Elac Loudspeakers?

I had a chat with the local Elac dealer and he assured me my amplifier and CD player would pair up nicely with the 208's (of course he would say that, right?). I had a listen to them, it wasn't paired with the same amp I have, but with 50 watt Shanling tube mono blocks and I was pleased with it's performance. My amplifier is an Audio Space AS-6i [http://www.charismaaudio.com/AS_6i.html] and when I was A/B'ing amps, the Audio Space trumped the Shanling IMHO. I think I might just end up bringing my amp down there and have a listen for a piece of mind. I'm looking at the Elacs because I heard a few speakers like the ProAc studio 140's and they just seemed TOO laid back and coloured for me. I have a tube amp and tube cd player so I need something a little more lively to balance things out. The Elacs seem like they will bring a little "snap" and speed back, from what I've heard so far.

if you listen to mostly rock and jazz, Elac is difficult to beat, the separation of all the instruments and the quality of the tone is amazing, but if you like only acoustic or classical recordings, Elac can be a bit clinical, not saying it's boring but for long hour listening, i recommend a tubed equipment somewhere in your system.
I have gone from Elac to Spendor, i feel the timbre is much more true and alive than Elac, then again it's your taste, i really enjoyed my elac though.

Magfan:

You've got it. I'm an ME. I've got to see, touch, and listen. Never did too well with understanding those invisible electrons.

BTW: Was that Baracudo pretty fast?

Regards,

Karmatogdral, which models did you have?

I'm a proud owner of a pair of 208A and I love them. I've moved up the Elac line from the 203.2 bookshelf to the 207.2 then to these and have enjoyed having all pairs of them. The 208A's ofcourse bested the others in it's relaxed, effortless presentation of the systems sonic flavours. I'm driving them with a pair of Red Wine Audio 70.2 mono's rated at 70w in to 4 ohms, 35 into 8. They have no problem taking it to very lovely db's and doing it cleanly, balanced, and naturally. Though honestly I can listen to the system at minute levels and still get a fantastic presentation of the sonic spectrum.

To match them in my experience it's better to have a bit more laid back source, a tube pre, and a high current, high dynamic amp set up. They are so transparent they will reveal any weakness. However even using iTunes via wireless connection the system sounds fantastic. It reveals the digititis found in some bad MP3's though. However in contrast everything sounds incredible, open, detailed, and 3 dimensional with a huge soundstage. I love the Heil tweeter as it doesn't need to be "toed in" like so many typical speakers. Soundstage does get better with a tube pre I've found however my Linar Pre sounds great with it as it's very controlled and smooth. Adding a McIntosh c220 really opened up the room though! My dealer uses the same speakers and amplification via a Modwright 36.5 and the speakers fully disappear!

I love that they are German designed and made and yet for their price can easily best many other lines out there upwards of twice it's price. And they look stunning.