The ELAC BS 142 standmount loudspeaker is the latest range of ELAC loudspeakers to use the JET III AMT tweeter in an entry level product.
The ELAC BS 142 uses a 135mm AS sandwich Bass/Mid drive unit alongside the Jet III AMT tweeter and this allows the BS 142 to offer a very open and spacious sound but with a very natural presentation.
Dont be fooled into thinking that due to its deminutive proportions that the ELAC BS 142 is just another small sounding standmount loudspeaker as it is a real Wolf in Sheeps clothing with a big sound.
JET tweeter
High definition audio: ELAC’s JET tweeter fascinates listeners with its dynamic and authentic audio, offering lots of headroom with a distinctly wider frequency range than conventional dome tweeters.
The ELAC JET tweeter is one of the most legendary tweeters in the hi-fi trade and has won international renown with its unusual 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 principle: a concertinaed foil membrane is driven by a strong magnet system of neodymium rods.
This 'motor' drives the air considerably faster than the conventional pistonic technique. High sensitivity and extraordiary dynamics are the result. Due to many additional design changes (e.g. new neodymium magnet system) a higher efficiency and a smoother sound pressure level 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 the repetition accuracy and unchanging quality even with high output, this production step has been automised. The folding and fixing of the membrane, however, are executed by hand, since for production steps requiring special dexterity human manual skills are irreplaceable.
Only the glueing and handling are now executed by two SCARA robots. The absolutely reliable precision of the robot in glueing and handling thus ideally supplements the irreplaceable work by hand. Due to continuous improvement, the JET III tweeter now creates an effortless and airy 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.
Aluminum Sandwich
The rigidity of the aluminium aluminum combined with the damping of a cellulose layer - thanks to aluminium aluminum sandwich technology, the audio reproduction achieved by ELAC bass drivers is very precise.
In a special glueing procedure, an aluminium foil of 0.2 mm is joint to a pulp fibre cone to form a sandwich membrane. The result: reduced partial oscillations, no distortions and an optimized large signal behaviour. In combination with the aluminum-coloured tweeters, the aluminum sandwich woofers also make innovative technology a visual experience.
Aluminum basket
To minimize mechanical vibrations the baskets are made of casted aluminum for a maximum of rigidity.
Bass Reflex Ports
Flare on both sides, the bass reflex ports prevent unwanted ventilation noises. A special feature are the ELAC proprietary bass ports. As if from the wind tunnel, the double flare port has been designed so as to minimize ventilation noises and to reduce friction losses.
Bass-Control
Closing the bass reflex ports compensates for unfavourable acoustic conditions when speakers are installed, for example, close to a wall. The sound of loudspeakers is heavily influenced by room-acoustics. In some cases the room shape and especially the furnishings offer less than ideal conditions for the optimum set-up of the loudspeakers, sometimes resulting in bass reproduction which is too strong.
When loudspeakers are used close to walls or in small rooms and the bass is too prominent the ELAC Bass Control plug can be used to improve the bass reproduction by reducing the low frequency output.
Just insert one or both of the supplied ELAC Bass Control plugs into the bass ports on your loudspeakers until the bass is at the correct level relative to the midrange and treble.
ELAC vented loudspeakers use bass reflex tubes with different lengths and diameters (45, 59, 60, 62 or 70 mm).
Here is a list of Bass Control plugs and their matching bass reflex tubes:
use 55 mm diameter cylindrical rubber foam plugs with 45 mm bass reflex tubes,
use 70 mm diameter cylindrical rubber foam plugs with 59 / 60 / 62 mm bass reflex tubes, use 60 mm nominal diameter polyurethane foam plugs with 60 mm bass reflex tubes.
use 70 mm nominal diameter polyurethane foam plugs with 70 mm bass reflex tubes.
Frame magnet
The speaker is equipped with a cloth frame which is held by magnetic force. No pins and catchers are visible. The front covers (wooden frame with cloth) of some ELAC loudspeakers protecting the drivers mounted on the front baffle are fixed magnetically. Therefore the front baffle is completely smooth and do no longer provide holes for sticking the front cover.