Elac Debut Reference DBR-62 Speaker Review

[Bleib]

Just got a pair. And actually I am dissapointed (bought them without listenning) - they are boring. No drive at all (I listen mainly to electronics, metal, phonk). Going to replace them
(Paired with NAD C356BEE)

I'm pretty much in the same boat (although I have a different music taste), been listening all day. I love that they are flat and neutral but since the bas doesn't go that deep I'd expect a bit more dynamic drive.

The lack of of a deep bottom makes some songs quite lifeless and I'm not convinced Leonard Cohen's autumn age deep voice sounds quite right.
I should also say that I love the treble in many songs, you certainly can get a sense that "this is how it should sound" but it's just not quite there as a whole. The treble to me sounds quite a lot better than the woofer with which I have many gripes with.

I absolutely love how they look, much better than Triangle br03 which I have also tried. Really stylish.

I guess I have to save up some money to get a pair of Ino Audio piPs again (not commercially available, can only be bought used or from Stockholm Sweden. These small speakers do get down to 33Hz, and that does make a difference).

 

[ezra_s]

The ELACs or the Buchardts?

I've posted about the ELACs before in this thread. I just wanted to hear them in the same room. The ELACs are normally in a larger room with all hard surfaces.

But what are your conclusions comparing both? If you replied to this earlier please post the link, I don't think I can search through 74 pages and keep my sanity.

 

[richard12511]

If you mean the bm5's too, nah I measured those, peaking in 1k region, dip between 3-4k that goes into a boosted treble from 7k to 10k. HS8's were ok, lacking in low end punch, and the top end was messy. I find the elacs to be more neutral.

I meant the KH80DSP. Those are about as neutral as it gets. Maybe you were running into distortion issues. I do find that small speakers become fatiguing at spls that the bigger speakers sound just fine.

 

[Beershaun]

Yep. Bass response is a big factor in preference and enjoyment. I think honestly every bookshelf/2 way speaker needs a good subwoofer. 2.1 is where it's at.

 

[Honken]

I guess I have to save up some money to get a pair of Ino Audio piPs again (not commercially available, can only be bought used or from Stockholm Sweden. These small speakers do get down to 33Hz, and that does make a difference).

I don't really think it is wise to expect copious amounts of bass from small, cheap passive bookshelf speakers. The piP does play lower, but it is still a small, passive bookshelf speaker. See this thread for an interesting take on boosting the low end with the piP.

 

[Newman]

I'm pretty much in the same boat (although I have a different music taste), been listening all day. I love that they are flat and neutral but since the bas doesn't go that deep I'd expect a bit more dynamic drive.

The lack of of a deep bottom makes some songs quite lifeless and I'm not convinced Leonard Cohen's autumn age deep voice sounds quite right.
I should also say that I love the treble in many songs, you certainly can get a sense that "this is how it should sound" but it's just not quite there as a whole. The treble to me sounds quite a lot better than the woofer with which I have many gripes with.

I absolutely love how they look, much better than Triangle br03 which I have also tried. Really stylish.

I guess I have to save up some money to get a pair of Ino Audio piPs again (not commercially available, can only be bought used or from Stockholm Sweden. These small speakers do get down to 33Hz, and that does make a difference).

The bass is your room. Speakers with more bass drive will simply make your room modes pump more. Not the path to good bass.

 

[Chromatischism]

But what are your conclusions comparing both? If you replied to this earlier please post the link, I don't think I can search through 74 pages and keep my sanity.

I think the ELAC DFR are fine speakers for their price point, but you do get what you pay for. When put up against higher-tier speakers with a more refined presentation like the Buchardts, even the Debut Reference will show its weaknesses. There is some harshness/peakiness in the treble, and the upper bass is not as full creating a thinner overall sound. The midbass however is just fine and I felt it exceeded the S400 there. I did not do a low bass comparison as you need to run them in stereo for that to hear how recorded material sums (IME) and this was a mono comparison.

The S400's are able to create a spooky realistic sound, especially in the female vocal range. The Debut Reference are very good for the price but still sound like a speaker so they don't really "take me there" or bring the singer into the room in the same way. There is a very noticeable difference in tweeter level. The ELACs are more energetic whereas the Buchardts are more intimate. Again this is all relative to a...$2100/pair (wow, they must have increased the price) speaker. It's easy to pick out differences when you can fast switch.

The S400's will remain in the main system with my subs but the ELACs will do well and look great in the living room

 

[Bleib]

I don't really think it is wise to expect copious amounts of bass from small, cheap passive bookshelf speakers. The piP does play lower, but it is still a small, passive bookshelf speaker. See this thread for an interesting take on boosting the low end with the piP.

I've very familiar with it as I owned it for 5 or so years (only sold it because I moved to another country and brought almost nothing with me), I bought it in parts and did the work of putting it together on my own. It's the only other neutral speaker that I have really heard, it's very difficult to find those kinds of speakers and this one provides. The other option is to go for the much bigger pi60, but as I live in an apartment I don't want people to think an earthquake is happening (specced to 16-18hz) anyhow, this is off topic. piP is vastly superior speaker than the Elacs but it's just not as pretty. I don't mind, I'll buy have them in black again.

The bass is your room. Speakers with more bass drive will simply make your room modes pump more. Not the path to good bass.

I have about 5 other speakers to compare with, including Canton LE109 which are specced down to 20hz (it delivers on this part but likely measures quite messy in other frequencies, the treble for instance is far from neutral. Oh to be able to combine drivers from different speakers..). And I do remember the piP bas.

 

[Honken]

I've very familiar with it as I owned it for 5 or so years (only sold it because I moved to another country and brought almost nothing with me), I bought it in parts and did the work of putting it together on my own. It's the only other neutral speaker that I have really heard, it's very difficult to find those kinds of speakers and this one provides. The other option is to go for the much bigger pi60, but as I live in an apartment I don't want people to think an earthquake is happening (specced to 16-18hz) anyhow, this is off topic. piP is vastly superior speaker than the Elacs but it's just not as pretty. I don't mind, I'll buy have them in black again.

While I haven't owned the piPs I am well aware of how they sound, friend of mine used to have them. I like them as well, I just don't think that they're full range on their own even though they are much more full bodied than the ELACs (which I cross rather high to my subs).

Having a lot of bass power on tap (either from big towers or from dedicated subwoofers) doesn't necessarily mean that it has be out of control.

 

[Interference]

Has somebody thought about measuring the Thiele-Small parameters of the woofer? Since this is such a successful design it could be nice to do some reverse engineering of the low frequency load.

 

[ROOSKIE]

Has somebody thought about measuring the Thiele-Small parameters of the woofer? Since this is such a successful design it could be nice to do some reverse engineering of the low frequency load.

I can measure with DATS3. I will do it tonight or tmrw.

 

[Offler]

Hello. Just got pair of DBR-62 and i use them it with NAD d3020 v2.

Speakers were a real bargain at 349 euro for a pair (other shops in the same town had them for up to 600).

1. I did not had much experience with pro or hi-fi audio, so this was my first purchase of this type so far, so my expectations are far lower than most people on this forum.

2. Speakers and amp are used with desktop computer.
Games, blu-ray movies (mainly those with lossless audio) and CDs/FLACs. Since i have a collection of both movies and music, after getting better display i decided to upgrade speakers as well.

Amp is connected to PC via TOSLINK (44Khz 16bit stereo) and AUX (48KHz, 16/24 or 32bit Float where toslink is not enough). Surprisingly the soundcard in my PC is quite good (ALC 1220, nichicon caps, clean powersource) and i did not needed higher version of the amplifier with HDMI-Arc support.

3. Bass sound of these speakers.
a) I placed them on a large table made out of heavy particleboards. The table has large gaps below top board so it helps to amplify mainly lower tones.

b) Amplifier has "Bass EQ" function which increases 80Hz by 6db.
It actually matches the expectation that bookshelf speakers might need boost bass bit.

c) I tried also some equalization in Foobar plugin (+3db @ 31,5 Hz, +4db @ 40Hz, +3db @50Hz +2db @ 63 Hz +1db @ 80 ) and the results were even better if you want to hear more drums, or bass guitar.

d)After a week or so, bass is bit more pronounced as when they were fresh out of box even without EQ.

e) Subwoofer or not?
Amp allows to connect one active subwoofer. It would probably help 20-80Hz range, but so far I like both flat and equalized sound, unless some records do not have any bass sound present.

I am inclined to skip subwoofer entirely, but is there any good match?

 

[BN1]

good buy on the elacs, typically $600/pr (USD). Sounds like you have added to the bass output of the speakers and you're probably ok with most music. For movies and games however a sub is typically beneficial. Expect to pay $400 - $600 for a decent sub. Then you'll "feel" the bass.

 

[RobS]

Has anyone experienced difficulty getting a stable phantom center image with these speakers?

 

[Honken]

Has anyone experienced difficulty getting a stable phantom center image with these speakers?

Not really, I find that the quality/clarity of the phantom image mostly depends on the recording in question.

My listening setup isn't a perfect equidistant triangle, my listening position is roughly 4M away from my speakers and the speakers are 2.5M apart from eachother. The speakers are very close to the front wall, only 20cm away, with no toe in (I have fiddled with toe in but I've settled on this setup - the top end sounds wider than with toe in) and my ears are at woofer height rather than tweeter height.

So, lots of odd choices but it sounds good to me.

My old Klipsch RP-8000F sounded more interesting on this track, where they made it sound as if the song was playing around me. The DBR-62s don't give the same effect, the song sounds as if it is in front of me at all times, but the phantom center is definitely there and it is very wide.

 

[theyellowspecial]

Has anyone experienced difficulty getting a stable phantom center image with these speakers?

Try crossing the speakers 10-20 degrees in front of the listening position. The wide dispersion may be causing early reflections from the sidewalls arriving too soon relative to the direct sound.

 

[RobS]

Lol I had the positive and negative cables inserted backwards on the back of one speaker. Explains it all...

 

[Thomas savage]

Lol I had the positive and negative cables inserted backwards on the back of one speaker. Explains it all...

We've all done it , be proud theres plenty of audiophiles out there that would not of noticed ha ha

 

[mario_rouge]

hi, I would like to know how you set these speakers with the subwoofer? (lowpass crossover)

 

[maxxone]

Coaxial drivers have their own merits.
In fact, two way systems even with proper room treatment still have a big issue: they force you to be with tweeter at ear level to enjoy that pretty nice frequency response we see in measurements..pros and cons

Thanks, mate. You just made my system sound better, my Elacs are on desk stands to stand them above my monitors. Putting the speakers upside down made a big difference.