I have some old Pinnacle bookshelf speakers that suffered from surround rot. I tried replacing the 5.25" Pinnacle drivers with some 5.5" drivers from a "Speakers4Less" site but not being designed for the enclosure, they have a huge dip in the upper bass/lower midrange band.
So, I decided to start investigating a new set of bookshelf speakers. To give you some idea how long I've been out of the stereo speaker arena, my last set of speakers for a home stereo were a pair of ADS L710 (which also suffered from surround-rot, but I was able to purchase new ADS drivers so they sound as good as new!)
Two things became clear: there appear to be some nice audiophile-class bookshelf speakers above $300 a piece, but my target budget is under $250 for the pair. And then there are the ELAC Debut B5 bookshelf speakers at $229 a pair, designed by Andrew Jones. I've tried to read between the lines, but Andrew Jones is apparently the Steve Wozniak of speaker design. Or Bob Carver, if you will. I'd never seen his name before as I said, I haven't paid much attention to the speaker ecosystem.
My query to the board is: Does anyone have ELAC Debut series of speakers, or any of the other ELAC design, that could speak to how they perform? My main concern with these is the lower efficiency that produces 85 dB SPL at 1 Watt. I have a 20 Watt Class-D amp that I plan to use to drive these and I don't plan on cranking them up to ear-splitting levels, I do want to make sure that I'm not going regret going with either the Polk Audio Signature S15 for the same price, or a pair of Polk Audio TSi100 for $80 less, both of which are more efficient designs, lessening the load on the amplifier.
So, I decided to start investigating a new set of bookshelf speakers. To give you some idea how long I've been out of the stereo speaker arena, my last set of speakers for a home stereo were a pair of ADS L710 (which also suffered from surround-rot, but I was able to purchase new ADS drivers so they sound as good as new!)
Two things became clear: there appear to be some nice audiophile-class bookshelf speakers above $300 a piece, but my target budget is under $250 for the pair. And then there are the ELAC Debut B5 bookshelf speakers at $229 a pair, designed by Andrew Jones. I've tried to read between the lines, but Andrew Jones is apparently the Steve Wozniak of speaker design. Or Bob Carver, if you will. I'd never seen his name before as I said, I haven't paid much attention to the speaker ecosystem.
My query to the board is: Does anyone have ELAC Debut series of speakers, or any of the other ELAC design, that could speak to how they perform? My main concern with these is the lower efficiency that produces 85 dB SPL at 1 Watt. I have a 20 Watt Class-D amp that I plan to use to drive these and I don't plan on cranking them up to ear-splitting levels, I do want to make sure that I'm not going regret going with either the Polk Audio Signature S15 for the same price, or a pair of Polk Audio TSi100 for $80 less, both of which are more efficient designs, lessening the load on the amplifier.
