ESB Audio 5.UMA — 5000 Series 2-Way Mid-High Unit, 2"/50 mm Mid. + 1.1"/28 mm Tw. (pair)

ESB Audio 5.UMA — 5000 Series 2-Way Mid-High Unit (pair)

The 5.UMA carries the 5000 Series midrange and tweeter on a single machined flange: a 2"/50 mm soft dome midrange and a 1.1"/28 mm soft dome tweeter, co-located as one mounting unit. Sold as a pair.

Both drivers are 4 ohms, and both are the same drivers ESB sells separately as the 5.050 and 5.028 — identical published parameters, mounted together instead of apart.

The Flange Is the Product

What you are buying is the geometry. The midrange and tweeter sit at a fixed distance and angle to one another, set at the factory, which removes the hardest variable in a three-way installation.

In a conventional three-way the midrange and tweeter are mounted separately — typically a door upper and an A-pillar — and the path length from each to the listener differs. That difference has to be corrected with delay, and if it cannot be corrected, the crossover region between them suffers. The UMA makes the two drivers arrive together by putting them in the same place.

The flange is CNC-machined from billet aluminium, and both drivers are screw-mounted rather than bonded — so either can be removed and replaced. A co-located assembly that cannot be serviced is a single point of failure for the whole mid-high section; this one is not.

Two Drivers, Two Connections

Worth being clear about, because it shapes the wiring: the 5.UMA is not a single-input speaker. The midrange and tweeter are independent 4-ohm drivers with their own connections and their own filtering requirements.

They are driven either through the 5.6K3 CX passive crossover, which handles the division at 900 Hz and 3.6 kHz, or actively from two DSP channels per side. There is no internal network.

Midrange Section

A 50 mm carbon fibre reinforced polymer matrix composite dome on an oversized neodymium motor, handling 120 W continuous and 240 W peak, rated 50 to 160 W RMS. Free air resonance is 630 Hz.

Design bandwidth is 600 Hz – 5 kHz with 48 dB/oct filters, 700 Hz with 24 dB/oct, and 800 Hz with 12 dB/oct.

A dome in this band radiates more evenly off-axis than a cone does, which is the reason to choose it in a cabin where the listener is never centred between the two sides.

Tweeter Section

A 28 mm composite dome on its own neodymium motor, handling 110 W continuous and 220 W peak, rated 40 to 150 W RMS. Free air resonance is 710 Hz.

Design bandwidth is 1.2 kHz – 25 kHz with 48 dB/oct filters, 1.6 kHz with 24 dB/oct, and 2 kHz with 12 dB/oct.

The 28 mm voice coil is ESB's stated compromise between the low mass of a 25 mm coil and the power handling of a 32 mm one, wound on an aluminium former for heat dissipation.

Shared Construction

Both drivers use pole cups CNC machined from solid ultra-low-carbon steel, bodies of CNC-machined 7000 aluminium alloy and brass, dB Cloth damping beneath the dome to absorb residual resonances, and vented motors whose calibrated-hole filters lower the impedance peak at resonance — which is what makes them predictable behind a passive crossover.

Removable grilles protect both domes.

System Application

The mid-high section of a 5000 Series three-way, above the 5.165 mid-woofer. That combination is sold as the 5.6K3U, or as the 5.6K3UX with the 5.6K3 CX crossover included.

It is the right choice when the vehicle offers one good mid-high location per side rather than two, when the installation should stay reversible, or when time alignment is not available to correct a split mounting.

The alternative is the separate 5.050 and 5.028, which allow each driver to be aimed and positioned independently — more control, and more work, and a requirement for delay to make it pay off.

Installation Considerations

Location is the whole decision. Because the two drivers move together, wherever the unit goes is where the entire midrange and treble of the system will appear to come from. A-pillar and sail panel positions put it near ear height; a door upper puts it lower and further forward.

Aim it as a unit. The factory alignment holds the two drivers correct relative to each other, but not relative to the listener — that is still the installer's job, and it is worth testing angles before the pods are finished.

Run four conductors per side, not two. Both drivers need their own feed whether the filtering is passive or active.

Set the filters to the slope tables above. The midrange and tweeter have different limits and both have to be respected.

Specifications

• Type: 2-way mid-high unit, co-located midrange and tweeter
• Flange: CNC-machined billet aluminium, both drivers screw-mounted and replaceable

Midrange section

• Nominal diameter: 2" / 50 mm soft dome · Impedance: 4Ω (Re 3.5Ω)
• Power handling: 120W continuous · 240W peak · Recommended: 50–160W RMS
• Sensitivity: 91.0 dB @ 1W/1m · 94.0 dB @ 2.83V/1m
• Fs: 630 Hz · Qes 1.009 · Qms 2.60 · Qts 0.75
• Voice coil diameter: 25 mm
• Design bandwidth: 600Hz–5kHz (48dB/oct) · 700Hz (24dB/oct) · 800Hz (12dB/oct)

Tweeter section

• Nominal diameter: 1.1" / 28 mm soft dome · Impedance: 4Ω (Re 3.5Ω)
• Power handling: 110W continuous · 220W peak · Recommended: 40–150W RMS
• Sensitivity: 91.0 dB @ 1W/1m · 94.0 dB @ 2.83V/1m
• Fs: 710 Hz · Qes 1.73 · Qms 1.95 · Qts 0.91
• Voice coil diameter: 28 mm, aluminium former
• Design bandwidth: 1.2kHz–25kHz (48dB/oct) · 1.6kHz (24dB/oct) · 2kHz (12dB/oct)

• Sold as: pair

HF Audio Perspective

The UMA solves a real problem, and it is not the one people usually expect.

It is not a compromise version of a three-way. The drivers are the same 5.050 and 5.028 sold separately, with the same published parameters. What changes is that the distance and angle between them is fixed by a machined flange instead of by where two different panels happened to allow mounting — and in the crossover region between a midrange and a tweeter, that relationship is what determines whether the two integrate or merely overlap.

Separate mounting gives more control and needs time alignment to realize it. Co-located mounting gives less control and needs less correction. Neither is the better answer in general; the vehicle and the processor decide.

The detail we would point to is that both drivers are screwed to the flange rather than bonded to it. It means a damaged tweeter is a tweeter, not a whole mid-high assembly — and on a unit built into a fabricated pillar, that difference is worth a great deal on the day it matters.