Emotiva C1+ vs Elac Unifi UC5

krisna

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Hi,
I was about to purchase emotiva C1+ and out of nowhere, an option to purchase elac unifi uc5 @50% off popped up. I have been using elac b6.2 as my fronts. I plan just for 3.0. how does the two compare?
 
Hi,
I was about to purchase emotiva C1+ and out of nowhere, an option to purchase elac unifi uc5 @50% off popped up. I have been using elac b6.2 as my fronts. I plan just for 3.0. how does the two compare?
I use denon X250bt
130w/channel,
70w/channel @80ohms 2ch driven.
 
It's better to have all 3 front channels of same brand, specially for timbre matching.

Are you planning to change the front stage or just add the above?
 
i am using Elac Uni-Fi BS U5 bookshelf speaker pair with ELAC Uni Fi 2.0 UC52 center speaker.
Marantz 1509 powers the center channel and the front pair is powered via XLS 1502 power amplifier.
With the current setup i feel that my AVR amplifier is under powered for the center channel alone, center channel is a recent acquisition for me and am still experimenting with settings and am yet to try Audyssey.

I believe that with your current denon X250bt and ELACelac b6.2 as fronts, adding another power hungry speaker might result in an underpowered setup.

UC5 is a very good speaker BTW.
 
It's better to have all 3 front channels of same brand, specially for timbre matching.

Are you planning to change the front stage or just add the above?
just add the center, c6.2 or 5.2 are way too big for me, and a 3 way center like uc5 is something i can't let pass me by, that's the confusion. i was locked in on emotiva c1, then uc5 just made me rethink.
 
i am using Elac Uni-Fi BS U5 bookshelf speaker pair with ELAC Uni Fi 2.0 UC52 center speaker.
Marantz 1509 powers the center channel and the front pair is powered via XLS 1502 power amplifier.
With the current setup i feel that my AVR amplifier is under powered for the center channel alone, center channel is a recent acquisition for me and am still experimenting with settings and am yet to try Audyssey.

I believe that with your current denon X250bt and ELACelac b6.2 as fronts, adding another power hungry speaker might result in an underpowered setup.

UC5 is a very good speaker BTW.
thanks for the suggestion, Abhishek. but i have no plans to add surround, all my avr power goes to the front three. Sub not now, may be in future, I'm going to use pre out for sub. i don't crank my volume up, my family members would gobble me up. So all i'm expecting of my center, just like fronts, are clear sound, at normal volume, kind of not miss details. that's it. now, will my avr be sufficient, as i have seen in other forum post where UB5 are comfortably driven by 80w 8ohms 2 ch driven amps, so?
 
If you have an option to match the Center to the fronts then that is the way to go.

However, I would suggest you add a Sub rather than a Center to your receiver and make it a nice 2.1 setup. 3.0 is an incomplete setup in my opinion. You would be running the receiver in a 5.0 setup, losing out the rear surround information as you do not have those speakers. 2.1 is a Complete setup for the receiver. With a Sub you can set an appropriate crossover, moving the bulk of the low end to the Sub, utilizing the Sub's amp, hence relieving the receiver from that load. This itself will help clean out the output from the speakers. Adding a Sub will also improve the bass quality.

MaSh
 
If you have an option to match the Center to the fronts then that is the way to go.

However, I would suggest you add a Sub rather than a Center to your receiver and make it a nice 2.1 setup. 3.0 is an incomplete setup in my opinion. You would be running the receiver in a 5.0 setup, losing out the rear surround information as you do not have those speakers. 2.1 is a Complete setup for the receiver. With a Sub you can set an appropriate crossover, moving the bulk of the low end to the Sub, utilizing the Sub's amp, hence relieving the receiver from that load. This itself will help clean out the output from the speakers. Adding a Sub will also improve the bass quality.

MaSh

Thanks, Mash. I greatly appreciate this suggestion, as i have been having this Sub crossover thing in mind to alleviate the strain on my avr, and your suggestion has strengthened it. So in that case, say i am setting an appropriate crossover with sub, can i add UC5 to my AVR. In this situation, will UC5 outperform Emotiva C1+?

In general, power necessities aside, will UC5 outperform C1+?

Note: until i purchase a sub, can i cheat avr that a sub is present and setup the crossover as i like?
 
Last edited:
Thanks, Mash. I greatly appreciate this suggestion, as i have been having this Sub crossover thing in mind to alleviate the strain on my avr, and your suggestion has strengthened it. So in that case, say i am setting an appropriate crossover with sub, can i add UC5 to my AVR. In this situation, will UC5 outperform Emotiva C1+?

In general, power necessities aside, will UC5 outperform C1+?

Note: until i purchase a sub, can i cheat avr that a sub is present and setup the crossover as i like?

I have not heard the C1, so cannot compare them directly. That said, even if it is better, the overall performance will not be as good.

How are you planning to cheat and why? When you run the Audyssey setup, how are you going to capture the Sub out signal and produce a Sub-like sound for the mic to capture it and set the appropriate filters? If you plan to manually set it, I don't recall if the option gets enabled or not. It's been a couple of years since I moved on from an HT system.

MaSh
 
I have not heard the C1, so cannot compare them directly. That said, even if it is better, the overall performance will not be as good.

How are you planning to cheat and why? When you run the Audyssey setup, how are you going to capture the Sub out signal and produce a Sub-like sound for the mic to capture it and set the appropriate filters? If you plan to manually set it, I don't recall if the option gets enabled or not. It's been a couple of years since I moved on from an HT system.

MaSh

you mean to say the performance of UC5 generally is not good even if powered well?
 
you mean to say the performance of UC5 generally is not good even if powered well?
No, the power is another topic altogether. The overall performance with a matching Front + Center will be better.

MaSh
 
thanks for the suggestion, Abhishek. but i have no plans to add surround, all my avr power goes to the front three. Sub not now, may be in future, I'm going to use pre out for sub. i don't crank my volume up, my family members would gobble me up. So all i'm expecting of my center, just like fronts, are clear sound, at normal volume, kind of not miss details. that's it. now, will my avr be sufficient, as i have seen in other forum post where UB5 are comfortably driven by 80w 8ohms 2 ch driven amps, so?
UB5 can be driven by 80w 8ohms 2 ch driven amps, but details are better with a power amplifier.
 
UB5 can be driven by 80w 8ohms 2 ch driven amps, but details are better with a power amplifier.
Thanks @Abhishek_ I have bought U CC5, it sounds great. But don't know if that's better than C1+ as I haven't heard them.
Driving the entire system(b6.2 and U CC5) with my denon x250bt. No scratching head as of now :).
 
Thanks @Abhishek_ I have bought U CC5, it sounds great. But don't know if that's better than C1+ as I haven't heard them.
Driving the entire system(b6.2 and U CC5) with my denon x250bt. No scratching head as of now :).
glad to know you are happy with new speaker, enjoy the journey..
 
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