We purchased the ELAC Debut 2.0 F5.2 tower speakers so that our expert reviewer could thoroughly test and review them. Read on for our full product review.
The ELAC Debut 2.0 F5.2 tower speakers are powerful beasts. With their Debut 2.0 series, ELAC set out to crush the budget audiophile market and they have definitely proven that they belong at the top of every list. Sure, there are $1,000 tower pairs that sound better, but there are also $1,000 pairs that sound worse than the F5.2s, and that is commendable for ELAC. They have managed to make premium speakers affordable. The F5.2s deliver crystal clear sound across their entire range and exhibit very little distortion. Their tweeters are slightly more powerful than their woofers, but their low THD makes them easy to EQ into a flatter signature.
The first thing you’ll notice about the ELAC tower is how heavy it is. It tips the scales at 34 pounds and stands 40 inches tall, which isn’t much fun to lug around a living room but, conversely, means it’s tough to knock over. More importantly, that heft serves a purpose: The steel frame protects the three 5.25-inch aramid fiber woofers and a 1-inch tweeter. That sturdy frame is wrapped in a gorgeous black-veneered MDF that’ll match any decor, and the grille is a velvety-soft cloth with the ELAC logo in silver lettering on the bottom. These are passive speakers, so you’ll need an amplifier and some speaker wire to set them up (though the connectors are compatible with banana plugs if you prefer). There are flashier speakers on the market, but few have the elegance and maturity of the F5.2 speaker. It's perfect for a stereo pair and is part of the larger ELAC Debut 2.0 family if you want to create a surround sound environment.
To install the F5.2 speaker, you will need speaker wire. You will need to cut the wire to the length between your speaker and your amplifier, which is six inches of slack, and then strip the plastic coating off both ends of the positive and negative wires. If your wires are not already marked, I highly recommend using a Sharpie to mark the ends so you don't accidentally connect positive to negative (for consistency, we like to add the Sharpie to our "negative" wire, since negative terminals are usually black).
