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Elac Adante AS-61 Speaker Review

Hmmm...I thought bass was accentuated by being nearby walls and such. The floor standers are in a corner and 2 feet away from the ceiling (slanted ceiling). And the center is in the middle of the room with ceiling maybe 12 feet. Wouldn't the floorstanders have more things to excite and vibrate being surrounded by 3 walls? I mean...the bass on these is very weak, so not much vibrating to be done. But the center channel does have some "thump" to it, and the floorstanders in comparison have almost nothing.

Is it possible to take measurements with a phone app?

I can try playing with the speaker, but it just seems like such a huge difference in output it's hard to believe almost. Thanks guys!
 
Hmmm...I thought bass was accentuated by being nearby walls and such. The floor standers are in a corner and 2 feet away from the ceiling (slanted ceiling). And the center is in the middle of the room with ceiling maybe 12 feet. Wouldn't the floorstanders have more things to excite and vibrate being surrounded by 3 walls? I mean...the bass on these is very weak, so not much vibrating to be done. But the center channel does have some "thump" to it, and the floorstanders in comparison have almost nothing.

Is it possible to take measurements with a phone app?

I can try playing with the speaker, but it just seems like such a huge difference in output it's hard to believe almost. Thanks guys!

The room will have a distribution of modes based on its dimensions and construction materials. In certain parts of the room, there will be cancellations at certain frequencies, and in other parts of the room there will be peaks. This image shows a simplified example:

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In theory it's possible to take measurements with a phone mic, although I'm not sure what app you'd use, nor whether your phone would give accurate enough results.

The first thing I'd try would be to swap one of the mains with the centre channel and see if the centre channel still subjectively appears to be producing more bass output when in the floorstander's normal location and vice-versa. Just as that would be the simplest way to rule out a real difference in the outputs of the speakers themselves.
 
@mkowalski and you might also want to try leaving the speakers in their normal positions, but feeding one of the mains with the amp's centre channel output. This would rule out something upstream in either the amp or the surround processor.
 
Man...these things are heavy, I'll try and give the positioning and wiring suggestions a shot.

I still don't get it though, sorry for defending my naivety, but if I literally stick my ear in the woofer cone, and one is noticeably louder/deeper/thumpier than the other...that could still be due to the room? The science aspect and charts are beyond me, but I did play the violin for 8 years and have pretty good ears. If the soundwaves are going straight into my ear, could the room still be affecting it?

Well, I do have a PC mic now that I think about it. Could I download an app on the PC and use that? It's an Audio Technica AT2020, if that would work any apps to reccomend?

Now I need to find a good way to move these things without the spikes scratching up the floor!o_O
Thanks guys!
 
Ok so this might be really ghetto. I downloaded what I think is the right app, and played the song twice with the mic next to the respective woofer. Floorstander is on left, and center is right.

I'm guessing the higher peak DB on the center channel is showing it's louder? Although I'm confused why the DB numbers are negative instead of positive, and why they approach 0. There does look to be at least 10B difference at the 50hz mark, and not sure why it's not recording lower than that. Does this chart show anything? lol

Updated with another one, this one shows a peak difference of about "7" of something...
 

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Ok so this might be really ghetto. I downloaded what I think is the right app, and played the song twice with the mic next to the respective woofer. Floorstander is on left, and center is right.

I'm guessing the higher peak DB on the center channel is showing it's louder? Although I'm confused why the DB numbers are negative instead of positive, and why they approach 0. There does look to be at least 10B difference at the 50hz mark, and not sure why it's not recording lower than that. Does this chart show anything? lol

Updated with another one, this one shows a peak difference of about "7" of something...

It's approaching 0dB because you're in dBfs, i.e. decibels relative to fullscale, which is zero in the digital world. So nothing amiss there :)

But it's hard to know if it's telling us anything. You're using an average level from a piece of music i.e. not a test signal, and when you're that close with the mic, differences of 1-2cm can have a huge effect on the reading.

Is picking up the speaker and moving it to test it for a few minutes really more work than taking two speakers apart, sealing the insides with some kind of liquid sealant, then putting them back together again? :p

If you want to continue down the path you're on with the mic and measurement software though, I suggest using pink noise (you can find snippets on youtube for example) and making sure the mic is precisely the same distance from the woofer for each measurement.
 
I'm so sore from carrying up 3 floors and installing (partially) the center! For at least 3 days lol. Is there any good way to move heavy speakers with spikes? There's no way to push them because they have dampening material thats sticky on the floor protector/isolator thingamajig...

Well I do have a tripod at work hmm...what kind of pink noise tone would I want to play? Never took apart a speaker hrm...
 
I'm so sore from carrying up 3 floors and installing (partially) the center! For at least 3 days lol. Is there any good way to move heavy speakers with spikes? There's no way to push them because they have dampening material thats sticky on the floor protector/isolator thingamajig...

Well I do have a tripod at work hmm...what kind of pink noise tone would I want to play? Never took apart a speaker hrm...

Does this link work for you?
 
I'm so sore from carrying up 3 floors and installing (partially) the center! For at least 3 days lol. Is there any good way to move heavy speakers with spikes? There's no way to push them because they have dampening material thats sticky on the floor protector/isolator thingamajig...

Well I do have a tripod at work hmm...what kind of pink noise tone would I want to play? Never took apart a speaker hrm...

Before you turn into a mule with a hernia hauling these around, are you using a receiver? Are there subwoofers involved?
Are the crossover frequencies on the center and the fronts the same?
What are the levels set at for each speaker after you ran your cal?
 
Before you turn into a mule with a hernia hauling these around, are you using a receiver? Are there subwoofers involved?
Are the crossover frequencies on the center and the fronts the same?
What are the levels set at for each speaker after you ran your cal?

Er...I'm running a really old receiver atm, no subwoofer. I assume the crossover is the same since it's from the same speaker line, and I didn't do any calibration since it's not an option on the receiver I have. I'll upgrade later most likely.


@andreasmaan The link works, but seems like no low-frequency tones?

In any case, I do need to return the center and center stand since the holes don't align and they can't be mated. One one side the screw are straight, and on the other column the screw holes are 4-5mm further than they should be, the screws enter at almost 45 degrees, it's impossible. I was really happy I got the 3 piece set, and that center is I think the last one in the USA so it's really disappointing that the screw holes weren't properly drilled...very sad about it.
 
Well, Elac customer support is ghosting me. After the initial reply that they would try to find some measurements, it’s been 8 days and no replies to my follow ups.

I would stay away from Elac. It seems I might have lost over a thousand dollars on a defective product. They really don’t care about the customer after they get your money. Well, I will keep trying but I’ve never had such a poor customer experience for in recent memory. Elac doesn’t even try to resolve the issue, they just ignore me!
 
Sorry to hear that @mkowalski.

And sorry, I didn’t notice your post earlier about the link. What do you mean there are no lows in the link I posted? I’m on the phone now so can’t double-check with a spectrum analyser, but I found that on the Genelec website, which I would guess has correct test tones. Will check it when I get a chance.

Also, I can’t recall now - did you get a chance to connect the L or R speaker to the centre channel output from the amp to make sure the amp/surround processor wasn’t high-pass filtering the L and R channels?
 
Well, Elac customer support is ghosting me. After the initial reply that they would try to find some measurements, it’s been 8 days and no replies to my follow ups.

I would stay away from Elac. It seems I might have lost over a thousand dollars on a defective product. They really don’t care about the customer after they get your money. Well, I will keep trying but I’ve never had such a poor customer experience for in recent memory. Elac doesn’t even try to resolve the issue, they just ignore me!

Sounds like you're miserable with the Adantes and you deserve better. You should sell your Elac Adante fronts for cheap to someone else who appreciates it and get yourself an affordable pair of Pioneer BS 22 LRs. Apparently, they measure better and "should" sound better according to the esteemed honors PhD audioscientists here. Trust in the unmatched scientific prowess of these audioscientists and swap it out, aka, switch to the Pioneers. And, yes, stay as far away as possible from Elac as you can. Thank you. God bless.
 
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Sounds like you're miserable with the Adantes and you deserve better. You should sell your Elac Adante fronts for cheap to someone else who appreciates it and get yourself an affordable pair of Pioneer BS 22 LRs. Apparently, they measure better and "should" sound better according to the esteemed honors PhD audioscientists here. Trust in the unmatched scientific prowess of these audioscientists and swap it out, aka, switch to the Pioneers. And, yes, stay as far away as possible from Elac as you can. Thank you. God bless.

The Pioneers may sound a little better(especially with the AA mod) at low to moderate volumes, but would be lacking in terms of dynamics. Working with a similar budget to the Elacs, he could get a pair of Revel F208s :D, which would not only sound much better than the Adante, but also have even better dynamics. If actives are a must, he could get a pair of Neumann KH 120s, which are similarly excellent!!!

Also, other than this customer service problem, I don't understand the advice to stay far away from Elac. Andrew Jones and Elac have proven that he/they are capable of designing truly excellent sounding loudspeakers for the money; look at the Debut Reference speakers and Pioneer speakers. Also, the new Uni-fi series looks similarly excellent from what I've seen so far. So, they're more than capable, it just seems like they messed up with this particular series, which is likely why they're being discontinued.
 
Sounds like you're miserable with the Adantes and you deserve better. You should sell your Elac Adante fronts for cheap to someone else who appreciates it and get yourself an affordable pair of Pioneer BS 22 LRs. Apparently, they measure better and "should" sound better according to the esteemed honors PhD audioscientists here. Trust in the unmatched scientific prowess of these audioscientists and swap it out, aka, switch to the Pioneers. And, yes, stay as far away as possible from Elac as you can. Thank you. God bless.
Tears like yours are the spice of this website, thanks.
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The Pioneers may sound a little better(especially with the AA mod) at low to moderate volumes, but would be lacking in terms of dynamics. Working with a similar budget to the Elacs, he could get a pair of Revel F208s :D, which would not only sound much better than the Adante, but also have even better dynamics. If actives are a must, he could get a pair of Neumann KH 120s, which are similarly excellent!!!

Also, other than this customer service problem, I don't understand the advice to stay far away from Elac. Andrew Jones and Elac have proven that he/they are capable of designing truly excellent sounding loudspeakers for the money; look at the Debut Reference speakers and Pioneer speakers. Also, the new Uni-fi series looks similarly excellent from what I've seen so far. So, they're more than capable, it just seems like they messed up with this particular series, which is likely why they're being discontinued.

Ah yes, Revels measure great indeed...

And hang on,,,do I also recall wanting to rip my ears off everytime i tried to play a "suboptimal" recording on it. Yep, i suppose i'm a "Music First" audiophile blessed with many sub-optimal/lousy recordings from some of my favorite artists.

I even tried to put up with that, but, boy, when that dreaded listening fatigue also kicked in repeatedly, I had to sell it off real quick.

Nevertheless, if a scientist only listens to 3 or 4 "audiophile recordings" on repeat all year long, the Revels should pose no problem.
 
Ah yes, Revels measure great indeed...

And hang on,,,do I also recall wanting to rip my ears off everytime i tried to play a "suboptimal" recording on it. Yep, i suppose i'm a "Music First" audiophile blessed with many sub-optimal/lousy recordings from some of my favorite artists.

I even tried to put up with that, but, boy, when that dreaded listening fatigue also kicked in repeatedly, I had to sell it off real quick.

Nevertheless, if a scientist only listens to 3 or 4 "audiophile recordings" on repeat all year long, the Revels should pose no problem.

I'm assuming you own these speakers? If so, and you enjoy them, then don't let other's criticism of them upset you. If you enjoy them, that's all that matters. Remember, the science only tells us what most people will prefer, but it's no guarantee of what YOU will prefer.
 
I'm assuming you own these speakers? If so, and you enjoy them, then don't let other's criticism of them upset you. If you enjoy them, that's all that matters. Remember, the science only tells us what most people will prefer, but it's no guarantee of what YOU will prefer.

Not upset at all, on the other hand, this is a lotta fun. Yes, the Adante is one of the speakers i currently own and enjoy very much. Others are Moabs, TAD evos, JBLs, some chinese hifi speakers, vintage stuff, etc

REVELs and i never got along after i tried living with them for a couple of years. I sense that many guys here theorycraft a lot and have never lived with many of the speakers they praise.

I feel tempted to get about 30 honors PhD audioscientists in my house on a blindfold and polygraph (very critical to catch a audioscientist if/when he lies). I would then play several speakers and ask very simple questions.

Such a test could reveal the truth about the speakers that audioscientists tend to praise on forums (after seeing a few graphs) and the speakers they actually enjoy. :facepalm:
 
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Not upset at all, on the other hand, this is a lotta fun. Yes, the Adante is one of the speakers i currently own and enjoy very much. Others are Moabs, TAD evos, JBLs, some chinese hifi speakers, etc

REVELs and i never got along after i tried living with them for a couple of years. I sense that many guys here theorycraft a lot and have never lived with many of the speakers they praise.

I feel tempted to get about 30 honors PhD audioscientists in my house on a blindfold and polygraph (very critical to catch a audioscientist if/when he lies). I would then play several speakers and ask very simple questions.

Such a test could reveal the truth about the speakers that audioscientists tend to praise on forums (after seeing a few graphs) and the speakers they actually enjoy. :facepalm:

With 30 people, the Revel/Genelec/JBL/Neumann type speakers would almost certainly win any sort of blind test like that, as you're starting to get into sufficient sample size territory. You'd essentially be recreating the blind tests that Harman and Canada did, so I'd expect the results to be similar(ie neutral speakers will win the majority preference) :p. That said, just like their research, I've no doubt there would be a small minority(of which probably includes you) that prefer less neutral speakers like the Adante. Part of what makes this hobby interesting is that minority of folks who prefer different speakers. It's one of the reasons we have so many different manufacturers out there making speakers that sound best to themselves.

And just to be clear, although I am critical of this speaker, I'm not in any way implying that you chose the wrong speaker, or that you might like something else better. You've obviously heard neutral speakers and learned that they're not something you like. Ultimately we have to choose what we like, as it's our brains we seek to satisfy.

When I criticize these speakers, I'm speaking more to the general populace; a vast majority of whom are far more likely to prefer more neutral speakers(like Revel, KEF, Genelec, etc.).
 
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