparison.
While the Elipsons never turn aggressive, they don’t excite either. Rhythms aren’t delivered with a great deal of enthusiasm or precision. Songs such as Radiohead’s 15
Step are packed with verve and momentum, but through the 8Bs much of this is lost, leaving us unmoved. There are much cheaper alternatives that tell us more about the recording and communicate the music’s message with greater conviction – Q Acoustics’ Concept 20s for example. Refinement and authority only go so far without detail, dynamics and rhythmic precision in place.
It's hard to enthuse about the 8Bs. They have a limited range of talents that some will find appealing, but up against the class leaders, including the KEF Q350s and the Dynaudio Emit M10s, they fall some way short of having the all-round ability to merit serious consideration.