ELAC Debut Reference B6.2 Bookshelf Speakers - (Pair) White Baffle, Oak Cabinet

These are great speakers for a modest price. If the $600 range seems a little high for you, but you're still thinking about pulling the trigger, this is your chance to hear what speakers costing thousands of dollars might sound like. These are the "Top of the Line" in ELAC's "entry" (Debut) series, and they punch well above their weight. Money was spent on the things that make a speaker SOUND high end, and money was saved in the cabinets with a decent looking but vinyl or plastic veneer. You can spend a lot more money for fine polished wood and still not get better performance than these.I personally don't feel like I need a subwoofer. Some, however, particularly with a home theater setup may want to go all the way down to 20 Hz to feel the rumble of explosions and such. However, for apartment and condo dwellers who listen to music, I believe the larger than average woofer for this type of speaker gives more than adequate bass. (Most bass in music is well above the lower limit of 20 Hz, and these speakers will STILL give you plenty of bass below the rated 44 Hz limit because it's not a sharp cut at 44. These can rattle the walls if fed the right tracks. (Read on.)The first thing you should know about any speakers in general is they will almost never sound the same at your home as they did in the store. There are so many variables in play in the space in which you install the speakers, that it's hard to tell how they'll sound once you get them set up. Speaker listening rooms are specifically set up to make them sound the best they can.I believe the best predictor of speaker performance is pure, subjective, scientific testing for wide, smooth frequency response (as close to "flat" as possible across the audible range), without bothersome resonances or distortion. If a speaker measures well with objective testing, the chances are it will sound good at your home, or it can be made to sound good by fixing or compensating for problems in the environment.Unfortunately, speaker manufacturers don't publish raw, unadulterated, subjective data like this. For many of them, it would hurt their sales!I found a website called "Audio Science Review" (Search for it. I can't post URLs here.) There may be other sites where someone has gone to the trouble of purchasing very expensive test equipment and tested and rated speakers, posting reviews. On sites such as this, you'll find that very seldom does price or even popular brand names predict accuracy and good performance of a speaker. Neither do subjective reviews from various "influencers" who use nonsensical and vague terms such as "buttery" to describe something that could better be described with numbers such as frequency response, distortion, etc.Two problems with stores with listening rooms for speakers: 1: There aren't many left anymore, especially ones with the speakers you're interested in, and 2: Many sellers use well known "retail tricks" such as boosting the bass and treble un-naturally so you'll believe the speakers are delivering something "special". If speakers really boost the bass and treble to that level, you will probably find them boomy and / or shrill to listen to for long periods of time. Then environment and placement of speakers in the listening room can be variable as well. While many would be set up to meet the ideals of making the speakers sound as good as possible, some, in "big box" stores, might not be set up with any thought at all (where you may find the bass and treble cranked up on the amp), and the speakers might even sound worse than they should.These speakers (ELAC Debut Reference) do, in fact, get high marks from all types of reviewers, and high marks from the Audio Science Review (ASR) site mentioned above. The low frequency response of 44Hz is not a hard limit. These do amazingly well with what I would consider "low bass" regions a lot of music (such as jazz) rarely hits, but more bass heavy modern music such as hip hop do get to, sometimes dramatically.Listen to "Dave Grusin and the NY-LA Dream Band" for an example of '80s era jazz that sounds natural and smooth, but doesn't over-punch the bass. Then try Daft Punk's "Around The World" if you want to feel some bass. Then, if you wonder how low the speakers can go (without subs!), try on some James Blake, particularly the track "Limit to Your Love". Wait for it... THERE IT IS! Make sure everything is fastened down! Those nearly 6.5 inch woofers are making their presence known!These speakers are a great starting point for getting excellent musical performance, imaging, and soundstage, those magical terms tossed about by audiophiles. Being well engineered, they are easy to drive by modestly priced stereo receivers. (I like Yamahas, but the likes of Denon, Sony, Marantz, etc., can drive them quite well. I have them on a Yamaha R-N602. Some expensive speakers require lots of power for even modest listening, but not these!) The biggest "bang for the buck" way to upgrade your existing system is to upgrade the speakers. Add these to your 80W Per Channel receiver or amp, and you might not even have to upgrade the system! But if you do, you'll know your speakers are ready for it.Tips for success:If you've bought these speakers, you're off to a good start. You'd have to spend a lot more money to get this level of performance out of another brand.Be aware that some things can make speakers, including these, sound overly bright (trebly), such as reflective surfaces like bare walls, windows, etc. (Imagine starting with speakers that were already too bright, and you have a nightmare!) These cause excessive sound reflections hitting you from other angles and ruining any imaging you can get. Drapes on the walls or windows, carpet on the floor, and keeping them away from the ceiling will help.The same is true for the bass. Walls and bare floors can cause excessive reflections, and having them too close to a wall might make them sound boomy. These are front ported, so you don't have the added problem of hanging rear ported speakers against the wall. If you found a store with a listening room, you'll probably find that everything is carpeted and the speakers are not backed up against the wall. Of course not, they want them to sound the best they can!If you've read this far, I guess there's nothing else to do but add these to your cart, or don't! I don't get anything either way. I have mine, and I'll still be enjoying them whether you get some or not. Who knows, maybe you'll hate them, and later I can get a deal on eBay for a friend or another room!

After auditioning every current line of bookshelf speakers with 5” or 6.5” speakers from SVS (evolution, nano), KEF (Q1, 350, Bowers and Wilkins (606, 607, 706, 707 S3), and Martin Logan (B1, B2, B10) I found these to be the most musical, with a very pleasant near flat response that was crisp but not overemphasized in the highs, and not boomy or unnaturally bass enhanced. The best part was the reproduction of vocals—so crisp and pleasantly eq’d, balanced, up front and not lost in the mix. I could hear lyrics clearly for the first time from songs that I have been listening to for years, vocals with lyrics that I couldn’t make out using my other speakers (B&W towers and B&O beolabs). Just really nice reproduction of highs and male and female voices without any ear fatigue whatsoever.There may be some QC issues, as my initial pair had a lower output from one tweeter than the corresponding one in its pair. I spoke to customer service and it seems they have seen this issue a few times recently. Unclear if there is a defect in the tweeter or crossover electronics, but the defective speaker barely had any tweeter output. Despite this mismatch the reproduction and clarity was still wonderful. For the other bookshelf speakers I found B&W high end to be too bright or harsh, Martin Logan to be unnatural sounding and dull, and KEF Q1s also not inspiring and thin sounding. SVS nano evolution were super efficient but with boomy bass and too bright, and with vocals that were muddy and lost in the mix. The Debut SBR62s were by far the most refined and tight sounding speakers among those that I tested in this group.I am requesting replacement speakers and hope the final pair will be as good as expected.UPDATE— I received replacement speakers and they are perfectly matched, and reach the potential I suspected was there even with my mismatched set. I could listen to music for hours with these. The music sounds incredibly detailed and the bandwidth does not sound compressed the way it does on the other small speakers. Audiophile quality in a small form factor and reasonable (though not cheap) price.