Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 Speaker Review

[ckone0815]

Curious, why do you feel stand mount are better options than floorstanders?

And what is it that the options you are demoing presently are lacking?

I might not know what I'm talking about but feel like $X will buy a better book than a floor.

Both sound better than my D330 but are not enough of an upgrade to spend $ for. If someone made me choose, I'd pick the Dali as they fill my room better, and definitely are better than the Wharf 12.2. They just aren't "enough" and I'd be doing this again too soon. Hard to describe.

My budget is $1500ish. I thought about KEF Q Concerto as I read it has a bigger soundstage like the Dali. I thought about the Dali O5. Polk ES55. Ascend Sierra 1 V2 but some posters have warned me that my AVR isn't ideal for the low sensitivity. Paralysis from analysis.

 

[Rick63]

Have you considered active monitors? For $1500 you could get some really good ones. The Denon X1800H has front preouts to hook them up to, and as an extra bonus you'll save it's amps power for the center and surround channels if you use them. And you wouldn't have to worry about the Denon being able to power low sensitivity/4 ohm speakers. That would be my personal choice, hands down.

 

[Beershaun]

I might not know what I'm talking about but feel like $X will buy a better book than a floor.

Both sound better than my D330 but are not enough of an upgrade to spend $ for. If someone made me choose, I'd pick the Dali as they fill my room better, and definitely are better than the Wharf 12.2. They just aren't "enough" and I'd be doing this again too soon. Hard to describe.

My budget is $1500ish. I thought about KEF Q Concerto as I read it has a bigger soundstage like the Dali. I thought about the Dali O5. Polk ES55. Ascend Sierra 1 V2 but some posters have warned me that my AVR isn't ideal for the low sensitivity. Paralysis from analysis.

I heard you say you are looking for something that can fill your room better. That both the demo speakers seem to be better quality but can't fill the room. I would propose two things: 1) add a subwoofer. With your AVR offloading the low frequency to a subwoofer will definitely improve the feeling of filling the room and reduce the most demanding load from both your AVR and the speakers you have. 2) floorstanders generally have higher sensitivity which means they will do a better job of filling the room in a like for like situation at the same volume. So maybe try to find speakers with higher sensitivity and see if that gets you what you are missing.

Now specifically to this thread: there is a floorstander version of the elac the DFR52. It is the same price on their website.

Debut Reference | Floorstand | DFR52 | Best Audiophile Speakers https://share.google/W5RthtKyTOMGVePLK

 

[Roland68]

I heard you say you are looking for something that can fill your room better. That both the demo speakers seem to be better quality but can't fill the room. I would propose two things: 1) add a subwoofer. With your AVR offloading the low frequency to a subwoofer will definitely improve the feeling of filling the room and reduce the most demanding load from both your AVR and the speakers you have. 2) floorstanders generally have higher sensitivity which means they will do a better job of filling the room in a like for like situation at the same volume. So maybe try to find speakers with higher sensitivity and see if that gets you what you are missing.

Now specifically to this thread: there is a floorstander version of the elac the DFR52. It is the same price on their website.

Debut Reference | Floorstand | DFR52 | Best Audiophile Speakers https://share.google/W5RthtKyTOMGVePLK

Unfortunately, the DFR52 is not at all comparable to the DBR62 and performs more than a class below.
When listening to both side by side, you'd never guess they were related or even from the same series.

 

[ckone0815]

I heard you say you are looking for something that can fill your room better. That both the demo speakers seem to be better quality but can't fill the room. I would propose two things: 1) add a subwoofer. With your AVR offloading the low frequency to a subwoofer will definitely improve the feeling of filling the room and reduce the most demanding load from both your AVR and the speakers you have. 2) floorstanders generally have higher sensitivity which means they will do a better job of filling the room in a like for like situation at the same volume. So maybe try to find speakers with higher sensitivity and see if that gets you what you are missing.

Now specifically to this thread: there is a floorstander version of the elac the DFR52. It is the same price on their website.

Debut Reference | Floorstand | DFR52 | Best Audiophile Speakers https://share.google/W5RthtKyTOMGVePLK

Thanks. I do have an SVS SB2000 sub. I'm looking at floor standers. Polk ES55 and Dali Oberon 5 (which is pretty small box) or the O7.

 

[Hludwig]

if you can point me in the direction of a $800 /pr speaker with that decent (wide)dispersion and f.r. : i'm all ears.. edit: maybe the ascend cmt 340 v2...a.a.m.o.f... that may be my next step "up"...

Kef q concerto meta open box for $850 is pretty close.

 

[tw 2022]

Kef q concerto meta open box for $850 is pretty close.

that would be a good option as well..

 

[ckone0815]

Thanks. I do have an SVS SB2000 sub. I'm looking at floor standers. Polk ES55 and Dali Oberon 5 (which is pretty small box) or the O7.

fwiw to this thread, I ordered Dali Oberon 5 and Revel F35. Can return either/both to local-ish store free if I no like so worth a go.

 

[Beershaun]

fwiw to this thread, I ordered Dali Oberon 5 and Revel F35. Can return either/both to local-ish store free if I no like so worth a go.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[Beershaun]

Unfortunately, the DFR52 is not at all comparable to the DBR62 and performs more than a class below.
When listening to both side by side, you'd never guess they were related or even from the same series.

That is disappointing. It seems like that is a missed opportunity to take a popular well engineered well performing stand mount and create a floorstander sibling.

 

[Roland68]

That is disappointing. It seems like that is a missed opportunity to take a popular well engineered well performing stand mount and create a floorstander sibling.

I absolutely cannot understand why Elac didn't simply build a slightly larger floorstanding speaker based on the DBR62 and either add two more of the 6.5" drivers or two other good woofers. The DCR52 center speaker also falls noticeably short of the DBR62.

 

[pathtonowhere]

By the way, while I consider these speakers very well designed, good drivers, good balanced response, decent dispersion, nice crossover, I wouldn't go that far as I've seen on a lot of reviews, "wow, incredible offer at just $600-700". They are fair and very good at $365, but they have some weaknesses, too. Not to say most of the speakers on the market are worse or way worse at the same price or even double-triple the price. I would have liked a rounded baffle, for less diffraction, a slightly better waveguide, for more consistent dispersion, but the thing that bothers me the most is that they didn't bother to brace them with a complete vertical brace that goes to the top panel, too. All the other sides seem to be very solid when knocking, but the top panel rings like hell. I don't know how much of this is the source of the midrange resonances and how much is the diffraction, but I sure as hell would have paid $30 more for proper bracing. Some even cheaper speakers have it, so it's definitely doable. The speakers are still excellent for $365, the price I bought them, but at the original $600-700 price, the lack of proper bracing would have pissed me off a lot more.

 

[SlowJim]

By the way, while I consider these speakers very well designed, good drivers, good balanced response, decent dispersion, nice crossover, I wouldn't go that far as I've seen on a lot of reviews, "wow, incredible offer at just $600-700". They are fair and very good at $365, but they have some weaknesses, too. Not to say most of the speakers on the market are worse or way worse at the same price or even double-triple the price. I would have liked a rounded baffle, for less diffraction, a slightly better waveguide, for more consistent dispersion, but the thing that bothers me the most is that they didn't bother to brace them with a complete vertical brace that goes to the top panel, too. All the other sides seem to be very solid when knocking, but the top panel rings like hell. I don't know how much of this is the source of the midrange resonances and how much is the diffraction, but I sure as hell would have paid $30 more for proper bracing. Some even cheaper speakers have it, so it's definitely doable. The speakers are still excellent for $365, the price I bought them, but at the original $600-700 price, the lack of proper bracing would have pissed me off a lot more.

What cheaper speakers have better bracing? Not doubting your claim just curious

 

[tw 2022]

What cheaper speakers have better bracing? Not doubting your claim just curious

yes, I'd like to know that too... I suspect philharmonic true mini's have a better cabinet , but I wouldn't know about bracing...

 

[NanoGuidingStar]

I think Starke Sound Beta 7 is a pretty good speaker at that price, but nobody review their speakers.

 

[wyup]

Ringing at the top? The brace of this speaker is quite correct and solid-knocking already. Others don't even have bracing.
The waveguide of the tweeter is quite distinctive for dispersion. Most speakers don't even have this embedded waveguide and are flat mounted.
If you want to tame resonances, you can open the speaker and stick some bitumen sheets plus better absorption on all sides including the port and the brace.

 

[pathtonowhere]

For example, I've seen cheaper MA Bronze models, past and current, with a bracing frame that went from top to bottom and from side to side. The Elacs only have a side to side bracing, the top panel can resonate freely because of this. MAs sound horrible because the drivers are bad and their implementation is bad, too, but that's another story.

You don't need to get defensive, I myself didn't find any other better speakers at the price I got them, but some aspects could have been better, and with not a lot of extra cost either. What's fair is fair, I can't close my eye at some negative aspects just because I chose them and considered the best I could get at a certain price. Not pointing out these things can only be unfavourable to us as clients in the future, because manufacturers will believe they can take cheap and unnecessary shortcuts with nobody noticing.

 

[delta76]

Is it Ok these days? Probably something sound similar already exists with lower price, doesn't it?

in EUR, this is frequently at EUR350 per pair. For that it is almost unbeatable if you consider price/performance
Kef Q Concerto Meta is a step up in performance but is almost 3 times more expensive.

 

[anli]

For example, I've seen cheaper MA Bronze models, past and current, with a bracing frame that went from top to bottom and from side to side. The Elacs only have a side to side bracing, the top panel can resonate freely because of this. MAs sound horrible because the drivers are bad and their implementation is bad, too, but that's another story.

You don't need to get defensive, I myself didn't find any other better speakers at the price I got them, but some aspects could have been better, and with not a lot of extra cost either. What's fair is fair, I can't close my eye at some negative aspects just because I chose them and considered the best I could get at a certain price. Not pointing out these things can only be unfavourable to us as clients in the future, because manufacturers will believe they can take cheap and unnecessary shortcuts with nobody noticing.

You have detected those resonances by ear with signal generator, haven't you?

 

[DeadAndCompany]

To quote Amir‘s review: „At extremely high levels (ear bleeding) I could hear some resonances but back off a bit and you were invited to incredible performance.“