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A HiFi newbs Elac Adante review

First post here! (I’ll keep this relevant soley to the adantes) :)

Background: I have a fairly lengthy audiophile habit in car audio but not home HiFi. As a first time home buyer Ive been chomping at the bit to piece my first system together without concern of bothering neighbos! so needless to say, I’m new to home HiFi - recently purchased the adante stand mounts and picked up a roksan k3 integrated to power the beasts (these suckers are huge). Bear in mind this is my first HiFi setup so I put almost all of my budget into the speakers and an integrated amplifier as a foundation.

I’ve gotten some time under my belt now listening and am quite happy with the combo. The setup simply stated just sounds "fun" by that I mean open, precise and has a massive stage with solid bass. The best way to describe this is just a large wall of sound coming to my seat with pinpoint stereo accuracy of vocals coming right down the middle. I certainly find the bass adequate but feel a sub thrown in the mix would make a significant impact. I listen mostly to accoustic folk, modern r&b, alternative and newer hip hop streamed thru a Chromecast hdmi to my TV and the TV’s digital out to an ifi micro dac. I’m aware my source is not ideal but until I cash a few more checks and finnish my 24’ x14 dedicated listening room (former spare bedroom) it will have to do. I completely blew my budget but can’t say that eating hot dogs and ramen in front of a bad ass stereo for a few weeks is all that bad haha. The only thing that comes to mind that could use improvement is that I could see how others might think these are overly direct or in your face in regards to the top end but feel I can take this down once I move everything to the man cave.

Currently using home Depot 14g wire off the spool and a less than ideal source so I’m confident there is PLENTY of room to grow! Can’t wait to see where this journey goes in the mean time 😁

Any forum thoughts on using a mini DSP? Used these in my car setup for 2 way active xover and t/a with a ton of success and want to get the he mini DSP with Dirac for room correction and integrating a stereo sub set up. Oh Wich reminds me, any thoughts on rel vs svs sealed for something like this?

Pic of current setup
https://i.imgur.com/RmZ4mr8.jpg

Cheers!
Chris
128x128clucas65
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,808 posts
 
Congrats Chris,

You will be in for a treat. Give the Adantes plenty of break in time.

You will be rewarded with even better sound if you do a couple of things.

1: A set of Isoacoustics Ghia 3 feet will improve the bass deifination and improve the soundstage image specificity, as well as remove a bit of the upper octave forwardness.

The set of Ghia feet aren’t expensive and you will be shocked at the level of improvments over the stock spikes.

2: Also we have a set of the stands but can’t put them out due to space limitations but if you can fill the stands then use aquarium grade sand and lead shot if possible to damp the stands.

3; Make sure you invest in a good source, and cablling.

4: When auditioning cales look for warmer cables try to audition Cardas, Wireworld, Kubala, Transparent, Mit, stay away from AQ, Nordost, Kimber, and any of the super detailed brighter types of calbing, with silver vs copper. 

If you go for a new source look for a warm sounding streamer like the Lumin D2.

You may find that once you upgrade your cabling and upgrade your source you may not need a sub at all.

In our demo room 18 by 14 with 10 feet ceilings we have crazy bass with the Adantes, once you do the above things you will find the bass will start to really be prominant and will be way deeper and tighter than what you are currently getting.

Currous how you picked the above combination of components, very few people have heard the Roksan gear,

Again congrats.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


contuzzi
413 posts
 
GAIA.  Not Ghia.  Good lord. 
contuzzi
413 posts
 
Sticking onto the ELAC adante topic -- Dave and Troy -- do you think there is any benefit of the internal driver and external passive setup of the Adantes?  Do you really think the bass is superior to the same cabinet with just an active 8" woofer and none of the trickery? 

What do you think about the fact that this was tried before way in the past, and no one thought to do it again after all these years?
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
3,808 posts
 
Cotuzzi, the design is called a band pass and Kef did it many years ago. 

Andrew Jones worked for Kef so so that is no surprise. The idea of the bandpass or quasi band bass it to simply the crossover by allowing a more natural progression acoustically from the midrange to the woofer.

If you look at some of Andrew Jones recent interviews you can hear  his ideas on why  he chose this kind of arrangement. 

Mr. Jones is known for making a lot of good speakers and has an extensive engineering background his work with TAD, KEF  and Elac is well documented. 

In terms of not employing this kind of design, it is simple, most companiies chose to build the easist and fastest to manufacture product, this cabinet is way more complex to build at greater cost, if it wasn't for an efficient and large enough company a design like this would not be on the market.

The bass of the Adantes is tight and punchy and they go low and loud so Mr. Jones must be doing something right.

No loudspeaker is perfect it is all about what you are trying to accheive.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ


tutetibiimperes
202 posts
 
Congrats on the purchase.  I've been wanting to hear the Adantes.  I'm going to my first AXPONA next month, so hopefully they'll be available for demo.  

Regarding your MiniDSP question, I've been using the MiniDSP DDRC-22D in my setup, and it's a nice improvement, especially when it comes to clarity and definition in the bass.  I have towers with built-in subwoofers that receive their signal from the speaker-level in, so the 2-channel setup works for me.  If you're going to want to add two subs to your two Adantes you'd probably want to look at the DDRC-24.
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