ELAC Debut F5, B5, C5 Loudspeaker System Review

Elac Debut Speaker System Introduction

Truth be told, entry level audio hasn’t been a very fun place. Sure, there are seemingly lots of options and so-called “bargains.” But give most of these a try and those lofty—dare I say even unrealistic aspirations—crash in some sort of fiery end. The reality check is simple: getting bonafide high end sound on a budget isn’t easy.

ELAC wants to change all that…. “Stop right there! Don’t tease me,” you might be thinking. “I’ve heard all that before.” Yes, ordinarily you’d be right. But ELAC’s foray into entry-level audio is anything but ordinary.

ELAC’s Debut Series speakers have been designed by world-renown speaker designer Andrew Jones. If you haven’t heard of Andrew Jones before, let’s just say that his resume and pedigree are…well…legendary. With successful stints at iconic speaker brands KEF and TAD, Andrew has designed award-winning speakers entering the hyper-stratosphere price-range ($80,000+) of the audiophile landscape. But it was Andrew’s contribution at Pioneer that really turned the audio world on its head.

Andrew and his team set their sights on the fledgling audiophile and delivered a kick-butt pair of speakers, the Pioneer SP-BS22 LR, that sold for a mere $129/pair. Now, Andrew has once again set his sights on the budget-conscious home theater lover by joining ELAC.

ELAC’s Debut series is exactly that—an opening act for ELAC into the North American audio market. The full Debut series of speakers consists of two tower models, three monitor models, a center channel, and a Dolby Atmos speaker. The Debut line also features three subwoofers.

For my review setup, ELAC sent me a 5.0 configuration consisting of a pair of the F5 floor standing speakers, the C5 center channel, and a pair of B5 bookshelf monitors for the surrounds. While they are available, ELAC did not send me the line's Dolby Atmos speakers or one of their subwoofers.  We have a separate review of their new sub coming from our own Marshall Guthrie soon.  Therefore, I conducted the entire review without a subwoofer.

ELAC Debut F5, C5, B5 Loudspeakers First Impressions

The ELACs came relatively well packaged. However, the F5s had a bit of play inside the box that concerned me. When I opened up the packages, I noted that none of the speakers were double-boxed as you’d normally find with more expensive audiophile speakers.  All speakers came intact and it was time to get them unpacked and set up.

While the ELAC Debut speakers may be budget priced, their build quality typically defied those expectations. Upon first glance, I noted that Debut speakers did not have the typical wood veneer or piano black high gloss finish. “Oh no,” you’re thinking. “These aren’t plastic are they?”  No, you don’t need to worry. Instead, the ELAC Debut models have a unique, textured, and black vinyl covering over the speaker cabinet. The unique vinyl covering is impeccably put together and gives the speakers a look and feel that they are far more expensive than their MSRP would imply.  

The vinyl is only skin deep. Under the veneer of each speaker is an MDF cabinet with the tower and center channel models incorporating extra bracing. I will say that the ELAC cabinets felt more solid than competing speakers in this price range. I was curious so I knocked my knuckles on the cabinet to see just how the enclosure sounded. Ideally, it should make a high pitch thud sound indicating the cabinet is rigid and inert. However, the ELACs delivered a distinct echo (no surprise here given the cost). I was expecting it to sound a bit more inert but I'm also used to reviewing top dollar speakers with budgets of each speaker far exceeding the cost of this whole system.

The focus on quality didn’t stop with the physical build but extended to the design elements. “My design objective was to achieve the most accurate sound possible in speakers that deliver performance far exceeding their cost,” said Jones. “I’ve employed materials and design specifications not found in speakers in this price range. From cone materials to driver geometry to subwoofer amplification, we built serious value into the Debut series”.

The Debut speakers utilize custom designed drivers. The woofers are made of aramid fiber cones that ELAC says provide superior strength to weight ratio over other materials. Choosing the aramid fiber cones gave more design flexibility and achieved a smoother extended response. The speaker designs also feature an oversized magnet and a vented pole piece.

Detail view of the ELAC Debut's aramid fiber cones

The Debut series uses a silk dome tweeter. It’s recessed in a waveguide with a deep spheroid profile. ELAC says that the waveguide delivers improved directivity control and shields the tweeter wavefront from cabinet diffraction.   Research has shown that this is important for maintaining off-axis performance consistent with the on-axis so that the early reflections can combine beneficially at the listening area to expand the spaciousness and soundstage.

The crossover network brings the respective divers together and it’s the one area that budget speakers often don’t get right.  ELAC says that they have a refined, multi-element crossover which provides a perfect blending of drivers to deliver a coherent audio experience traditionally found on speakers costing substantially more. That’s typical marketing lingo, of course, but the point is well taken and we’ll see how well that performs in real-world listening tests.

View of the ELAC Debut B5's cabinet structure, crossover network, and ported cabinet.

The F5 is a three-way, bass-reflex design speaker with a 5.25-inch woven aramid-fiber cone midrange and two 5.25-inch woven aramid-fiber cone woofers. The drivers are crossed at 3,000Hz and 100Hz and are rated to deliver a frequency response down to 42Hz.

The F5’s little brother, the B5, is a two-way bass reflex speaker. It sports a single 5.25-inch woven aramid-fiber cone driver that is crossed at 3,000Hz and is rated to play down to 46 Hz.

The C5 center channel is a two-way bass-reflex design. The drivers are laid out in a typical MTM configuration and not the W(T/M)W configuration that we'd like to see for installations where the seats are more than 30 degrees off-axis. At this entry-level price point, however, just about every single center channel speaker is an MTM design.

For further discussion on this topic see: Vertical vs Horizontal Center Channel Designs and Center Channel Designs Alternative Perspective

The ELAC C5 center channel speaker has an MTM design

The two woofers in the C5 are the same diameter as the towers—5.25-inches—and have the same 3,000 Hz crossover. For a center-channel speaker, the frequency response is a very respectable 48hz.

The speakers’ other details and accessories followed the same theme. For example the acoustically transparent grilles are made of plastic but latch on to the speaker with metal pegs protruding from the front speaker baffle.  Yes, you don’t get magnetic grilles, but you're not getting cheap plastic pegs.. I’ve had speakers costing upwards of $3,000 a pair in for review that had far cheaper grilles with plastic pegs than the ones included with the Debut speakers. The binding posts likewise were basic but high quality. All in all, whatever materials and manufacturing trade-offs ELAC may have had to do in order to hit their price points, at first glance, the design team made very wise choices.

ELAC Debut F5, C5, B5 Loudspeakers Listening Tests

I always test every piece of gear that comes in for review with stereo music. For me, two-channel music remains the sole the benchmark test. I connected the F5 towers in my main two-channel listening area. I connected them to a $2,995 Benchmark AHB2 power amplifier and $1995 DAC2 HGC. The folks at Benchmark has sent me the AHB2 to test out since Gene DellaSala, Audioholics President, and I had been in discussions with them for a possible review with bench testing. Granted, the average ELAC consumer is going to connect the these speakers to far more modestly priced electronics. Nevertheless, it was a fun experiment and boy did the ELACs respond to being fed high end electronics.

Powering everything on and letting it rip was an epiphany. I immediately sent Gene an email saying to him, “These things cost how much?  You’ve got to be kidding me!”  Rarely have I heard such modestly-priced speakers sound this good top to bottom. I ripped through female vocalists—Adele, Patricia Barber, Alexis Cole, Holly Cole, Dido, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennitt, among others—that I normally use with review gear. When a speaker has major issues, it usually fumbles over female vocals. The ELACs passed them all beautifully with little to complain about and evoked a nice sense of warmth and emotional connection to the artists. The Debut F5s failed to pull out some of the fine details and micro dynamics on tracks, however. On "Send My Love" from Adele's 25, percussion and bass lines were not as well defined or textured as I've head with more expensive speakers. To put this into perspective, with most budget speakers I'm ready to throw them out before I've even finished the first track on any of Adele's albums. 

The majestic staging of orchestral works came across very well through the F5s. I loved the sense of space and solid instrument placement. Timbral accuracy was a strong suite of the ELACs. The warmth and body of acoustic guitars came through nicely on a variety of tracks I played—including Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concerto de Aranjuez."  Unsurprisingly, I felt as though there was a veil over the music. This isn’t a criticism, per se. Rarely have I heard speakers under $2K start to deliver exceptional transparency.

Imaging and soundstage depth were exquisite for speakers in this price-range. As I noted previously with Adele's "Send My Love", I found that the Debut series smoothed some fine details and the top end lacked sizzle. The Debut series certainly didn’t have the superlative top end of a Beryllium-dome tweeter that I'm accustomed to hearing from Revel Salon 2 speakers. The midbass was pleasant though slightly veiled as was the bottom end. This was especially noticeable on the opening chords of “Hotel California” from the Eagles When He'll Freezes Over. Throughout my various musical tests, I didn’t really miss having a sub. As long as I was playing reasonable music, the F5s performed admirably.  In a nutshell, these are by no means entry-level-sounding speakers.

In my casual music listening over those initial few weeks, I continued to tell Gene my impressions by phone and email. He’d politely reply, “I know. You already told me.”

It was now time for more music and a home theater onslaught.  I set up the ELAC review speakers in my Atmos/DTS:X/Auro-3D basement theater space with my stalwart Denon AVR-X7200WA AV receiver. I placed the ELAC speakers in roughly the same location as the superb-performing SVS Ultra series that currently grace that space. I noticed, however, that when I placed the ELACs, I wasn’t quite happy with the F5’s initial two-channel performance even after conducting two passes with Audyssey room correction.

I therefore played with the speaker positioning a bit and ended up placing the ELACs at a narrower angle than the SVS Ultra Towers and preferred them with a slight toe-in. I measured their distances with a Bosch level meter and then confirmed the arc and angles by using a marked string affixed to a microphone stand at the primary listening position.

I played several different sources through the Denon AVR-X7200WA including some hi-res FLAC, ALAC, and DSD music from a Questyle QP1R via Toslink. Hi-Res stereo music sounded much closer to what I had experienced in my two-channel listing room. I then re-ran Audyssey and made sure to turn Dynamic Volume and Dynamic EQ off. Sans subwoofer, Audyssey chose to run the front and center channel speakers full range and crossed the surrounds at 40Hz. It was now time to have some fun.

Playing hi-res music versions of Robert Plant and Allison Kraus’ award winning album Raising Sand was an enjoyable experience. Vocals were very good but missed the last bit of airiness and details that give a real three dimensional presentation. Turning to the hi-res version of Star Wars: The Force Awakens soundtrack echoed those sentiments. For example, the flute in “Rey's Theme” didn't have that light airiness to it.

On Led Zeppelin II, “Ramble On” had a great soundstage and excellent instrument separation. Jimmy Page's riffs and John Bonham's drum beats had good detail and texture. I found Plant's vocals to exhibit excellent timbal accuracy.

The ELAC Debut speakers delivered a seamless soundstage that was bursting with fine details such as this scene when Rey pilots the Millenium Falcon from Star Wars Episode VII.

I was impressed with off axis imaging. I could shift from one seat to another without the image collapsing or the sound shifting significantly like I've heard on other budget speaker systems.

Being the Star Wars fan that I am, I couldn’t help but fire up Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Blu-Ray. From the outset, the ELAC Debut speakers nailed the soundstage, creating an expansive audio landscape. The illusion of space created by the ELACs lent itself well to the opening scene on Jakku immersing me in a barren desert expanse. The surround sound tapestry was seamless. Whether it was Rey piloting the Falcon or Poe Dameron’s daring lead of the X-Wing squadron at Maz’s Cantina, I found myself consistently lost in an audio-fest. 

These aforementioned positive and critical observations held true to just about every source material I played, including Braveheart. During battle scenes, fine details were smoothed over but I was still enveloped by a deep and seamless surround environment. The whip of the arrows or the pounding hoofs of horses came from all directions.

I want to note that I liked the ELAC's overall system dynamics. Even without a sub, bass lines were engaging. Sure, they were not as taut or tight as I've heard on more expensive speakers. But all the while, the bass was dynamic and engaging.  Just imagine if you paired this system with two powered subs?  At the price points ELAC offers them, this is a very attainable goal for most budget minded audiophiles.

All in all, the ELACs passed every test with exceptional poise. If you think you can't get theater-quality sound at home at a reasonable cost then you haven’t heard the ELAC Debut series. Yes, they were that good.  

ELAC Debut F5, C5, B5 Loudspeakers Conclusion

The ELAC Debut family of speakers and subwoofers

If you’ve been cash-strapped and wanted to get great sound at home, then put pen to paper and drop Andrew Jones a big thank you note. The ELAC Debut is a darn great speaker line. What a superb example of mixing science and art to produce a true masterpiece. Certainly, at this price point, the Debut speakers have their flaws, but I never did find a real Achilles heel. Those flaws never undermined the many strengths of the setup. That’s a real testament.

So that there’s no doubt, I’ll say it plainly: The ELAC debut is an audiophile and home theater bargain. While the ELAC Debut won't dethrone $5k/pair or even $2k/pair competently designed speakers, it will give speakers at least twice or even three times their price a serious run for their money--knocking a few off their perch along the way. Highly recommended!

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Build Quality
Appearance
Treble Extension
Treble Smoothness
Midrange Accuracy
Bass Extension
Bass Accuracy
Imaging
Soundstage
Dynamic Range
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value