ELAC Debut ConneX Powered Bookshelf Speakers with HDMI ARC (Blue)

Well composed and surprisingly clear.

I LOVE these speakers, but as another reviewer said, I would love them more if they were a touch cheaper. If I paid $400 for them, I'd be tickled pink. If I paid $700 for them, I'd be happy but wondering if I could have found something comparable for cheaper. However, I was unfortunate in that the pair that was sent to me was DOA; the passive board on the second speaker was literally snapped in half (pictured) because the packing in the enclosures themselves is made for vibration deadening, not excessive abuse during shipping. FLIP SIDE: I was fortunate in that the refund process was to refund my purchase, give me a $30 credit for my trouble and to let me keep the broken speakers and I happen to possess a pretty strong background in electronics repair. So take this review for what it is: I'm a touch bias in that, after a few hours of labor I had a working set of speakers for free. Don't expect audiophile. These are great speakers for what they are: small footprint, powered bookshelf speakers great for a small home (or work) office or similar setup. The physical speakers feel sturdy and meaty, shipping mishap aside. Sound-wise the high end is very decent, the low end is about what you could expect from a 4.5" woofer, but it does have an external subwoofer output if you feel you want more you can add your own. Outside of the "X-BASS" option which doesn't seem to make much of a difference, you can't tune the audio output. No adjusting highs, mids, or lows without some sort of external equalizer. For $700, you would maybe expect at least a Bass and a Treble knob if nothing else. Bluetooth and HDMI-ARC functionality is nice (I'm not using the HDMI-ARC input, but it is a nice feature to have on speakers in general nowadays). This is in my home office so bluetooth-ing into the speakers with my computer or phone (something other than my turntable) is convenient, HOWEVER, it has a wake-on-bluetooth feature that seems can't be disabled. I like connecting my computer to the speakers over bluetooth, but don't necessarily want the speakers to power on and connect to my computer every time I log in. Which leads me to my next point: The remote... it's your bog-standard, Chinese made remote that was programmed and silk-screened for the speakers. It's fine but the lack of controls on the speaker itself is problematic. I get the convenience of the remote, however maybe I want a physical on/off switch on the speakers so they don't turn on every time I start my computer forcing me to walk over to my stereo cabinet to grab the remote and turn them back off again. Or maybe a physical input selector button/switch so I can keep them permanently in Phono and only turn them to bluetooth when I want that usage. There is a "volume" knob on the back of the powered speaker, but that's not a "set and forget" feature so you're using the remote for it anyway. All-in-all, I am very happy with them going on 10 months of ownership. There are some features I like, some I wish they had, but they have served their purpose very well. Just... maybe wait for a sale or something.

Discounted price. Great size,looks and sound with remote. 240v. Worth the wait for delivery.

Absolutely love these, I have had them in my apartment for 9 months now and they are great for what I need. I live in a pretty small place and I have never touched full volume, I am confident they would fill a large room as well

I hate these speakers. They sound awesome, but are needlessly complicated. They bricked themselves after I had owned them for like 6 months. Wouldn't do anything, remote and the button on the back was unable to control them. I did a little research online, and apparently there's a usb connection on the back (WHY) and the driver needed to be updated. Had to be downloaded onto a USB drive under 10 Gigs or something like that. It was super hard to find, because they don't make them that small, so I had to order like 20 of them. Also, you couldn't do it from an apple computer and had to download it onto the USB drive from a PC. Ok, I did all of that and finally got the speakers back working. Today, there was slight power outage, maybe 3 seconds, and the speakers are now bricked again, and I'm 45 minutes into the troubleshooting process again and I just hate these speakers.

These are great sounding speakers with an attractive feature set, but are not suitable for PC speakers. Sound: Excellent for the price (at least at 400). Needs to be paired with a small subwoofer to really round out the sound, as the 4.5" drivers simply don't go low enough. Not a mark against the speakers, just basic sound physics. Fortunately, they have a sub out, and it works fine. Problems: ON USB INPUT: There seems to be about a 1/4 second delay between when a sound signal first gets to the speaker, and when the internal amp starts working. This means that all notifications and short sounds in windows just don't work. You get a slight hiss, but that's it. If the amp is active (i.e. music is actively playing), then it all works fine. However, I ran into an issue with Wo Long, where the sound in game would just stutter and cut out every few seconds, on an irregular interval. Further testing showed that this was actually affecting the WHOLE SYSTEM. Switching to my Sennheiser EPOS USB headset, problem goes away. Using direct line out from the onboard DAC on the computer to a pair of wired headphones also worked fine, so this issue is strictly on the ELAC speakers. On PHONO/LINE IN: There is a constant hiss from the speakers when using line in, I'm guessing this is because the amp is always active. Even if there was no sound coming from the input, still a hiss. Really unacceptable. On OPTICAL/SPDIF: This is what I am currently using. No hiss, but still a delay (albeit smaller). Most importantly, I have not run into the issue of sound cutting out across the system. If you're buying these to use in lieu of a sound bar for a TV, I think they'll be fine. But definitely do not buy them for use as a PC speaker. Who knows, maybe it works fine on mac.

Good Power, Good Look, Good Fit. Beware the firmware update! At some point, it just stopped working, but the fix was a simple firmware update.

I think it competes well with the best sub-$200 active speakers like NEUMI BS5P-ARC and Sanyun SW206. Some expensive speakers like the KEF LS50W2 justify a big price premium over cheap stuff, but this one just didn't for me, I returned it. I would buy it at $200-300

Reliable product. Reliable seller. Product specifications and delivery time was the same as described. Nowadays there are a few non-reliable sellers in online market. We need to check seller reputation when purchasing any product online. This seller and product was ok for me.

Bought this for serving a 50 Inch TV for better sound and for a HiFi class system to listen to Spotify streamed from an Echo Dot. Serves both needs brilliantly, with sound quality that is a surprise for the size of the units. As in surprisingly good.

Amazing! Best speaker I own. Have them setup in my office with a record player and for streaming. Record sound is warm and incredible. Streaming is good too, but pairing them with a small sub really stepped up the sound.

Speakers are great. They sound amazing over USB, and have every hookup under the sun. Typical ELAC quality. They are not, however, colour accurate. I bought the "walnut" ones to compliment my office, and they are not at all brown as they appear in the picture on either Amazon or ELAC's own website. As you can see in the photo, they are grey. It is particularly accentuated when they are sitting on a stained wooden desk. It's pretty disappointing.

I own a few pairs of speakers priced the same or less than these . These by far are my least favourite. Sounds best with jazz music which isn’t really my thing. Has some decent highs and mids. The current price even marked down is far too high and can’t believe that some paid more at release. These are a cross between nice computer speakers, a good Bluetooth soundbar and a mid grade pair of headphones. Combine these 3 things together and this is what you get. Don’t expect to be blown away. I got a warehouse deal and you can see how they arrived packed in the box. Crazy if you ask me.