ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 Bookshelf Speakers: The "Emperor's New Clothes" or I Don't Understand the Hype!

I'll be writing about what I like but given all the rave reviews of the Elac, including this one from Audio Placebo and this review from Hi-Fi Choice, not to mention CNET's piece here. I'll include some excerpts:

We were mightily impressed by the original Elac Debut B6 when we reviewed it in October 2015, and it has been our go-to budget bookshelf speaker ever since. We know its sound well, and a lot has changed with the new Debut 6.2: the cabinet, bass port, crossover, woofer and tweeter for starters! 

And yes, the sound is different, too. The original B6's sound feels comfortable and easy to listen to, and right away we noted the B6.2 has a livelier, clearer sound. Obviously designer Andrew Jones wasn't content to rest on his laurels.

To get started with this review, we set up the B6 and B6.2 on tall metal floor stands in the CNET listening room, hooked them up to a Sony STR-DN1080 ($598 at Amazon) AV receiver and an Oppo UDP-205 Blu-ray player, and listened to Jesus and Mary Chain's "Stoned & Dethroned" album -- turned up loud. "Stoned" has a more melodic Ramones-ish or Pixies-like vibe, and the original B6 sounded big and bold. Whether quiet or loud, the B6 felt right, especially for a speaker at its price level.

Switching over to the new B6.2, the soundstage grew bigger and more three-dimensional. The heavily layered mix of acoustic and electric guitars, bass, drums and vocals were more clearly revealed. The mix's massive reverberation positively bloomed over the B6.2; upon returning to the B6 the sound flattened out. 

The two speakers' differing character also held when we compared acoustic music. The B6.2s midrange sounded more present and immediate, while the B6's sound was a little more laid back. The high frequencies are brighter and better resolved on the B6.2, and it provides a more transparent window on the music. 

And this:

Initially I have the speaker toed-in towards my listening position. In this position it impresses from the start with its incredibly strong sense of central imagery. Vocalists really do project forth with quite astonishing realism and belie the diminutive stature of the cabinet producing the effect. Depth perspective behind the main action is also good, but the lateral image width seems somewhat narrow – as if everything has been crammed into a gap between the speakers. After an hour or so of listening like this, the urge to tinker takes over and, buoyed by the promise of better off-axis performance from the new drivers, I straighten up the stands so that the B6.2 fires straight down the room.

What did I hear that they didn't with the ones I purchased from Amazon? Nothing like the experts. The sound characteristic on voices was terrible. I'm using an Emotiva UMC-200 for my preamp and their ERC-4 CD player.  Here's my review:

Although the ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 Bookshelf Speakers have received fanatical praise in the media, I shall be a dissenting voice. In theory, they should sound great. In actual experience, while not dreadful they really are horrible reproducing voice, and even orchestral music (for example Holst: The Planets/R.Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra [CD/Blu-Ray Audio Combo] of the Boston Symphony conducted by William Steinberg).

Gary V 3.0 in his review on Amazon.com wrote, "Voices sound like people are holding a cardboard tube between them and the microphone" and he's right. I get no sense of depth, detail, air, and emotional power, since it's so artificial.

If you're on a budget, find a pair of Dynaco A10s in good condition on eBay; they can be equalized for greater highs (I use an Emotiva UMC-200) and drop in replacement tweeters with extended highs are available from Madisound. They sell a Vifva tweeter, which like the Elac is made in China (see my review) but it sounds far better than the Elac's, although on paper its specs aren't as "good" as the brochure description.

If you have the money, consider purchasing the SEAS A26 (only in an easy to assemble kit form, just screw in parts), the 21st century successor to the million unit selling classic Dynaco A25. Madisound has it but doesn't sell it through their Amazon storefront but through their site. 

Specs and brochure are nice; but the Elac extension to 35KHZ (while Red Book CD maxes out at 20 KHZ) is just hype to me.

I discussed the Elac B6 etc. with a prominent, highly respected (and very nice people!) high end audiophile firm that sells this it with an affordable electronics product they manufacture; the Sale's Rep who answered the phone said, "They're only so much you can do [in 21st century depreciated dollars] at this price point" and my observation that the Elac is mediocre is correct; they'll be building their own speaker but it will be priced around $1,000/pair. A designer said there were issues with the cabinet, but I don't think that creates the issues I heard with voice. I don't think 100 hours of Slim Whitman's Indian Love Call will fix the problem. I had a window to return them to Amazon and I took advantage of it. The Dayton Audio speakers I'll be writing about later had limitations but sounded far more natural and pleasing to me.

So, Caveat Emptor; you get what you pay for. Be wary of too much hype. They're not a total loss; they're OK for height speakers using Dolby Prologic IIZ on my Emotiva to stream Amazon Prime mind candy spectaculars. So I guess Jack Ryan won't sound badly on these when it comes to height effects; the music. however, no, not so much.

What's wonderful if you buy from Amazon, like I did, you can return them if you don't like them. This is why I love Amazon!

If these are the best that's out there--at least they're not bright--think of it this way. Boeing built the 747 using slide rules; it was just about a perfect machine. Then with state of the art computer tech, they created this century the 737 Max; just look at the engines, how grotesquely out of proportion they are. You don't need an engineering degree to realize something was out of whack. The proportions are all wrong, so of course there'd be an imbalance. Of course, I use the Boeing 737 Max as a metaphor for high tech design versus old fashioned, careful, passionate thought.

The Elac is the 737 Max of loudspeakers. I hate to think how bad most other currently manufactured loudspeakers are for the rave reviews, especially by customers. I don't completely hate it, but the Elac is pretty pathetic. I have no idea what the reviewers who gushed over it are thinking. Really. Steve Guttenberg liked the earlier version of the speaker; he has a wonderful CD to test your system, "Ultimate Demonstration Disc: Chesky Records' Guide to Critical Listening" and it's well worth getting; voices from this CD sounded far superior--more detail, more realistic, more human--on my classic Dynaco A25s and A10s than the Elac. 

I have no idea why he gushes over the Elacs. Really. I'd love to ask. To me, the Elacs have a distinctive "hollow" sound. Maybe the spirit of T.S. Eliot had something to do with them, I've no idea. I do use for height speakers Elac designer's Andrew Jones Pioneer Atmos SP-T22A-LR speaker that have no bass below 150hz; and they did a better job reproducing voice (using the same system of  course) but on Emotiva Emo-Q speaker test tones as well as voice still have that Jones hollow sound!


I've since replaced them with Dayton Audio speakers that I will discuss in the future.