ELAC Debut 2.0 OW4.2: 21st Century Hi Fi Budget Wonder?

When it comes to entry level hi fi loudspeakers in the 200 to 300 USD price range, is the ELAC 2.o OW4.2 represent the 21^st Century’s hi fi budget wonder?

By: Ringo Bones

Before ELAC’s designer Andrew Jones joined the German based hi fi manufacturing firm ELAC, he began work at KEF from 1983 until 1994. Then he later went on to Infinity and later with Sony and it was with the Japanese firm that he gained familiarity with designing hi fi loudspeakers using “exotic” materials like beryllium for tweeter diaphragms. But does his engineering experience translate to finally making an entry level budget loudspeaker in the 200 to 300 USD price range that would be universally loved by audiophiles the world over?

When I first heard of the ELAC Debut 2.0 OW4.2 last year, memories of budget loudspeakers of its price class made during the past 25 years came flooding in and begged for comparison. Fortunately, one of my audiobuddies kept his old Mission 731 LE loudspeakers bought back in 1995 – though he has moved on to much better speakers – i.e. his mega-buck albeit entry level Magneplanars. If 25 years of inflation is taken into account, the mission 731 LE would be much more expensive today than the ELAC Debut 2.0 OW4.2 and yet the 21^st Century ELAC’s raison d’être is to provide novice audiophiles a taste of the high end with a much lesser impact on the wallet.

The entry level ELAC’s Kevlar cones (Kevlar is the same aramid fiber used to make bullet proof vests) allows it to be played loud without breaking up and yet maintain reasonable efficiency, but unfortunately, there’s a somewhat broad suck-out in the midrange which if your idea of hi fi loudspeaker fidelity is how close it replicates hearing baritone Leo Nucci belting out the best parts of Verdi’s Rigoletto at La Scalla while sitting only 50 feet away without any electronic amplification, then you may find the entry level ELAC a little lacking in this department. If your loudspeakers you currently have can do that much better than the budget ELAC, then maybe you should spend your upgrade money in buying records and CDs instead. Nonetheless, the ELAC Debut 2.0 OW4.2 is very adept when it comes to mainstream pop and electronic dance music reproduction, albeit only up to a certain volume level and it serves as a gateway for millennials wanting a taste of high end at beer budget prices like the Mission 731 LE did for gen X’ers during the 1990s.