John
“Dear John. I don’t know about you but I’m becoming heartily sick of Andrew Jones. His US$20,000+ loudspeaker designs for TAD were great and all – and the US$129 Pioneer SP-BS22-LR was a cute attempt to snag entry-level buyers – but ever since he decamped to ELAC a few years back, I can’t open a web browser for fear of seeing his beaming smile and man-of-the-people disposition staring right back at me. The Debut Series. The Uni-Fi Series. The Uni-Fi Slim. The Adante Series. The second generation Debut Series. When is he ever gonna give loudspeaker design a rest and go back to Yorkshire?
Not yet, it would seem. This year he’s turned his attention to active loudspeakers because of course he has. Did KEF not hurt us enough with their LS50 Wireless? And have you ever heard a more pretentious name than Navis? And because Andrew Jones is Andrew Jones, he’s opted for an analogue crossover and Class A/B amplification. DSP and Class D not good enough for you, Andrew? Sheesh.
And just look at the man’s smug grin when he talks pricing: US$2000/pair for the AR-B51 standmount; US$4000/pair for the AR-F51 floorstander; and for network audiophiles, an optional US$450 streaming module – one that does AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect, Roon, and Bluetooth – that’ll stream to either model wirelessly using ELAC’s own AirX2 protocol. Heck, the loudspeakers can even talk to each other wirelessly — what’s wrong with good old-fashioned hardwiring? That’s what I wanna know. I remember the old days when a loudspeaker was passive and speaker cable was speaker cable.
Adding insult to injury, just this week at RMAF 2018, Jones had the temerity to tell us that the reproduction of a live event isn’t possible with a two-channel hi-fi system; that live music and home playback are just different art forms. Is no sales tactic sacred?
Working for ELAC, Andrew Jones is making us all look bad — how are we meant to sell $10K passives and $5K amplifiers with the Navis nipping it our heels?
Andrew Jones must be stopped at all costs.
Yours,
The High-End Audio Industry.”
Further information: ELAC Americas
