ELAC Debut 2.0 B6.2 Speaker Review

[Brab]

Right. Hence my edit above.

 

[Marin]

my experience with these Elacs:

Initially they sounded intolerable. I corrected them to listenable.
Over time, the corrected sound became intolerable.
I removed the correction. They now sound adequate.

How they sound now

 

[Marin]

I bought the ELAC B6.2's on Black Friday, 2018, for $150 for the pair. Shortly thereafter, the price rose to $250. Then over the past few months, like you say @tvrgreek, the price went up to $400. (Actually, checking Amazon now, they seem to be on sale for $320. But as of last week, they were $400. So for purposes of this post they're 400 bucks!

Anyway, so the point I wanna make is that THE ELAC DEBUT 2.0 B6.2s STARTED SOUNDING A LOT BETTER TO ME ONCE I REALIZED I OWNED A PAIR OF $400 SPEAKERS, rather than a set of $150 cheapies.

So, I was thinking to myself, Oh, now I know why those folks at Stereophile get more excited as the price of equipment rises into the high bling region. Cause it was happening to me!

Of course, $400 to me must be what ̶$̶1̶0̶,̶0̶0̶0̶ $25,000 is like to the average Stereophile reader who actually puts stock in their recommendations as to how to ̶p̶i̶s̶s̶ ̶a̶w̶a̶y̶ spend their RSU payouts or Wall St. bonuses. E.g., a reader with mucho money and poco tech background, as opposed to us drive-by readers who go to the site to complain about their lack of rigor and rigor-mortis-inducing As We Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz It essays).

There seem to be only two folks there who don't overmuch exhibit this behavior. The first, JA1, has the unenviable and delicate task of synthesizing the FR and distortion et al data into pithy conclusions which can be decoded by the knowledgeable while neither alerting nor dissuading readers and advertisers. The second is our own estimable Dr. @Kal Rubinson, who as a bona fide neuroscientist and professor of medicine (emeritus) understands better than the rest of us combined how our brains work and what it means when we think we think something.

This is so real it made me laugh.

 

[darna1999]

just had a nice listening sesh including this speaker, a pair of paradigm mini monitor bookshelves from the late 90s, and some mission 771e's also from the late 90s(one of the tweeters is slightly quieter). the elac is by far the newest. had speakers 8 feet off front wall. no subs. these were easily the least easy to listen to. had this brightness that was so in your face and shrill. can't recommend. the paradigm and mission were on the other hand so easy to listen to and each had nice aspects. it was a toss up.

 

[ricardomontalbahn77]

just had a nice listening sesh including this speaker, a pair of paradigm mini monitor bookshelves from the late 90s, and some mission 771e's also from the late 90s(one of the tweeters is slightly quieter). the elac is by far the newest. had speakers 8 feet off front wall. no subs. these were easily the least easy to listen to. had this brightness that was so in your face and shrill. can't recommend. the paradigm and mission were on the other hand so easy to listen to and each had nice aspects. it was a toss up.

I still love the original elac Debut B5. Not shrill at all and can listen for hours.

 

[MLaranjeiras]

just had a nice listening sesh including this speaker, a pair of paradigm mini monitor bookshelves from the late 90s, and some mission 771e's also from the late 90s(one of the tweeters is slightly quieter). the elac is by far the newest. had speakers 8 feet off front wall. no subs. these were easily the least easy to listen to. had this brightness that was so in your face and shrill. can't recommend. the paradigm and mission were on the other hand so easy to listen to and each had nice aspects. it was a toss up.

Maybe the set used provoques these brightness. With my great Sansui AU 317, they sound better to my ears than my amazing Paradigm Premier 200B

 

[darna1999]

I still love the original elac Debut B5. Not shrill at all and can listen for hours.

Yeah I will have to check the speaker again...upon further inspection I might have a little bit of a scam on my hand. It's not mine, was bought a while ago by my brother but the identification stickers on the back of it is not matching the ID stickers that I'm seeing online of the speakers. But anyways I listened with a nice setup and it murdered the intro of Time by Pink Floyd. Pretty good section for testing tonality performance of the tweeter. Will have to inspect further because everyone seems to love these.

 

[darna1999]

Maybe the set used provoques these brightness. With my great Sansui AU 317, they sound better to my ears than my amazing Paradigm Premier 200B

the amp caused the brightness? not likely.

 

[MLaranjeiras]

Sure they do!

 

[darna1999]

Sure they do!

Erm, hookay buddy. I'll have to redo the comparison with 5 other amps just to be sure! Maybe the elac will calm down and the paradigm will become bright with other amps! LMFAO. Sure. (amp used was a douk a5 btw).

 

[MLaranjeiras]

My Paradigm sound more analitycal and the ELAC more “heavy and soft”, let’s say