So, got a trial pair of the DBR-62's in and have been running them for a day or so now.
My impressions are mostly comparing it to what I remember of the Aria 906 as that's what I last had.
Looks: Yeah, the ELAC clearly looks better than the Aria to me. The Aria is a bit of a hulking behemoth compared to the much sleeker ELAC, and I love that bass port. Not the biggest fan of the giant round ports on the front.
Build Quality: Well, the ELAC does have some cosmetic faults when you look closely at it. The wrap isn't the best as well all know at the back with the seams, but as it's never seen that isn't much of an issue. Some small blemishes on the front baffle which I think are more visible because of the white, so the black may be the better way to go if you're anal about that like I am. Overall though, for the price, can't complain!
I made an earlier post about how shoddy I've found Focal's QC. I'm still shocked how deliberate misprinting of the text on the speaker managed to pass inspection, to be honest. Since both speakers had it, and the store I got it from had just ordered it in not long before I got them shipped (was using a trial pair for most of the year due to being unable to swap it out due to corona, so spent a long time before getting a new pair shipped), I can only presume that recent QC has taken a bit of a back seat to make up for the slump caused by all the lockdowns? Would be a shame if so. In the UK, the Aria 906s are 800-900 (as of today) and at that price I'm going to bitch hard about lazy build quality. Not so bad if you have them across the living room where you can't see it, but in near field usage (yes I am insane, but it works awesome if you don't have a massively long desk so you can put speaker stands on either side of it), you can't unsee it. And grilles aren't an option this close either.
So far, ELAC is doing good for me on the visuals department, but of course, for most, sound is what's gonna matter. This is where things are definitely a bit different. When I first got the Aria 906s the first thing that came to mind was 'huh, these remind me of my LS50s, but with the harshness of the highs all toned down and some actual meat (bass), so the sound. Not bad at all. The more time I spent with the Arias the more I liked them due to that smoothness.
The first thing I noticed with the ELAC was, as some have noted, the bass definitely kicks down a notch lower than the Arias. This is actually somewhat of an important point to me because if the bass kicks down too low and rumbles throughout the house, that's no good. For near field volumes, the balance of bass that the Arias had was just right to stop that. I'm unsure on this front when it comes to the ELAC for now, will have to spend more time with them.
When it comes to the highs, and I accept this may be entirely placebo, I feel like they seem kind of recessed a bit, compared to what I remember on the Focals? I'm not sure if this is just me thinking that a metal dome tweeter is always going to have a more airy/sparkly reproduction of high trebles, and a soft dome being unable to do that, or what. This is my first soft dome tweeter so it could just be a bias I have that I'll need to spend more time with. It could also be the low-end being more powerful is affecting my perception of the highs. Unsure right now. I just find it curious as the ELACs do not have the rolled off treble of the Focals, yet here I am typing the above.
And of course, compared to the relatively easy to drive Focals, the ELAC requires me to kick up the volume a little bit on my amp (NAD D3045, 60wpc at both 4-8ohm with up to 200w dynamic power) . Still got plenty of power to spare at the listening distance, of course.
My main regret is having sold off the Focals before getting the ELACs due to the aforementioned QC issues. They got snapped up fairly quick which I didn't expect, so I guess I should've kept them, so I could do a proper comparison between them. Audio memory is infamously pretty unreliable after all.