Everyone Reviews the ELAC Vela BS 404, But Misses This

ELAC has a smart way of organizing its speaker lines; the older the model, the more high-end and packed with cool tech it is. The Vela series sits just below their top-tier line, and even the smaller bookshelf speakers in this range show off that same philosophy.

These speakers look nice, stylish, but not over-the-top. The build quality feels premium, with clean finishes and tight seams. The cabinets have smooth, rounded sides, and our review pair came in a rich walnut veneer with a glossy varnish that looks and feels high-end.

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You can also get them in black or white gloss finishes, which are a bit cheaper than the wood veneer option. Overall, they’re a great mix of good looks and solid craftsmanship.

The body is composite: the upper and lower parts are aluminum and screwed to the central part, which is made of MDF. Also, the bass reflex port is located in the lower part of the case at the back: it is not directed directly back, but first looks into the aluminum base panel. From here, you can understand why the minimum distance recommended by the manufacturer from the rear wall is only 30 centimeters. 

For installation, both original ELAC LS80 racks and any other suitable racks in size and room can be used. If there can be a significant difference, it is only in the fact that the original stands provide for the screw fastening of the acoustics to them.

Design And Build Quality

The acoustic design is two-way. The traditional ELAC Vela BS 404 ribbon tweeter AMT JET 5, loaded on a small shallow waveguide, is responsible for the high frequencies. 

The mid and low frequencies are handled by a speaker with a well-recognized proprietary faceted AS-XR diffuser with a diameter of 180 mm. The acoustics claim a frequency range of 38 Hz, which is good for a shelf model (however, the deviation at the edges from zero is not indicated anywhere) and a quite tolerable sensitivity of 87 dB.

To connect to the amplifier, either one or two pairs of speaker terminals can be used. In the case of bi-wiring or bi-amping, you will need to remove the removable jumper buses. According to my observations, ELAC acoustics still loves fairly powerful current amplification, so perhaps this option will be useful to someone even in the case of small bookshelf speakers. The terminals themselves are quite universal; you can use standard blades, banana, or feathers for switching.

The only thing that seemed unusual to me in the design was that the acoustics did not have grills. Some ELAC models have them separately, as an additional option, but here, it seems, they are not provided in principle. Unusual. But not critical for most life situations.

Sound Test:

As a test system, paired with the ELAC Vela BS 404, we used the following equipment: a full tube amplifier Octave V70SE, and as a source, it turned out to be unusual – a Hegel H590 worked here, but only its built-in streamer connected to Octave.

The first one I played was Charlie Watts – Anthology. The sound is thick, moderately soft, but with high detail throughout the entire range. The bass is not at all aggressive, but detailed and varied in texture. There is no feeling of significant depth, but if you compare the size of the acoustics and the much larger room needed for it, the result is no worse than I could have expected.

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If the room had an area of ​​18-20 meters, then the whole picture would be much more convincing. Yes, these are classic two-way bookshelf speakers, but even in such conditions, the overall scale turns out to be significant; I did not observe any desire for intimacy during the test at all.

The presentation of the middle reveals the nature of the recording of this album, which is already familiar to me. There is a slight uplift and some warmth, but at the same time, a very decent and honest elaboration of details, natural timbres, and good separation of sounds and planes in space – the album is written very well.

Despite the ribbon tweeters, I would not say that the high frequencies clearly stick out here. There are a lot of them, I certainly don’t feel any shortage, they are clean and reliable, but I didn’t notice any overkill or harshness. And this even though Octave, although a tube one, is not noticed in tube softness or smoothing: I know well how these amplifiers play, blurring and softening are not their thing. 

The dynamics are at a good, confident level: I don’t hear any slowness or lethargy when I need to eat and attack. And a certain feeling of unity and extension of the sound is created because the system decently plays out the after-sounds, without eating them up or extinguishing them, and without excessively savoring them. There is no damage to the basic tones; everything is in a completely pragmatic, healthy balance.

The stage is quite wide, but to get the appropriate depth, I needed to move the acoustics from the back wall another 15 centimeters from the original position and make the slightest turn of the bodies toward the listener. Although I won’t say that this model has a particularly rigid directional pattern, the listening point turns out to be comfortable, and there is no need to sit motionless in a hard, precisely positioned chair.

The Second recording is Richard Wright’s “Wet Dream”. I haven’t quite figured out how I feel about Stephen Wilson’s recently released remaster of this album, so I’m putting it here to try and catch the difference from the original sound. And the difference here can be heard quite clearly – this is a clear plus for the resolution of the system.

The sound has a little less atmosphere of a certain echoing silence than in the original; the instrumental parts are a little more textured and written, less of a certain veil that seems to mask everything. This is not super-sharpness or super-detail – there were quite enough of them in the original. Here, all the parts are written a little more sharply; this is noticeable throughout the entire range – on the bass, on the drums, and on the high-frequency instruments.

True, at the same time, there is a little less of the “colorful” light melancholy that permeates the original edition. Here, everything is a little more unambiguous and straightforward. At least, it seemed so to me, and our experimental tract rather confirmed earlier observations. And, in addition, it showed the previously noted quite high detail and intelligibility combined with completely natural and reliable timbral characteristics.

However, there is very good intelligibility everywhere here, especially in the vocal range; the vocals even seem a little bit cut out from the general background and pasted on top. It looks like you can feel the walking bass and drum line – it’s just that everywhere there is high detail at the level of a specially compressed, dense, and initially noisy sound, as intended by the musicians.

High detail and dynamics never hurt if they feel natural. Regardless of genres and recordings. And in this case, the sound is just natural and captivating, allowing you to concentrate on the music without the feeling that something is unsaid or hidden. Perhaps someone will like the example of this album to have a darker and dirtier sound, but what I heard does not at all contradict the musical idea. But perhaps, to some extent, these acoustics gravitate towards more classical genres of music.

Johnny Jewel “Windswept” – and here you can see the very high level of detail, attention to textures, and after-sounds. Also, based on the example of this recording, it looks more like the sound tends a little towards light, albeit just a little, but you can guess it. Quite recently, I listened to this particular album on very good studio monitors of a similar format, which have already been tested many times on their own; they are not light or dark in presentation, and on them the recording sounded a little darker. However, this difference is not at the level of a flaw or obvious coloring, just a slightly different tonality.

Emotionally, the music is perceived quite fully, and, as I have already noticed before, with high detail, the main emphasis here is on the music, on emotions, and not on the analysis of components. The stage, its depth, width, and atmospheric fullness, together with non-merging images and plans, also greatly contribute to the perception of the music itself.

I also tried listening to the recording at different volumes, and at least in conjunction with this amplifier, the acoustics can play quietly. At a very low volume, the frequency range, fullness, stage, and emotional involvement are preserved. If you mentally transfer all this to a room of suitable size, and not to a redundant one, as in our case, the result should be even better.

Then he staged Bach’s Cello Suites performed by Mstislav Rostropovich. The volume of the cello sound turned out to be a little more intimate than I expected, but I can’t say that it turned out to be completely “small” – no, it just feels like you are a little further from the performer than you might have expected. The sound itself is accurate, reliable, with good fullness. Maybe a little less in the lower middle than necessary, but this is quantified at the guessing level – either less or not. Rather, this feeling arises from the scale as a whole. Yes, and adjusted for the size of the room.

Air, details, after-sounds – everything is in its place here, and here you no longer feel any coloring, neither warmth nor coldness. Involvement in the music is present as on other recordings, and the involvement is neat, not the kind that first causes a wow effect and then quickly tires – no, everything here is natural and delicate, although, perhaps, rather strict, with a share of academic pedantry. But here, this approach to the place does not in any way spoil the impression of the music.

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And the last recording is a performance of Verdi’s Requiem. There is a noticeable good sense of the hall, the choir is very well developed, there is high detail in quiet fragments, but there is also unity, musicality, and that same natural emotional involvement that was felt on previous recordings.

In complex fragments, there is attack, drama, and the sound does not clearly lose its harmony – it is interesting to listen, and there is no feeling of being deprived of details or emotions. Perhaps there is just a little lack of transparency. Sometimes, detail and dynamics seem limited, and a certain ceiling is felt, but these are already extreme conditions for any path.

It is the sound of classical music that causes me the fewest questions in this tract: perhaps if I were assembling a system specifically for classical music, I would still use transistor amplification, even though the Octave amplifiers are quite universal and do not have a pronounced tube color.

Conclusion ELAC Vela BS 404 Review:

ELAC Vela BS 404 very universal bookshelf, understandable in character, predictable. The character of the sound is still somewhat straightforward, not simple, but straightforward. I won’t hide that I sometimes lacked a certain amount of air, details, and after-sounds, as well as the volume and accuracy of the scene. But otherwise, predictability and versatility are clear advantages of this acoustics. As well as the ability to pull out truly complex musical material.

These speakers are not suitable for those who love a soft and soothing sound – this is what they cannot do, and, I think, in any combination with any amplifier, they will not change their character so much. But they do what they can, and they do it well, conscientiously.