ELAC Debut-Excellence on a budget
If you are anything around my age, you remember the Elac logo from a long and distant time ago. German brand Elac goes back 90-years to be exact. Last time we heard of them was a few decades ago as purveyor of the long-extinct Elac/Miracord turntables. But Elac is back and we are about to know it!
Say ELAC and you hear the name Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones is quite the name in speaker circles. If there were rock stars in the audio world, then there’s no question that legendary speaker designer Andrew Jones would be among the biggest. Some know him from his work at TAD, producing some of the best speakers on the market regardless of price. Many more know him from his affordable line of speakers for Pioneer. Now, he is working with ELAC and has produced two brand new lines of speakers for them: The Debuts and the Uni-Fi’s (still to be released later this year).
What really stands out about ELAC’s Debut line is how affordable they are. Without exception reviewer consensus is that it does better than any speaker they’ve heard for the price. Coincidence? We think not!
We have had them in stock at Rapallo for about a month now and had a chance to put them to the test. Here’s what we found:
The ELAC Debut line is very ‘complete’. Every speaker set-up is allowed for; from a two channel, to a multi-channel, to an immersive-audio/Dolby Atmos configuration.
You have the choice between a full range of surround speakers. This includes the B5 and B6 bookshelves, the F5 and F6 towers, C5 center and A4 Dolby Atmos models. The line also includes 3 subwoofers, but we will leave those out of our review for now.
The entire line of Debut speakers utilizes custom designed drivers engineered for maximum performance and musicality. The woofers employ aramid (a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers) fiber cones which are said to provide superior strength to weight ratio over other materials allowing more flexibility in design to achieve a smoother extended response.
A newly developed silk-dome tweeter is recessed in a waveguide with a deep spheroid profile that ELAC says delivers improved directivity control and shields the tweeter wavefront from cabinet diffraction.
Crossovers are one area where more expensive speakers leave lower models in the dust.
Jones designed a special three-way crossover network for the F5 to maximize the performance of each driver. If you read our blog on what makes a good speaker, you will know that a good cross-over is the key to a good speaker.
We tested the B5 and B6 bookshelf speakers in a stereo and 2.1 set-up. Both speakers are extremely popular in this configuration, so we thought it very important to check them out this way. We powered them with our Anthem MRX 720 AV receiver and streamed some TIDAL music.
Both the B5 and the B6 are two-way bookshelf loudspeakers with the B6 having a slightly larger mid/bass driver. The B6’s are described as adding an extra dollop of bass and dynamic range.
And we fully agree with that.
Every single reviewer of the ELAC Debuts, including us, were impressed with the bass response considering the small cabinet. These ELACs can easily put a pair of budget towers to shame.
According to ELAC, the B6’s should be able to get as low as 46 Hz, but AV Product Reviews claim it wouldn’t surprise them if you could get audible bass down into the 35 Hz range. We didn’t test it, but we had the same impression.
Precision is how we would describe the overall performance of the Debut B6’s. Higher frequencies were precise, crisp and clear. Their meticulous fidelity carried over to their mid-range.
Sonically, the B6’s have a very transparent sound that belies their affordable price tag. We really like that they are detailed and subtle.
Compared to the B6 speakers, the B5’s sound thinner, especially at the lower end of the spectrum. However, team them up with our SVS SB-2000 subwoofer and they outclass the B6’s in the same set-up.
Jones recommends using 20-inch tall (51 cm) floor stands with the Debut bookshelf speakers. We have always recommended having front speakers at ear height, but this seems extra important for the Debut’s. All speakers sound thinner when this is not taken care of, but the Debuts seem extra sensitive to this.
The F5 is a three-way floorstanding loudspeaker in a bass-reflex enclosure. It has the same basic DNA as its smaller sibling, the B5. The form factor is virtually the same: It looks like the B5 after a teenage growth spurt. The driver components are identical.
We pick audiophiles will prefer having the floorstanders as front channels because of the improved midrange and low-frequency dynamics. Of course, floorstanders being bigger and having additional woofers are capable of moving more air, but as the Absolute Sound puts is: ‘For classical music listeners and “big music” peeps this has ramifications beyond mere bass extension and output—areas where the F5 already outpoints the B5. The F5 creates orchestral scale and scope that paints a much more convincing and deeply dimensional landscape of a large ensemble performing in a concert hall.’
The two-way C5 center speaker uses the same tweeter and woofer as the F5. It’s on the larger side for a center speaker but you need the cabinet to get the sound, I guess.
If the range scores any negatives, it is that the design is only available in a black vinyl finish and that the bookshelves are slightly bigger than average.
Let’s get a couple nitpicks out of the way: The Debuts are by no means a flawless loudspeaker—however it could be effectively argued that they’re as faultless as a speaker is likely to get at these prices.
After spending some time with the ELAC B6’s for instance, we felt they lacked some of the smoothness of the outstanding SVS Prime speakers. The SVS speaker cabinets also feel more solid, but the price of these are $400 a pair higher.
So to sum it up: When the ELAC Debuts first launched, their out of this world reviews grabbed our attention. We really wanted to be able to offer a good quality speaker at a very affordable price as an option to our customers.
Our own tests confirmed the Debut’s reputation that there is no speaker around at the same price range that will match the performance of the ELAC Debuts.
We recommend to settle for the B6’s if you intend to use bookshelf speakers without an additional subwoofer and your wallet allows for the extra $100. Also, we highly recommend you follow Andrew Jones’ recommendation to place the bookshelf speakers at ear level if possible in any way. It really makes a big difference in their performance.
The floorstanders are a great step up for a more luxurious multi-channel set-up or an excellent audiophile experience.
Are the ELAC Debuts perfect? Nope. But at $500 to $600 for a pair of bookshelf speakers, they are pretty damn good and we are very proud to be able to offer them to the New Zealand public.