ELAC ANDANTE RANGE

The Elac Andante range of speakers, which previewed at last year’s CES in Las Vegas, is now finally available in Australia from Synergy AudioVisual, which distributes Elac in Australia. The range is comprised of three models: the AF-61 floorstanders ($9,995 per pair), AS-61 stand-mounts ($4,995 per pair), and an AC-61 centrechannel ($3,295). The Andante range was conceived as being an entry-level first step into high-end audio, according to Elac designer Andrew Jones, who says that all the drivers used in the Andante series were designed specifically for the series, with Elac leveraging its proprietary concentric driver technology for the midrange/tweeter. ‘ This new driver delivers astounding pointsource accuracy, linearity, power handling, speed and articulation on virtually all types of music,’ he said.

The Andante AF-61harks back to Linn’s ‘Isobarik’ speakers, where a driver hidden inside the cabinet modifies the output of another driver that’s conventionally mounted on the front baffle, but Jones refers to the particular implementation in the Andante 61 as ‘ an interport-coupled cabinet, where the low-pass filter comes after the driver, not before.’ In the case of the Elac Andante AS-61 standmount design, it’s the output of a front-firing 203mm bass driver that’s being modified. The internal driver has a diameter of 165mm. Also front-firing on this model is a 127mm midrange driver, mounted coaxially in the centre of which is a 25mm tweeter. For further information, please contact Synergy Audio Visual on (03) 9459 7474 or visit the website at www.synergyaudio.com