This is a review, listening tests, and detailed measurements of the ELAC DF63 Debut 3.0 Tower speaker. It was kindly drop shipped and donated by a member. It costs US $649 each.
The DF63 looks no worse or better than I expected which means, it is fine.
Nothing exciting in the back other than the two ports:
I appreciated close to the ground terminals as there is less chance of speaker wire resonating against the cabinet. And rear ports means that their high frequency distortion is less likely to be audible.
As usual, if you are not familiar with my speaker measurements, please watch this video first:
ELAC DF63 Speaker Measurement
As usual, we start with our family of anechoic frequency response graphs generated by Klippel Near-field Scanner:
If you stand back (or filter the graph), the on-axis response generally looks level. Closer examination shows something untoward happening around 900 to 1000 Hz. And a few resonances at 90 and 180 Hz. Treble response also has some variability. But again, at high level, this is not bad.
Sensitivity is specified at 87.5 dB and it gets there, making it about 1 to 2 dB better than average (can get louder with the same amplification power). This is a common benefit of tower speakers with multiple woofers.
Directivity is reasonably smooth although doesn't follow a monotonic trend. This messes (badly) with early window reflections:
And as a result, in predicted in-room frequency response:
Showing just one port and woofer, we see the reason for some of the anechoic frequency response errors:
While this is a 3-way rather than (messy) 2.5 way speaker, it still suffers from multi-sourced interference including a port/cabinet resonance.
Back to directivity, we see very well controlled one horizontally above 1 kHz:
Vertical is messy despite the midrange:
See the messiness around 1 kHz in both graphs.
Distortion test generated very surprising results:
I have not ever seen such a massive jump in distortion with 10 dB in this class speaker! We go from better than average to worse than average. Here is a comparison with 5 dB increments:
I could hear some audible distortion at 96 dBSPL which got highly exaggerated at 101 dBSPL, rattling the entire structure of the Klippel NFS. In other words, what there is, is amplified by the cabinet.
Impedance is on the low side:
Waterfall and step responses are as expected:
ELAC DF63 Speaker Listening Test
Listening tests were made in our massive (volume wise) living room as you kind of see in the review picture. Immediate impression was that of (pleasant) warmth and full range response I don't expect to hear in this class of speaker. Fidelity was good enough that I started to question what I had measured. So I jumped right into my sub-bass test tracks to chase down the distortion there:
Sub-bass was reproduced better than this speaker has any business delivering! I almost stopped there but glad that I did not. At 30 seconds, there are some high frequency (strings?) that normally don't bother any speaker I have tested. Oh boy. Did it upset the DF-63. Massive, and I mean massive resonance set into tweeter, creating screeching sound that was nearly as loud as the notes themselves! I reduced the volume down to some -10 dB but I could still hear it. My wife was next to me so I asked her if she could hear it at around -5 dB and she could! This is a flat out failure in my book and reminds of another ELAC speaker with the same problem although here, it is far worse.
I tried to detect the problem in other clips and it was much harder. I could hear strangeness in high notes in other tracks but wouldn't bet my salary on it and nowhere as clear as the above track. I can't imaging it not being there in other clips though.
As an aside, above is a great example of using carefully selected audio tracks for speaker testing, than whatever you normally listen to.
On bass, the deep notes were very satisfying. As I cranked up the volume, I could tell they would start to get distorted and muddy but this was at rather elevated levels.
On EQ, I filled in the 1 kHz hole and it opened the sound fair bit, making the stock sound wooly and too warm and closed without it.
Conclusions
The DF63 seems to have a different recipe than many other speakers I have tested. It seems to aim for deeper bass at the expense of higher distortion/lower SPL playback. There is also some interference around 1 kHz which EQ seems to paper over. The main issue as you can imagine, is that tweeter. I don't mind gradual distortion or power limited but not this kind of massive and sudden break up. Yes, I was listening kind of loud. But once I got sensitized to it, even playback at moderate levels was audible.
On the positive front, the deep bass is extremely satisfying, making the speaker nearly full range which is remarkable in this price class. Sensitivity is higher than normal, meaning less demand on the amplifier.
I am sad to give a failing grade to ELAC DF63. Some technical flaws I can't get over and such is the case with tweeter response here.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The DF63 looks no worse or better than I expected which means, it is fine.
Nothing exciting in the back other than the two ports:I appreciated close to the ground terminals as there is less chance of speaker wire resonating against the cabinet. And rear ports means that their high frequency distortion is less likely to be audible.
As usual, if you are not familiar with my speaker measurements, please watch this video first:
ELAC DF63 Speaker Measurement
As usual, we start with our family of anechoic frequency response graphs generated by Klippel Near-field Scanner:
If you stand back (or filter the graph), the on-axis response generally looks level. Closer examination shows something untoward happening around 900 to 1000 Hz. And a few resonances at 90 and 180 Hz. Treble response also has some variability. But again, at high level, this is not bad.
Sensitivity is specified at 87.5 dB and it gets there, making it about 1 to 2 dB better than average (can get louder with the same amplification power). This is a common benefit of tower speakers with multiple woofers.
Directivity is reasonably smooth although doesn't follow a monotonic trend. This messes (badly) with early window reflections:
And as a result, in predicted in-room frequency response:
Showing just one port and woofer, we see the reason for some of the anechoic frequency response errors:
While this is a 3-way rather than (messy) 2.5 way speaker, it still suffers from multi-sourced interference including a port/cabinet resonance.
Back to directivity, we see very well controlled one horizontally above 1 kHz:
Vertical is messy despite the midrange:
See the messiness around 1 kHz in both graphs.
Distortion test generated very surprising results:
I have not ever seen such a massive jump in distortion with 10 dB in this class speaker! We go from better than average to worse than average. Here is a comparison with 5 dB increments:
I could hear some audible distortion at 96 dBSPL which got highly exaggerated at 101 dBSPL, rattling the entire structure of the Klippel NFS. In other words, what there is, is amplified by the cabinet.
Impedance is on the low side:
Waterfall and step responses are as expected:
ELAC DF63 Speaker Listening Test
Listening tests were made in our massive (volume wise) living room as you kind of see in the review picture. Immediate impression was that of (pleasant) warmth and full range response I don't expect to hear in this class of speaker. Fidelity was good enough that I started to question what I had measured. So I jumped right into my sub-bass test tracks to chase down the distortion there:
Sub-bass was reproduced better than this speaker has any business delivering! I almost stopped there but glad that I did not. At 30 seconds, there are some high frequency (strings?) that normally don't bother any speaker I have tested. Oh boy. Did it upset the DF-63. Massive, and I mean massive resonance set into tweeter, creating screeching sound that was nearly as loud as the notes themselves! I reduced the volume down to some -10 dB but I could still hear it. My wife was next to me so I asked her if she could hear it at around -5 dB and she could!
This is a flat out failure in my book and reminds of another ELAC speaker with the same problem although here, it is far worse.I tried to detect the problem in other clips and it was much harder. I could hear strangeness in high notes in other tracks but wouldn't bet my salary on it and nowhere as clear as the above track. I can't imaging it not being there in other clips though.
As an aside, above is a great example of using carefully selected audio tracks for speaker testing, than whatever you normally listen to.
On bass, the deep notes were very satisfying. As I cranked up the volume, I could tell they would start to get distorted and muddy but this was at rather elevated levels.
On EQ, I filled in the 1 kHz hole and it opened the sound fair bit, making the stock sound wooly and too warm and closed without it.
Conclusions
The DF63 seems to have a different recipe than many other speakers I have tested. It seems to aim for deeper bass at the expense of higher distortion/lower SPL playback. There is also some interference around 1 kHz which EQ seems to paper over. The main issue as you can imagine, is that tweeter. I don't mind gradual distortion or power limited but not this kind of massive and sudden break up. Yes, I was listening kind of loud.
But once I got sensitized to it, even playback at moderate levels was audible.On the positive front, the deep bass is extremely satisfying, making the speaker nearly full range which is remarkable in this price class. Sensitivity is higher than normal, meaning less demand on the amplifier.
I am sad to give a failing grade to ELAC DF63. Some technical flaws I can't get over and such is the case with tweeter response here.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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