I did not expect those little woofers to shake the room with Paula Cole's "Tiger" like that! Wow. Here is some stream of consciousness randomness:īass: HUGE. Pure Direct activated on CD player and amp to take all unnecessary things out of circuit.Īnd with that, I fed them a variety of reference CDs for initial, pre-break-in, listening impressions. (The upside-down treatment places the tweeters at the proper height in my environment, as my stands are currently a smidge too low.) Twelve gauge O2 free speaker wire connected them to a Cambridge CXA60 integrated amplifier, which is fed by a Yamaha S300 CD player connected via digital coax. I stuck little rubber feet on them, flipped them upside-down, and set them atop my the Dynaudio Excite X14s in my treated study. In any case, it causes me to expect some congestion near that frequency during playback. This can be caused by the particular MDF used or bracing strategy, but is often a design choice more than an act of cheap-ery. (For the sake of comparison, the diminutive Dynaudio Emit M10 weighs in at a portly 12lbs each.) A knuckle rap on the side of the tall cabinet is met with a resonance somewhere around 400Hz. The vinyl seems heavy and of decent quality, however one of my speakers has some minor peeling along the bottom edge (Amazon Warehouse deal flaw).Ĭonsidering their size, they seem like they should be heavier, but a quick check of the spec sheet reveals they do weigh a respectable 13lbs each. Alignment and fitment of the various components is slightly above average. This pair of speakers is typical of MiC units in the price range. Both the tweeter and woofer have been treated to some wave guide action, which should help the dispersion problems I heard in the original version. The tweeter is now held prisoner behind a metal grill, which I hope is somehow removable, because I'm not a fan of the resulting diffraction. They are also deeper and skinnier than the old version, if memory serves. That front port is part of the reason I purchased them, as I need speakers to cram into the smallish holes in that actual bookshelf without being too boomy. Elac probably could have shaved off a half inch of height by relocating their logo. The port is now on the front, which makes the boxes necessarily quite a lot taller than the old offering. These are your standard, faux black ash vinyl wrapped boxes, which is a bit disappointing, considering how cool the metallic vinyl was on the original Debut series, and how many other faux black ash vinyl wrapped boxes are out there already. Both speakers exhibit this artifact, probably due to reflections, but it is more pronounced in the B&Ws. And, the upper midrange develops an annoying, unnatural presence that is impossible to ignore. With plugs in, the now required 8" KRK sub also sounds extra boomy down in the lower cabinet. B&W DM600 S3s also sound boomy without port plugs. Dynaudio Emit M10s sound very boomy without port plugs, and putting the plugs in makes me sad, because plugs diminish much of what those speakers do so well. There it is right there.)įor my part, I am hoping they will solve a serious first world problem in my living room, where pretty nice speakers don't sound very good, due the built-in bookshelf in which they must live. (It is almost as if that phrase is found right on Elac's web page for this series. These speakers are receiving quite a lot of praise among the Mid-Fi chatteratti, where one will find the phrase "for the price" repeated as if a widely distributed talking point listlessly used ad nauseum by lazy writers. So far, I have purchased them ($150 Amazon Warehouse deal), unboxed them, looked them over, hooked them up, listened a little, and. I'll need to fully break them in and spend at least a week listening to them first. I swear this WILL eventually be a comprehensive review of Elac's new-ish Debut 2.0 B5.2 bookshelf speakers.
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