Tomic comparing a Vandersteen to an Adante is like compairing an venerable old sports car to a brand new one.
You and I prefer very different things, having owned Maggies they are wonderful but highly flawed designs which is not the fault of Maggie it is a fault of all planers.
If your back wave is 180 degrees out of phase that is called diapole cancellation, and you have nothing to push against, as equil and opposite reactions cancel out, meaning your wave launch is not very good.
When you play a drum on a Maggie you don’t get the twack of a live drum, you also don’t get a very good image because the large flat plane causes diffraction.
Maggies have good detail and a lovely tonal balance, good imagers with great dynamics and extended bass they are not. They are also very room dominant.
Vandy 2Ce is a great speaker with a laid back treble, a large and not well focused image and prodigous bass which tends to be warm and not particularly tight. The reason many people swear by Vandys is they are very musical, and are easy to extract pleasing sound with.
The Adantes are totally different sounding, they are alive sounding they remind me of a good set of the Wilson Watt Puppy 7 or 8 sound for a fraction of the price.
The reason people are freaking out about the Adante particularly the AF 61 floor standers is that what they do they sound like much of the $20k to $30k reference camp in what they do well, but lack the last vestige of refinement of the better speakers.
What they mimic: huge soundstage, very tranparent, very dynamic very tight well controlled bass. The treble is a bit forward so careful matching is required.
If they had an even better damped cabinet, with higher end components most likely they would sound exactly the same as many really expensive reference speakers, most likely these were the compromises that were required to keep the price down.
I am sure in the next year or so as people learn how to setup the Adantes with matching gear, ie tubes or warm sounding solid state gear, and the positive reviews start piling up, like with the Debut and Unifi lines, and the Adante line starts to really sell, guess what will be next?
I am sure in about 2 years time Adante Elite, same drivers better damped cabinet, better wiring and crossover for $5k monitors and $10k floorstanders.
The killer combo is going to be the Naim Nova which is way better then the Atom with the AF 61 which will make a fantastic system with just one piece of electronics, totally system $12k plus cabling.
So are the Adantes game changers it depends on what you value, they are not perfect, the treble is still a bit forward, however, with the right match they can sound quite amazing.
In terms of imaging, speed, definition bass tightness and punch they are quite amazing, if you value the sound of live jazz or rock and have the patientce to work with components and cabling to voice the treble they will remind you of very expensive speakers.
If you value musicality and elevated warmth in the midrange, value a more liad back tonal balance don’t care for dynamics you will hate the Adantes.
I started with Quad ESL 63 with dual Entec subs playing Joni Mitchell was fantastic on them, moved into Wilson WP 3/2 and then 5 and would never go back to Quads.
Quads didn’t sound like live music, both for myself and Troy we both went down similar paths to eventually discover that what sounds real to us is what we want to pursue.
Ask yourself as you listen to live music which is bright and dynamic as hell, which sounds more real and which speakers mimic the live experience?
So are the Adantes a game changer that depends on your perspective and what you value, I will say that the $5k floorstanders will be very disruptive compared to many very expensive speakers and it will raise the bar on what you can expect out of this price range.
Hope that helps.
Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ
