Naim and Elac Adante, Wow

Another review with an additional group of measurements came out for the Adante bookshelf, and while they subjectively reviewed well for bass quality, the tweeter subjective and performance measurements provide a good insight to how they were engineered.

As the tweeter begins to cross over with its mid diver, a flare at around 10 degrees off axial occurs ranging form the upper mid range to mid treble. This levels off at around 30 degrees with the axial response and then the typical upper treble roll off that occurs with most tweeters. There is a mild notch at the upper end of the mid treble as well, which may be attributed to that oddly designed cover.

Considering its designer, this is certainly an intentional voicing and my expectation was to create a broad and vivid sound. You would likely need some very specific positioning to get these speakers to work. Very little toe in would be a good start and maybe some room dampening. 

If you test these for yourself, certainly bring your most favored recordings, but I would also bring some less than ideally mastered stuff to see if you can enjoy all of your library with it. A speaker that doesn't allow you to enjoy your library isn't something I would purchase for myself.

The review is from Stereoplay April edition and isn't available online without paywall access.

The key for an amplifier pairing is going to rest within the presentation balance. Put something a bit to forward and the flared response is going to become an issue. The Adante wasn't too bad with impedance, but it still requires something that could swing some voltage. The max level they could achieve without distortion is lower than the Kef Ref 1, Focal Sopra 1, or B&W 805D3 as distortion from the band pass woofer rises rather quickly. Still, those are much more expensive and unsurprising from my perspective.

The reason I bring up those speakers that in Stereoplay's subjective ranking system, which being a sort of numerical combine, place the Adante right up there with these other bookshelves. But looking a bit closer it became clear the ranking came about due to the high scoring from the bass section of the speakers. It would appear AJ's focus on the band pass design with an acoustical and electrical part of the crossover paid off well. Within its dynamic limits, its pretty darn good. These rankings, like any,  are generally skewed based on priorities and weightings.

Its a bit of insight to the Adante's that we hadn't seen in empirical numbers. With some effort, it can likely get a good in room response at the listening point, but there are more balanced designs out there.

@audiotroy 

I had mentioned the results weren't surprising as the others were considerably more expensive, no missed facts and I instead used them as peers due to Steroplay's subjective scoring system. I didn't know the exact current pricing and wasn't invested enough obtain those figures, but understood they were in orders of magnitude.

I don't agree that the balance of the speaker was a budgeting factor as Andrew Jones has demonstrated the clear ability to design a neutral coax driver for considerably less. They have dynamic and resolution restrictions, but it still retains a balanced response. What I am eluding to is the speaker is specifically voiced and my impression is the goal was to create a vivid and bold sounding product. Budget considerations did come in, but it surfaced in differing manners of compromise. The first is obvious in terms of fairly mundane finishing options.

Now as for the soft dome tweeter, while its certain to have been cheaper over something like Be used in some of his past work at TAD, I do know that earlier prototypes sported both Ti and Al materials. Of the two, only Ti might be notably more costly over the soft dome and the main advantage of Ti over Al in a tweeter diaphragm resides in better internal dampening over Al. I doubt the extra fatigue or sheer strength of Ti made an impact. Strength to weight ratios are similar as are the poission's ratio. You could gain a stiffness advantage in shaping due to the lower density of Al, but shaping is more so used for dispersion over stiffness derived from shape. Why the soft dome? I honestly do believe he took advantage of the higher internal dampening, provided knowing it would serve his design better with its tailored response. A tweeter with resonance issues would have likely seen more exposure of flaws in this design than in others.

Do remember though that Kef uses an Al alloy for its high frequency driver and they applied a pretty elaborate FEA derived shaped and stiffening ring to push resonance up. Al is rather quite capable when invested into, and part in having a lower material density over Ti that gives the potential advantage. This, while not specific material cost, was certainly an engineering expense that I'm keenly aware of due to my own FEA systems that are likely a bit more extensive and horribly costly in their own right.

Where we can agree is that this speaker will require more careful pairing with partner electronics. I would not specify a specific topology on sound profile alone, but instead point to the impedance and phase response first. Since the Adante doesn't exhibit major current dependency, you are certainly more freely able to choose amplifiers that are not low ohm stable. Something that isn't true for the Focal Sopra line as an example.

Just like speakers, electronics can have a voicing. I would bet some of the Simaudio stuff would work well as would Mark Levinson (maybe either not a typical pairing). I have too little exposure to tubes to make a comment here. As for Class D, it depends on the generation and specific design. Some of the very most recent modules are a possibility and I do believe one of those mentioned Peachtree devices use the most recent 300ASP module, which is better in upper frequency response than past ICE designs. Another thought would be Classe, and considering their recent comeback and have produced a sound in recent products that might be complementing. You've certainly made a case for Naim in this regard.