ELAC‘s Andrew Jones tells us that Adante has two meanings. One is “awesomely inspirational”. The other is “know it all”. Either way, Jones says, the name fits [coughs into his hand].
The Adante AF61 is $4998.98/pair (there is a matching stand-mount AS-61 for $2,499/pair, the matching center-channel AC-61 for $1999.98, and a subwoofer). It features the signature coincident driver tweeter/mid array and then fits three 6″ woofers below. But that’s not what we see. What we see is three 8″ passive radiators sitting in a machined aluminum fascia — the “active” woofers actually sit behind the radiators, that is, the radiators act as an acoustic filter on the output of the bass drivers. Sounds hinky, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and once again, Jones has delivered a killer-sounding speaker at a rather moderate price. Bass was deep and controlled, with excellent imaging and fantastic delivery. I was very impressed. Easily a Best-In-Show contender. Shown here with the excellent (and moderately priced) electronics from ELAC’s acquisition of Audio Alchemy, now called, Alchemy Series by ELAC.
