Review on ELAC Debut Bookshelf Speakers Black Home Audio by Justin Falker

To be honest, I was quite surprised when I lit it up at all the rave reviews. I found the speaker too bright and a bit harsh. I have NHT SuperZeros and Sonos Ones and Elacs were too hot for me. I can not understand. Maybe it's because the iPod generation with headphones damaged their ears and the rest are just older than me and have lost their hearing at high frequencies. I know my hearing is impaired but I find the b5.2 a bit noisy. It's not terrible, mind you. If I reduce the highs by about 5dB it works fine, but I don't have to turn the tone controls on at all. I prefer to avoid them. It's bad for an audiophile speaker to sound brighter than the Sonos One. In case anyone is interested, I had KLH 6s, Magnepan MG1s, Layered Advents and the original Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble. I've also heard everything from Rogers LS to Klipschorns (love both). I like my NHTs but I'm looking for something extended in the high frequencies but the Debut 2.0s are too good in that sense. For the most part, they measure absolutely flat, but that's not actually what most people want. Most people prefer a smooth rolloff above 10kHz. Flat is not neutral when it comes to speakers. The apartment is too bright.