ELAC - Adante... what’s the verdict?

I'm curious too. I came very close to taking a test drive with the AS-61.

I was a bit surprised by Steve Guttenberg's review. It seems that he loves almost everything that comes through his room and usually comes off as a Kool Aid chugger.

So far it seems there’s a consensus that these require careful gear matching. I wonder if the Audio Alchemy amps would work well. Wasn’t this the pairing at last year’s shows?

So far it sounds like they’re not the giant slayers that some might hope for...not a poor man’s TAD.

^ Seems like an honest assessment. I too have noticed that "brassy" tendency with aluminum drivers.

I had an unfortunate experience with an 'unbroken in' pair of Adante at my local shop. I wanted to try something with concentric driver and compared the Adante with KEF LS50 and R300. Factoring out the unbroken in factor, I'd say you really have to listen to and confirm that you like the metallic concentric tweeter sound. The Adante and L50 both were too bright and harsh for me though not the R300. The R300 similarly with a 3way woofer I did not like the crossover between the bass woofer vs concentric midrange woofer, it was like the bass driver was constantly competing against the midrange driver.   I'd imagine similar concern with Adante.

Most accounts I've read claimed the R300 is the brighter speaker.