This just announced (by him) on his Facebook page. Hopefully he'll stay in the speaker-design game; I've become a massive fan ever since acquiring a set of Elac Debut B5's (a giant-killer among mini-monitors.) I follow his work closely because he's making high-quality speakers more affordable than ever before.
I hope for the best for him, wherever he goes and whatever he does in the future. I met him several times at CES. He was one of the nicest and most effective demonstrators at the show--patient with even the most demanding audience, friendly, enthusiastic and terrific at describing his speakers and what is special about the design (I suppose he knew because he designed them). I don't know if he ever thought of himself as a salesman, but, in that capacity he was almost peerless.
I’ll sit here and continue to enjoy my Uni-fi (original) bookshelf speakers while waiting to see what he does next.
A very bright guy. I’m not surprised that he is seeking a new challenge. It will be interesting to see who is next in line to benefit from his talent.
When I purchased my bedroom A/V / music system I bought the Elac Navis Arb-51 powered speakers system on recommendation. I hadn’t read any reviews of them prior but asked options here at the time. As this setup is primarily for TV watching l still wanted satisfying music reproduction. These speakers totally exceeded my expectations in every respect and I consider them a true bargain price wise. Had I chosen other considerations that I had at the time the bedroom music portion of the system would have priced out in the 10k range including proper amplification. Also, I just didn’t need that level due to my decision to drastically upgrade my main system, something I’ve just recently accomplished. I really believe these speakers are real winners specially at the price. Certainly worth keeping an eye on what Andrew Jones does in the future.
I hope wherever he ends up he keeps making quality affordable speakers. He has given quality to the masses. Wherever he goes he will make that company lots of money. He should start his own business.
I imagine he figures he's take the Elac designs about as far as they can go. Also wouldn't be surprised if he wouldn't like a little sabbatical for his design brain and some time to survey the landscape a bit before the (hopefully) next phase.
I'm thinking about saving some $$$ up, and (over the next year or two) looking for -- I dunno -- a used pair of Uni-Fi Reference, Carina or Navis. Just for fun, you understand.
I truly don't get the love for this guy's speakers. I've auditioned 2-3 of them, widely praised on places like this, and had a giant "meh" reaction. People who are looking for budget audiophile speakers do themselves a huge disservice by not auditioning NHT acoustic suspension speakers which, IMO, far exceed speakers like bhazen's Elacs. However, I can't stand ported speakers so there's that... I'll take my NHT SuperZero and SuperOne speakers any day of the week.
I guess ultimately it boils down to peoples preference. I love rolled off highs. I guess I will have to hear NHT speakers some day and hear for myself. Glad he is at least getting people into the hobby. In HiFi It will never be enough.
