Confused!


Slowly piecing together a respectable yet reasonably (for me) priced system. Right now, it's about the speakers. Was looking for a budget yet legit bookshelf, and landed on the Polk Rti-a3's and Elac Debut B6's. 

The Polks have a great clean sound, more than enough low end, and sizzle on the top. In fact, too much sizzle. I like things crisp, but not burnt. Where's the midrange?

Enter the Elacs. Andrew Jones, rave reviews, should be a sure thing. Great low end, fantastic middle, but missing some crispy goodness. After the Polks, sounds like someone threw a wet blanket over them. A day with them on their own though, I'm beginning to like them more. A lot more. Although, still finding that I'm twisting the evil treble knob that I shouldn't have (new amp day comes later) clockwise.

Finally, a question. Is there a more Polk-like B6, or a more B6-like Polk out there for less than $700? Should I stick with the Elacs and fiddle with placement? They will be forced to be close to a wall, about 1 foot give or take. I'm about ready to return the Polks, there's just not enough in the middle to handle riffage.

Room is about 12 x 13. Front end is a 10+ year old Yamaha HTR-5560 run in stereo mode and an Onkyo C-7030 CD player. No 'table in my future, I sunk my early retirement funds into CDs starting 30 years ago, can't comprehend investing in vinyl. Music tastes are mostly rock, punk, indie rock, blues, metal and its several subgenres, and a good sprinkle of jazz and polka. Speakers will be on stands.

Help!
iron57
How many hours of playtime have the Elacs had?  I wouldn't judge most speakers until at least 100 solid hours on them. 

To your point, only about 15 hours or so. I optimized placement a bit more last night, and let OK Computer loose on them. Very, very, good. Heard some things from that album I never have.

I'm not going to guess if it's mental trickery with my ear to brain wiring, or a physical speaker wiring break in, but even after the first few minutes things started to develop within the same session.

I'm starting to see why these things get the reviews they do.
Interesting things happened tonight.  I went from pulling out some CDs to test the speakers analytically, complete with mucking around with incremental changes to volume and placement. And then it turned into something else entirely.  I started putting in albums that I wanted to hear...

...because I was digging the listening experience. 

Went through a good few classics (to me) with a good few 2017 Celebration Ales.  Hell, even the kids came up and connected with this modest system.  The six year old told me that "Shine on you Crazy Diamond" was CREEPY, but to keep playing it.  So I did.

Ugh, I'm up too late for a school night. 

Aww f-it, I'm calling out tomorrow!

The Elacs are on the road to being fantastic. Keeping these damn things, thanks to you all for the advice.