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Further noteworthy is the fact that despite not painting with a soft brush the Planets clearly invite us to an uncomplicated, emotional and stress-free experience. When I had colleague Ralph hunker down in front of these balls for a quickie second take, one of his first comments was "well, these are certainly long-term friendly, possibly more so than the Rondos".
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The French Planets enter bona fide high-end territory with their soundstaging, arguably an intrinsic prediction relative to their coaxial point-source dispersion and concomitant reduction of enclosure reflections and edge diffractions. On voices and instruments the Elipson showed impeccable focus and image localization completely disassociated from the actual diaphragms. This simply floated things in the room.
Take the German electro formation Pink Turns Blue and their "Moon" title from the 1990 album Eremite. It was a rare treat particularly in this price class how these French conjured up a tacit room feel from such sparse ingredients as plain monotonous drum beats, a bit of synth pedals and the contrasting occasionally very internalized vocals.
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Conclusion. While they were fun in my roughly 30m² space with 3.4m ceiling about 1 meter removed from the front wall, the Elipson Planet L clearly doesn’t belong to the voluptuous bass-endowed specimens of the compact speaker art. Their low-impact footprint and size are tailor-made for either close-wall or shelf placement to achieve some bass augmentation from boundary effects; or by adding a subwoofer.
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During my space-challenged student days I would have loved to own such sonic balls which eliminate any chances of room boom; which work beautifully at very short distances; and which besides fulfilling audiophile criteria simply look cool to boot. If you appreciate a lively uncomplicated long-term friendly presentation with audiophile smatterings of transparent mids, dynamics and soundstaging, the Elipson Planet L in their price class could hit the proverbial bull’s eye. So here’s an audition tip. Take your time during A/B comparisons. Get to know the Elipsons on their own merit. Similar to mismatched volumes, ad hoc differences in bass power belong to the easiest causes for premature conclusions. Match up the Planet L with neutral to warm amplifiers which incidentally needn’t be behemoths at all since these balls are easily ‘kicked’.
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Psych profile…
- A tonally lighter balance with a nonetheless exemplary integrated, agreeable and involving presentation that doesn’t turn trying in the long run.
- An incisive dynamic flair with obvious limitations of macrodynamic bass power.
- A very accurate midband whose upper range is slightly more present than dead neutral.
- A fundamentally well resolved stress-free treble which merely misses a tad of sheen/air and the final tracking of the finest of decays.
- Absolutely first-rate soundstaging where speaker localization as apparent sound sources becomes impossible and image lock is exemplary.
- Fit ‘n’ finish beyond criticism.
Facts:
- Concept: 2-way bass reflex coax
- Finish: White, red or black
- Sensitivity: Claimed 90dB/2.8V/1m
- Nominal impedance: 6 ohms
- Dimensions and weight: Ca. 290mm diameter, 7kg/ea.
- Other: Capture rings for shelf placement included, stands/ceiling mounts optional
- Warranty: 5 years
- Website
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redaktion @ fairaudio.de
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