I've read virtually all the reviews on here, and the other dbr62 reviews. I just finished 3 weeks of testing the following speakers:
- Debut Reference dbr62,
- Debut 2.0 b6.2
- Pioneer bs22
- Dali Oberon 1
- Monitor Bronze 2
- Jamo S803
- Micca RB42
Most performed similarly to the available reviews. None made me happy. The only ones I kept are the Pioneer's because I'm going to do the Dennis Murphy mod on them and use them as rears. The Micca's were definitely better to me than Amirn's testing suggested. Amazing bass extension and power, granted poor bass accuracy, highs are very bright, but depending on the recording they worked well in some cases, no imaging, but for $150 and tiny size they were ok. Would like to see Amirm review the Dali and Monitor speakers, along with some Wharfedales.
But the real mystery was the Debut References. I really wanted to love these speakers. The bass is awesome at this price, and probably across almost any price point since many higher-end bookshelf speakers seem designed to roll off 10-15 Hz higher to protect sound quality. Let me say it again, the base is detailed, "full", and plays deep with seemingly no effort. You can crank these speakers. But those tweeters, wtf? I can not get past a fatal flaw I feel they have. I can only describe it as if you are listening to content in the 2-3k Hz range like it's coming to you through a "short tunnel", like its both slightly muted and also recessed back into the speaker a little. This isn't just that it's monitor-flat and I'm craving some kind of a "bump". It's so obvious in content like Page's high notes in Whole Lot of Love, and Hendrix's guitar high notes in Voodoo Child that it bothers me the moment I turn them on. To some degree I can overcome it by cranking the speakers, which also happens to make them sound really fun- they like to play loud, but it's still there. They also don't play quietly terribly well because of this problem, my much more efficient vintage Snell's retain detail at whisper volumes much better. I tried them with and without the little metal screens (they actually have tiny pegs and are meant to be removable) and there was little difference. It seems like some kind of phase coherence thing or something? I'm not an audio technician so I'm just throwing that out there. Does anyone else who has heard these know what I'm talking about? The bass and overall price and packaging is good enough that I'm tempted to replace the tweeters and redo the crossover. Vifa D27 tweeters are only $25 each, but I need the know-how to modify the crossover.