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ELAC Debut B6 review: ELAC B6 debuts at number one

The ELAC Debut B6s offer sound quality that beats speakers that sell for more than double the price.

Steve Guttenberg
Ex-movie theater projectionist Steve Guttenberg has also worked as a high-end audio salesman, and as a record producer. Steve currently reviews audio products for CNET and works as a freelance writer for Stereophile.
Steve Guttenberg
5 min read

When Andrew Jones designs a loudspeaker, we sit up and take notice.

9.1

ELAC Debut B6

The Good

The ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers look sharp, and boast excellent sound for a bargain price. Home theater buyers can easily partner the Debut B6 with ELAC's matching Debut Series tower, center and subwoofer.

The Bad

The Debut B6 is only available in a black vinyl finish.

The Bottom Line

The ELAC Debut B6 bookshelf speakers offer stellar, best-in-class sound quality that no other speakers can match at this low price.

Jones built his reputation working with the likes of brands such as KEF and Infinity, as well as designing the $80,000 TAD Reference speakers. After earning rave reviews from audio enthusiasts for such high-end products, he set his sights a little lower and designed a line of highly affordable speakers for Pioneer that shattered our expectations of just how good budget-priced speakers could sound.

Jones eventually amicably left Pioneer (though not before shepherding equally affordable soundbars and speaker pedestals ) and now leads ELAC America's speaker division. And he's back at it, pouring his expertise into ELAC's new Debut speaker series. The Debut line encompasses a full range of surround speakers, including the F5 towers, C5 center and A4 Dolby Atmos models. But here we're breaking out the Debut B6 bookshelf speakers, and focusing on them as a standalone stereo pair.

After listening to them, it's clear that Jones keeps outdoing himself with each new generation of his designs.

The all-new ELAC Debut B6 retails for $280 per pair. (UK and Australia prices aren't yet available, but the speakers should be available in those markets by the end of 2015. The US price converts to around £180 or AU$380 per pair.) For that price, these speakers are so good that they may just spawn a new generation of audiophiles -- albeit ones who don't need the deep pockets usually associated with the hobby.

True, the Debut B6 is more than double the price of the Jones-designed Pioneer SP-BS22-LR bookshelf speakers we've praised many times (those models are still readily available). But the ELAC Debut B6 is a substantially better speaker that still remains incredibly affordable. It's our new go-to budget speaker, hands down.

Design and features

elac-debut-b6-1.jpg
Sarah Tew/CNET

The ELAC Debut B6 is a fairly large bookshelf speaker measuring 8.5 inches wide by 14 inches high and 10 inches deep (that's 21.6 by 35.5 by 25.4 cm). The speaker's medium-density fiberboard cabinet is covered with an attractive "brushed" black vinyl finish, and there's a removable, black cloth grille to protect the drivers. We liked that the pins that secure the grille are on the speaker's front baffle instead of on the grille itself; they look like they'll never fall out or break off.

elac-debut-b6-1.jpg
Sarah Tew/CNET

When you wrap your knuckles on the cabinet it sounds hollow. We'd prefer a more solid feeling cabinet, but we really can't "knock" the Debut B6 for that -- no other speaker in its price class feels more solidly built, and we heard no adverse affects from the lively cabinet.

The Debut B6 is a two-way, bass-reflex design with a 1-inch cloth dome tweeter set into a deep-spheroid waveguide and a 6.5-inch woven Aramid fiber midrange/woofer. There's a single bass port on the rear panel.

elac-debut-b6-1.jpg
Sarah Tew/CNET

The Debut B6's rear also has one set of gold-plated, all-metal binding posts that work with speaker cables terminated with banana plugs, spades, pins or stripped bare-wire ends. The speaker's impedance is rated at 6 Ohms. Each speaker weighs 14.3 pounds (6.5 kg).

Jones recommends using 20-inch tall (51 cm) floor stands with the Debut B6. As we listened, we noted the Debut B6 sounded best when our ears were at or near the same height as the speakers' tweeters. If we slouched down, the sound balance thinned out somewhat, and if we stood up much higher than the speakers the sound balance changed again. These sorts of tonal changes aren't unique to the Debut B6 -- most speakers' sound changes when listened to at different heights -- but the Debut B6 is a little more sensitive in that regard. We used a Marantz NR1605 AV receiver for all of our listening tests.

Performance

It was immediately clear the Debut B6 sounded like a much bigger speaker when we played Kraftwerk's 2003 "Tour de France" album. The synths' deep bass pulses reached way down low, yet bass definition remained absolutely rock solid. Impressed, we cranked the volume higher and higher, but detected no strain or increased distortion. Even much larger entry-level tower speakers such as the Polk T50 can't match the Debut B6's low-end authority.

elac-debut-b6-1.jpg
Sarah Tew/CNET

The sheer immediacy of the sound is the next thing we noted: the Debut B6 is bright and clear, a huge advance over the Pioneer SP-BS22-LR bookshelf speakers, which sounded softer and cloudier (see CNET's review of the Pioneer 5.1 system for comparison). The SP-BS22-LR also miniaturized the sound: there was less "there" there.

Wilco's tune "Jesus, Etc" in 96 kHz/24-bit high-resolution audio was positively vivid. Jeff Tweedy's vocal was precisely centered between the two Debut B6 speakers, and the tonality of the guitars and violins was rendered accurately with a nice sense of depth to the stereo soundstage. At this point we switched over to the Bowers & Wilkins 685 S2 bookshelf speakers, which are about the same size as the Debut B6s. The 685 S2 sounded softer, and less clear overall. However, we detected a tiny bit of coarseness or sibilance on Tweedy's vocals on the Debut B6, while that aspect was tamed on the B&W speakers.

Returning to Kraftwerk's "Tour de France," the 685 S2 speakers' bass wasn't as nimble, tight or well controlled as the Debut B6's low end. That speaker's bass superiority was even more evident with the stepped synth bass notes that tumble down on the Beta Band's tune "Life." The 685 S2 blurred some of the notes together, and while the Debut B6 wasn't perfect it was better. All in all, we felt the Debut B6's midrange was more transparent and clear overall, but the 685 S2 was smoother and more refined.

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Sarah Tew/CNET

But here's the thing: the Bowers and Wilkins 685 S2s sell for more than twice the price of the ELAC Debut B6s -- $700 per pair versus $280.

Next, we compared the Debut B6 with ELAC's slightly smaller Debut bookshelf speaker, the B5 ($230 per pair; that's £150 or AU$310). At first they sounded similar when listening to guitarist Ry Cooder's soundtrack score for "Paris, Texas," but as we continued the smaller speaker sounded a wee bit brighter and leaner in the bass, with a more recessed soundstage than the Debut B6. The Debut B5 is awfully good, but for just $50 more we preferred the fuller sounding Debut B6. Both speakers revealed the subtle shadings of every pluck and scrape of Cooder playing his acoustic guitar.

Conclusion

We were shocked that the Debut B6 outshone Bowers & Wilkins' more-than-twice-as-expensive 685 S2 speaker on a number of counts. Pair the Debut B6 with a decent integrated amp like the NAD C 316BEE, or Onkyo's excellent TX-8020 stereo receiver, and perhaps a U-Turn Orbit turntable, and you'd have a killer budget, yet fully audiophile-grade stereo system.

And that's the ultimate takeaway here: the rare achievement of true audiophile quality at a low price. Speaker shoppers always want bargains -- speakers that blow away the competition at a rock bottom price without sacrificing quality. The ELAC Debut B6 is that speaker. It's a stunning achievement. Andrew Jones has again raised the bar.

9.1

ELAC Debut B6

Score Breakdown

Design 8Features 9Sound 8Value 10