ELIPSON LIBRE 
~COLORRCK.FIL~ 
              'Do you want to know if a country is well 
               ruled and has a good moral ? Listen to 
               it's music' 
 
               Confucius 

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LOUDSPEAKER TEST: The Elipson LIBRE MK II
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               by Slimer   
 
There are many speaker systems these days made for every budget and for
every room. You can get what they call 'bookshelf speakers', 'columns',
'subwoofer' systems and others. The 'bookshelf speakers' and 'subwoofer'
systems are mostly found in the lower price and quality class. As the name
already may suggest, 'bookshelf speakers' are most of the time small
enough to be placed on a bookshelf. Because they must be rather small it
becomes difficult to make them sound 'big'. It takes skill and good design
to create a little loudspeaker with the allure of a big one. 
 
For some people even those little 'bookshelf' speakers are to big for
their taste. So, the manufacturers designed the 'subwoofer' system, this
system consist out of 1 bassbox and two very small speakers called satel-
lites. The manufacturers suggest that you place the big bassbooster
underneath/behind the couch or table and place the two satellites between
your books. However extensive testing by Hi-Fi magazines has proved that
these systems need to be placed properly to obtain the best possible
sound. It comes to this, you have to place the bassbooster between both 
satellites, the satellites have to be placed just like ordinary speakers
beside each-other (for instance two meters apart). Yep, by doing this you
are back with the same problems as with those 'bookshelf' thingies. 
 
Most of these 'subwoofer' systems are very expensive and don't have the
quality of decent 'bookshelf speakers'. You can get for less money much
better sound by buying normal speakers instead. This became very clear
when I tested some acoustimas 5 from Bose(around 550 pounds)against a
couple of B&W 610 (around 450 pounds a pair). The Bose were no match for
the B&W, even a child could hear it. Subwoofer systems are in most of the
cases from lesser quality then the standard loudspeakers, so I suggest
that you buy normal speakers instead. 
 
'Column' loudspeakers can be more expensive but give you better sound
(apart from the cheap ones of course). This is because the volume of the
box is most of the time bigger than that of the 'bookshelf speakers'. You
buy 'columns' in several sizes and prices, the manufacturers also spends 
quite sometime and effort to make them look good. Some of these 'columns'
are real diamonds in your room, but remember good 'columns' don't come
cheap. Well, to give you an example of what I mean by that, I have tested
a pair of 'columns. 
 
-------------------- Elipson LIBRE MK II------------------- 
 
Elipson is a French brand which seems to be a part of Duson, a well
respected manufacturer of audio components. This firm produces also more
speakers like the Elipson Iris, the bigger brother of the Libre. The Libre
MK II is the cheapest 'column' of the series, it contains two woofers 
and one tweeter(there is a French name for this particular system but I
tend to forget it). Anyway its an open system, also called a bassreflex
system made of heavy (I believe)Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF). There are
no extra connections for Bi-Wiring which I personally think is very bad
for speakers of these price class. 
 
You get also some 'spikes' with the speakers which look more like some
ordinary screws or something. The speakers look very good and are well
finished. 
 
-----------------------  SOUND SETUP  ------------------------ 
 
SET SETUP:    
 
AMPLIFIER: NAD 3240
CD PLAYER: CDP 591
SEVERAL DIFFERENT: OCF MONSTER CABLES & MONITOR CABLES 
 
You could read that the Libre MK II had also been used when I choose my
amplifier(an article in mag. 10). The reason for this is simple, the
Libres sound very neutral without coloring. In the professional liste-
ning-room I wasn't that impressed about the quality of the speakers, so I
had the privilege to try them at home. The guys from the Hi-Fi store were
very curious what they would sound like in an ordinary living-room. 
 
The Libres where put on the included spikes and to make the things even
more stable placed on flat stones. I put both speakers about 1 meter from
the wall and two meters apart from each-other. 
 
--------------------- LISTENING TEST ---------------------- 
 
I started off with some classic and South American music first to get a
general idea about the quality of the speakers. The listening session
lasted for a few hours, I wasn't that impressed after the first round
though. It was till the next day when I did another listing session
because what may sound bad the first day, may sound good the next day. 
 
After the classic stuff from the day before, it became time to test some
heavy stuff..... The speakers got pounded with Metallica, Iron Maiden, Van
Halen and others to see if they could handle it. What I already suspected
became the thruth the Libres are not made for Heavy Rock and Metal. They
seem to get a bit lazy when playing rock 'n stuff, but when you put an
orchestra on them, they play very well. It's difficult for the manufactu-
rer to make allround speakers without having to make compromises. After
again a few hours of listening I called it a day. 
 
After two days of intensive listing it became clear that the Libres tend
to make the music 'stick'. This means that they don't have good stereo
spreading and you can hear the music coming from the speakers. Speakers
have to play without you hearing the sound coming from them. 
 
The third day I invited my mate, to hear his opinion. He wasn't very
impressed either with the Libres. My amplifier has two pairs of speaker
connections, so we put my old BNS speakers beside the big Elipsons. After
some switching and intensive listening a few things became quite clear, 
 
-- The Elipson sound more mature. 
-- The Elipson are only a bit more detailed and are a bit 
   less high in the tones. 
-- The BNS have a wider stereo spreading area and don't 
   make the music stick to the speakers. 
-- The Elipson has a more powerful and detailed bass. 
 
----------------------- CONCLUSION ------------------------
 
The Libres don't deliver what I expected from a couple of 'columns costing
350 pounds each. Price/Quality in my eyes is low, the BNS offer in compa-
rison  much more quality for their money. 
 
Good Columns don't come cheap, you can get better sounding 'bookshelf'
speakers for that price. It's like color TVs; better buy a good mono TV
then a bad stereo TV for the same amount of money. 
 
BRAND: ELIPSON LIBRE'S
PRICE: AROUND 350 POUNDS EACH 

