I tried a variety of solutions to increase the Elac's bottom end, some more effective than others. Using a 4dB boost on my Marantz pre-pro's bass control helped a little, but also produced additional warmth in the upper bass. This wasn't unpleasant, and would likely appeal to some listeners, but it did reduce the openness of the soundstage. In any case, few audiophile preamps and integrated amps offer bass and treble controls.
I finally settled on two other solutions. After some experimenting with the help of the OmniMic system, I found that moving the AF-61s about 6" closer to the wall behind them enlivened the bass extension a bit without ill effects. I also went the subwoofer route, with Elac's own powered SUB3070, which is designed to mate with the Adante models. More about that below, but for most of my listening I reviewed the AF-61s as most Stereophile readers will use them: without bass boost or subwoofer. But as I've repeated ad nauseam in past reviews: A review can tell you only what a speaker's bass sounds like in the reviewer's room, not in yours.
The repositioning alone didn't exactly peel the paint off my walls with recordings of such bass-heavy material as pipe organs or Kodo-style drums, but neither did it offend with a loose, overblown bottom end. With familiar recordings it was sometimes clear that the bass should have been more "there," but what I heard was tight and clean, even with the rise between 150 and 200Hz that's characteristic of my room (worse in the right channel than the left, fig.2). Fig.3 is a repeat of the left-speaker measurements, averaged 10 times,
"In Your Wild Garden," from DALI Vol.2, originally released on Danish singer-songwriter Josefine Cronholm's Wild Garden (CD, Stunt 01232), features the singer backed by piano, double bass, and a lightly played drum kit. It sounded superb through the Elacs, with excellent overall balance, a clear, uncolored voice, and treble detail that was simply there, without exaggeration. Nothing was clearly missing. This track contains little deep bass, but what was there didn't sound thin. I might have preferred a bit more air at the very top end, but the highs weren't subdued in any obvious way.
The same DALI sampler also included the far more familiar "Train Song," by Tom Waits, here covered by Holly Cole, from her album Temptation (CD, Blue Note 31653), a recording every audiophile is required to hear before earning the Audiophile Merit Badge. Cole's voice was solidly between the speakers, if a little "big," as is common with closely miked pop recordings. The bass lines in the spare accompaniment were less prominent than I'm accustomed to hearing from this track, but were nevertheless well balanced, tight, and completely free of unnatural bloat.
A third track from DALI Vol.2, Elvis Presley's cover of "Fever," originally from Elvis Is Back! (CD, RCA Legacy 88697847402), is a superb 58-year-old recording. It sounded just a little rich and warm through the Adante AF-61s, but in a way that many listeners will find appealing, though this is typically a problem created by the room, not the speaker. Here it was definitely my room's fault: a bump in the response between 150 and 230Hz.
DALI Vol.3 sounded even more impressive through the Elacs, especially several superbly recorded men's and women's voices. It was on this disc that I first discovered the Danish singer Sinne Eeg, whose duo album with Thomas Fonnesbæk, Eeg Fonnesbæk, was one of my picks for the February 2018 edition of "Records to Die For." "My Treasure," from Eeg's Waiting for Dawn (CD, Sinne Music/Calibrated 002), was a rare treasure in itself, with clean but unobtrusive piano, double bass, and percussion accompanying Eeg's rich, expressive, open voice. None of this was shortchanged by the Elacs in any way.
While the bass was uniformly musical and never obviously restricted, I've heard fuller, better-balanced bass from DALI Vol.3 from a number of other good speakers in my room, and not in any exaggerated way. The Elac's sound in this regard might well be a plus for many readers but a minus for others. I also suspect that in a more average-size but not necessarily small, fully enclosed room, this critique wouldn't apply. In short, I found little to complain about with any cut on DALI Vol.3.
The Adantes also performed beautifully on material with complex, high-frequency detail. Percussion-heavy recordings, ultimate bass extension excepted (more on this below), were reproduced with all their fast attacks and fine detail intact, but never with over-the-top brightness. Test Record 3: Dynamics (CD, Opus3 CD 8300) may be hard to find today, but it remains a superb collection of excerpts from the Opus3 catalog, much of it from the late 1970s and '80s. (Opus3 now offers many of its consistently great recordings on both SACD and a wide range of 15ips open-reel tapes, the latter at "if you have to ask" prices.)
The selections on this sampler include panpipes and flutes (from Yuyachifca, Opus3 CD 7902); small groups as on Knud Jörgensen Jazz Trio (Opus3 CD 8401); a children's choir recorded for this sampler; an a cappella male voice (Eric Bibb singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand," also recorded for this release); two pipe-organ pieces performed by Torvald Torén: Vierne's Toccata, and a selection from D'Aquin's Noël, both heavy on the upper, trumpet-like pipes rather than the deep bass typical of most organ recordings; and much more.
All of these varied tracks were reproduced beautifully by the Adantes. Any limitations of the AF-61s in my room were only rarely evident, and mostly, though not dramatically, with the full-range Vierne organ selection. What came through with all tracks was a rewarding honesty, with nothing ever sounding wrong. When I thought briefly, for example, that the guitars in the Yuyachifca selection sounded a bit soft, I was immediately rewarded when the pan pipes chimed in with their sweet and articulate breath sounds. The jazz trio was crisp and detailed, the pipe organs vibrant in their reverberant acoustic, and Bibb's unaccompanied voice natural and moving.
Yes, I'd still like my fetish rewarded for a little more sparkle ("air," if you will) at the very top. But the more I listened, the more that desire faded into the background. It also may be simply characteristic of the off-axis performance of concentric drivers in a large room. But I wouldn't make too much of it, given the obvious benefits of such a midrange/tweeter arrangement.
Enter Elac's SUB30370 subwoofer
The more I listened to a wide range of music, the less I was bothered by the AF-61's deep-bass performance in my room. My awareness of it came and went, depending on the recording. But since I had on hand Elac's SUB3070 subwoofer, which was designed for use with the Adante models, failure to try it was out of the question. With a pair of 12" aluminum-coned drivers driven by a 1200W (peak) BASH amplifier in a small but solid and heavy cabinet, the SUB3070's key feature is an auto-equalization function that makes use of an Elac app downloadable to a smartphone or tablet. You position the phone close to the subwoofer and take a reading, then move to the listening position and take another reading. The EQ software automatically accounts for the difference and equalizes the sub's output accordingly, using the fact that nearfield measurements are largely independent of the room, while the readings at the listening position are dominated by it. (The limitations of the microphone in your phone will be the same for both readings and so will be largely insignificant.) The main limitation of this feature is that it can work with only a single reading at the main listening position, not multiple readings at and around it. The sub can also be adjusted using the eight separate parametric equalizers also accessible through the smartphone app. You can use both the auto and parametric functions together, but most users should find the auto route alone sufficient. For proper use, the parametric feature really requires a separate measuring device, such as the OmniMic mentioned earlier. Without this, it's easy to overdrive the SUB3070 with careless use of the parametric boost, added atop any boost generated by the auto EQ.
The EQ, of course, affects only frequencies below the crossover frequency to the subwoofer (I chose 80Hz). And most audiophile preamps don't offer the ability to deal with a subwoofer, which is best used when both high- and low-pass filters are available. You can drive the AF-61s full range and simply cross over the subwoofer itself at a low-pass frequency selectable in the app, but that could well make it more difficult to blend the outputs of the sub and AF-61s. This arrangement, in which both the main speakers and the subwoofer overlap across a wide range in the midbass, is one reason audiophiles often have problems incorporating a sub, abandon the effort, and become convinced that subwoofers have no place in audiophilia.
But in my room the AF-61s, properly blended with a well-positioned SUB3070, produced a system with sound in another league from that of the AF-61s alone. With some recordings it made surprisingly little difference. But when I played music with deep-bass content, the difference ranged from subtle (eg, a little more attack on a kick drum) to profound (eg, organ recordings with deepest bass). Sometimes I was surprised at how well the subwooferless AF-61s reproduced the bass drum, while with another bass-drum recording all they managed was the sound of the drum head. In the latter case, the deep extension of the drum's body was fully formed only when I added the sub. Chalk this up to the fact that the bass of the AF-61s alone was not only less extended than the equalized subwoofer but bumpier as well—a phenomenon that affects all rooms, and will emphasize some fundamental frequencies while shortchanging others. Again see fig.2, taken with a single reading at the listening position with the AF-61s alone (blue trace), and together with the subwoofer, high- and low-passed at 80Hz (red). The latter is displaced by 1dB so that both curves remain visible. Otherwise, they overlap perfectly above about 120Hz.
In the home theater
While using the Elacs as part of a home theater won't be of interest to all Stereophile readers, others will appreciate that they excelled with a wide range of film soundtracks, particularly those with good music scores (a prime consideration for me)—though they were also perfectly fine, with sub, at reproducing the firefights, car crashes, and explosions heard in the superhero saga of the month. There's also an Adante AC-61 center-channel speaker ($4000 each), but here I used a single AS-61 stand-mount ($1250 each), turned on its side and placed on a low stand below the screen. The AS-61 uses the same concentric driver as in the AF-61 above 200Hz, and the match with the AF-61s was excellent.
Conclusions
Yes, I had a few mild critiques of the Elac Adante AF-61, particularly for the need, with some music, in my very large room, of a good subwoofer to flesh out the bottom end, which turned a very good speaker into an exceptional one. But with or without a subwoofer, I liked what I heard from the Adante AF-61s as soon as I hooked them up. I liked them even better after several weeks of listening. When I went back to check a few last-minute details while writing this review, I found it difficult to listen for only a few minutes and then return to my writing. I wanted to listen longer. I had to pull myself away. If that's not a solid recommendation, I don't know what is.
Fig.2 Elac Adante AF-61, 1/6-octave-smoothed in-room response (speakers alone, blue; speakers with Elac SUB3070 subwoofer crossed over at 80Hz, red) (5dB/vertical div.)
Fig.3 Elac Adante AF-61, left-channel 1/6-octave-smoothed in-room response (5dB/vertical div.)
Somewhere in my audio travels I've acquired two sampler CDs released by Danish Audiophile Loudspeaker Industries, aka DALI. They're loaded with superbly recorded tracks, though unfortunately they appear to be out of print (you might find them on eBay at ridiculous prices). No matter—most of the tracks are available on the artists' original CDs, and some even as downloads.
"In Your Wild Garden," from DALI Vol.2, originally released on Danish singer-songwriter Josefine Cronholm's Wild Garden (CD, Stunt 01232), features the singer backed by piano, double bass, and a lightly played drum kit. It sounded superb through the Elacs, with excellent overall balance, a clear, uncolored voice, and treble detail that was simply there, without exaggeration. Nothing was clearly missing. This track contains little deep bass, but what was there didn't sound thin. I might have preferred a bit more air at the very top end, but the highs weren't subdued in any obvious way.
The same DALI sampler also included the far more familiar "Train Song," by Tom Waits, here covered by Holly Cole, from her album Temptation (CD, Blue Note 31653), a recording every audiophile is required to hear before earning the Audiophile Merit Badge. Cole's voice was solidly between the speakers, if a little "big," as is common with closely miked pop recordings. The bass lines in the spare accompaniment were less prominent than I'm accustomed to hearing from this track, but were nevertheless well balanced, tight, and completely free of unnatural bloat.
The selections on this sampler include panpipes and flutes (from Yuyachifca, Opus3 CD 7902); small groups as on Knud Jörgensen Jazz Trio (Opus3 CD 8401); a children's choir recorded for this sampler; an a cappella male voice (Eric Bibb singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hand," also recorded for this release); two pipe-organ pieces performed by Torvald Torén: Vierne's Toccata, and a selection from D'Aquin's Noël, both heavy on the upper, trumpet-like pipes rather than the deep bass typical of most organ recordings; and much more.
All of these varied tracks were reproduced beautifully by the Adantes. Any limitations of the AF-61s in my room were only rarely evident, and mostly, though not dramatically, with the full-range Vierne organ selection. What came through with all tracks was a rewarding honesty, with nothing ever sounding wrong. When I thought briefly, for example, that the guitars in the Yuyachifca selection sounded a bit soft, I was immediately rewarded when the pan pipes chimed in with their sweet and articulate breath sounds. The jazz trio was crisp and detailed, the pipe organs vibrant in their reverberant acoustic, and Bibb's unaccompanied voice natural and moving.
Enter Elac's SUB30370 subwooferThe more I listened to a wide range of music, the less I was bothered by the AF-61's deep-bass performance in my room. My awareness of it came and went, depending on the recording. But since I had on hand Elac's SUB3070 subwoofer, which was designed for use with the Adante models, failure to try it was out of the question. With a pair of 12" aluminum-coned drivers driven by a 1200W (peak) BASH amplifier in a small but solid and heavy cabinet, the SUB3070's key feature is an auto-equalization function that makes use of an Elac app downloadable to a smartphone or tablet. You position the phone close to the subwoofer and take a reading, then move to the listening position and take another reading. The EQ software automatically accounts for the difference and equalizes the sub's output accordingly, using the fact that nearfield measurements are largely independent of the room, while the readings at the listening position are dominated by it. (The limitations of the microphone in your phone will be the same for both readings and so will be largely insignificant.) The main limitation of this feature is that it can work with only a single reading at the main listening position, not multiple readings at and around it. The sub can also be adjusted using the eight separate parametric equalizers also accessible through the smartphone app. You can use both the auto and parametric functions together, but most users should find the auto route alone sufficient. For proper use, the parametric feature really requires a separate measuring device, such as the OmniMic mentioned earlier. Without this, it's easy to overdrive the SUB3070 with careless use of the parametric boost, added atop any boost generated by the auto EQ.
While using the Elacs as part of a home theater won't be of interest to all Stereophile readers, others will appreciate that they excelled with a wide range of film soundtracks, particularly those with good music scores (a prime consideration for me)—though they were also perfectly fine, with sub, at reproducing the firefights, car crashes, and explosions heard in the superhero saga of the month. There's also an Adante AC-61 center-channel speaker ($4000 each), but here I used a single AS-61 stand-mount ($1250 each), turned on its side and placed on a low stand below the screen. The AS-61 uses the same concentric driver as in the AF-61 above 200Hz, and the match with the AF-61s was excellent.
Yes, I had a few mild critiques of the Elac Adante AF-61, particularly for the need, with some music, in my very large room, of a good subwoofer to flesh out the bottom end, which turned a very good speaker into an exceptional one. But with or without a subwoofer, I liked what I heard from the Adante AF-61s as soon as I hooked them up. I liked them even better after several weeks of listening. When I went back to check a few last-minute details while writing this review, I found it difficult to listen for only a few minutes and then return to my writing. I wanted to listen longer. I had to pull myself away. If that's not a solid recommendation, I don't know what is.
