ELAC Adante speaker series

Andrew Jones gets a little bit more spendy with the new Elac Adante series speakers.
$2500 a pair for the bookshelves: AS-61
$2500 each for the floorstanders: AF-61
Coaxial mid/tweets with 6.5" woofers.
...and no, not the same speakers as the Uni-Fi's. Demoing at CES 2017, so hopefully we will hear some reports soon.

Adante – Elac »

 

2500 is right in my ball park. Think I know what will replace my B6's when I can get the bucks.

 

So many really good speakers out there....

 

Yes there is.....
Not many great ones for 2.5k though. I am coming to expect the impossible from AJ. If anyone can do it, he's the man. Rest assured I will not buy anything without hearing Jones newest babies.

 

Some cnet coverage:

Elac's exquisite Adante could be the only hi-fi speaker you ever need »

 

I had the opportunity to listen to these in the stand mounted monitor version for an hour at CES this year in ELACs private listening suite. They sound superb and bested my Dynaudio Contour S1.4 at $3750/pair. It was obvious to me that all the time and effort went to engineering and design as they are not remarkable to look at. They are accurate and fast with surprising bass extension and wide and deep soundstage. In an hour of listening to dynamic "show off" material they never became fatigueing. I would consider them for purchase myself and see them as a bargain in the HiFi world. The design is power hungry and they will need a lot of high quality power to extract their best.

I also own a pair of ELAC Uni-fi UB5 and it is very clear that the technology has trickled down through the product line.

I will also add that Andrew Jones is one hell of a guy and spent so much time answering all my questions and did not hide any of the thought behind the technology he has employed.

 

I got to hear the floorstanding Adante in Atlanta last night and they are out of this world. Andrew says 120w amplification is plenty to drive them without strain. The articulation in the bass and soundstaging are close to state of the art. I prefer them to anything YG has put out at 20x the price.

I mention the YG Loudspeakers for two reasons: they are the most expensive speakers I have heard in the last 5 years (unlike ELAC) and they have aluminum drivers (like the ELAC).

 

The time between product announcement and review unit availability has been so long I've almost given up on these. I hope the bookshelf models require less power. I love my 70 wpc Elex-R.

 

I love the Elac "Line series" as well as the "Concentro" which Jones didn't design. I wonder how this series stacks up to those?

 

I've heard the Adante Floor standers - pretty impressive.

Would like to get ears on the bookshelves - according to Elac's website two local dealers in the SD area: Alma Audio and Frys Electronics(??). That's interesting.

 

After owning the UB5's for a while now, I'm dying to hear the AS61's. The UB5's blew my mind for 500 bucks, I'm very curious to see what he could do with 2500. My magic ball is telling me there could be pair of these in my future lol

 

I was just covering the hifibuys event last night where Andrew Jones was demoing the tower Adantes. I am currently writing a story on the event with lots of info on Andrew and the speakers-prolly publishing in the next two weeks with lots of photos and some history on hifibuys which has graduated a bunch of audio leaders. He drove them with gear from hifibuys including an Ayre DAC, an Audio Research Ref 6, and monoblock Parasound amps and Audioquest cables. It was a spectacular sound. Amazing what Andrew can do with $5K!

 

I'm excited to hear more impressions of the Adante AS-61 bookself. These can now be purchased directly from Music Direct after a little delay in getting these to market. I could see myself moving to a pair in the next year or two if they sound as good as people hope.... fingers crossed they won't take a huge amount of watts to get them going. Recommended power is 50w - 160w.

I think they are quite attractive as well which is important as they would be residing in my main room. The specific stand available from ELAC also look like very nice and from what I understand connect directly to the bottom of the speaker which is cool.

 

Wonder if a Rogue Cronus Magnum would drive the AS-61?

 

Sadly, it looks to be out of stock or discontinued.

 

ELAC - Adante Bookshelf Speaker Stands
Appears to be available from Music Direct

 

That's good. I just saw it missing in action at Elac, Amazon, and some European web site.

 

Is that $600 for the pair? Seems a bit pricey for one and maybe still pricey. I say that as a big ELAC fan.

 

It's for the pair, I believe, and yeah... pricey even at that.

The ELAC product page makes several claims for them beyond "lifts your speakers off the floor".

 

There are some other stands made by Skylan or Sound Anchor to consider at this price point. Even then, the fact these stands are made for the Adante and attach to the base of the speaker, makes them appealing to me.

I'm hoping the speakers and stands make an appearance at Axpona this year!

 

Couldn't figure out what drivers where where but Crutchfield had this cutaway. What would you call that alignment? Cool, regardless.

 

Has anyone pulled the trigger on the Adantes?

 

ELAC aims higher with its new Adante AS-61 speaker

Not the review I was hoping for from Steve....

 

That’s interesting that he heard them as strident. I was disappointed they used a soft-dome tweeter, but I assumed that would make them softer in the highs.

 

I'm not familiar with the sound of the Rotel amp used in the review. Perhaps a bad match and the speakers are highly dependent on synergy with the amplification? Sounds like there are certain aspects of the speakers that performed well. I'd be concerned with my music preference and taming the rough edges described. Looking forward to more reviews hopefully with a wider range of amp pairings.