Elac's Andrew Jones Talks Loudspeakers

At the Los Angeles Audio Show, held June 2–4, John Atkinson spoke with Elac's Andrew Jones about speaker design, building affordable loudspeakers, and Elac's Adante AF-61 speaker, which made its debut at the show, driven by Audio Alchemy amplification.

Back in 2015, one of Andrew's first designs for Elac was the affordable Debut B6 ($279/pair), which Herb Reichert favorably reviewed in April 2016. But at an estimated price of $5000/pair, the new Adante tower occupies a very different price category. JA asks why.

COMMENTS
dissily mordentroge's picture

If that racket coming through the walls was for real how the hell did Elac manage to demonstrate anything properly ?

jimtavegia's picture

Very hard to have a great "sounding" interview with an omni mic in most normal environments. This would have been a good opportunity for a uni mic closer to JA and Andrew and kill some of the room noise.

Kind of like in video with a camera not held still...both annoying.

John Atkinson's picture
jimtavegia wrote:
Very hard to have a great "sounding" interview with an omni mic...

Jana did use a directional shotgun mike, Jim, but the competing noise from next door was ridiculously loud, even though the show had closed when we did the interview. We did filter the audio track as much as possible, but too much of the noise was broad-band in nature.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Staxguy's picture

The look of the cabinet is quite reassuring and lovely. In listening, any shades of the Magico V2 and V3?

I really enjoyed this discussion. What a nice loudspeaker price point. I loved the bass of the Totem Element Earth. I am sure I will like this one.

The same guy who designed the TAD Reference One too!

Nice interview.

bilguana's picture

There was no noise bleeding through on Saturday morning of the Audio Show either before or during the first demonstration.

Shangri-La's picture

When will Stereophile release the Adante AF-61 review? Very interested how they compare to other $5k~$10K speakers. Thanks.

Staxguy's picture

Ah, I'm really interested in whether it will (at $5,000.00 USD) offer the same performance or more as previous Stereophile recommended loudspeakers like the Revel Salon 2 ($22,000.00 USD) or Magico V3 ($25,000.00 USD).

Likely it will be compared to more contemporary loudspeakers, but these would be telling, for me.

Andrew Jones, Kevin Voecks, Alon Wolf. These are some competent loudspeaker designers.

Actually, I was amazed by Andrew's competence, watching the interview.

There's something to Andrew's Adante tower. Something KEF in the concentric driver. I wonder if it bats at the KEF blade level, and would be unsurprised if it's above the KEF Reference 3 Floorstander ($13,999.99 USD).

At $5,000.00 USD I guess there is the Robert Deutsch reviewed Golden Ear Technology Triton One ($4,998.98 USD) out there by Sandy Grossman but not many loudspeakers hover at that lovely price point today.

Well done, Andrew!

And thanks JA and JD.

Again a great interview. Your publication is really growing on me. :)

jwh9's picture

..and had my doubts about Elac having never heard them until this show, really.. but the Adante was fantastic. While it wasn't the best sound i heard (imo that went to the very pricey MBL setup for which its purveyors spent a lot of time/effort w/ room prep) but the Adante was probably the best speaker i'd heard which doesn't cost as much as a new european sedan (while being driven by very compact and affordable components, no less). The speaker had no problem filling a large-ish room and their tonality and speed were excellent. I was quite impressed. Was also impressed w Andrew having talked to him for a bit. It's obvious he's inspired in his craft and methodical in his rational in creatively solving problems.. and the unusual design he speaks of in this interview actually works.

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