Andrew Jones (ELAC) @ RMAF 2018 

Someone once told me that a very intelligent person is someone that can explain a complicated idea or theory in such a way that a person with normal intelligence can understand it. That is EXACTLY what Andrew Jones does. No wonder his speakers sound so good.

This little “interview” is a gem that should be archived. I could listen to you ask Andrew questions for hours. Andrew is brilliant & awesome!

One of the best sound and audio related interviews ever! Thank you both.

"Its Art." Colorations of sounds interpreted by the designer aprroaching to capture the essence of the music he has experienced. Thank you Andrew Jones for your ears and brain.

One of the most interesting interviews/talks I have watched for many years. Well done.

Excellent interview, Andrew Jones is a very smart guy!!!!!!!!!!!!THANKS!!!!!!

Someday I will fortunate to listen to one of his speaker design, preferably the Elac model.He is an excellent public speaker you can hear him passion.

Andrew is also a great communicator.. very easy to understand where he’s coming from.

UPDATE: The black Elac Argo Navis should be shipping from ELAC on November 8th. The wood veneer version as seen at various shows may be shipping mid December.

I really like to listen to this man. Having been exposed as a teenager to the "live", but studio event, and listening to what was mixed (all analog multitrack taped era), he explains the reproduction problems with superb insight. He's also right about capturing a live recording. I don't own Elacs, but he convinces me I should try and find somewhere where I can listen to them.

I'm not an engineer but I understand a lot of the theories behind the engineering and design of these components and this interview really affirmed my thoughts so I feel very happy. Also, great interview. I don't recall other interviews with him to be this interesting so this video had me glued to my computer for a while.

Great interview John, thanks for the wisdom shared by Andrew Jones. Ps. Hit the like button too hard I think my screen flexed a little lol

Fantastic stuff. I enjoyed the candid conversation and hearing his perspectives and opinions.

Bought the B6 in walnut for my shop , Best $250.00 I ever spent .

Yes, brilliant interview for someone who is no longer a total novice

Brilliant argument for active speakers and I agree completely.

If all you care about is great sound and not the trading/experimentation part, active speakers can be amazing, even for audiophiles. You can choose your own turntable setup, CD player and DAC, passive pre/source selector, cables/interconnects, stands, ... All you are taking out is the power amp and deticated speaker cables. It's worth auditioning both options to see what works best. With Kii Three or tons of pro audio products on the market, you'd be silly not to just try it once.

Another great one John mr. Jones Is Right on the money and I had to laugh I'm a big prog-rock guy but every once in awhile a little Haley Reinhart kind of fits the bill good job!! BTW I'm the Left Channel and my twin brother is the right channel we're not identical but still twins.

Dear Mr. Jones, I like using two powered subwoofers with two passive floor standing speakers that are limited to 80HZ bass response. Let the main speakers see the full signal and naturally roll off the sound. Bring in the subwoofers to fill the bottom octaves only. You need two subwoofers. One subwoofer always gives you a disembodied sound. Doing it this way makes shipping easier as the main speakers can be smaller and lighter and so can the subwoofers. It is ridiculous to make a 300 pound full range loudspeaker that nobody can lift. You want to separate the vibrations from the woofer from the delicate tweeter and midrange speakers anyway, so I think it is best to physically have them in separate boxes. A fully active full range speaker means if the amps die, your speaker is dead meat. With passive main speakers you only have to worry about blowing a tweeter. How do you replace an amplifier built into a loudspeaker? That is more difficult and costly. You can change subwoofers as you like with a sub-sat system.

@johndarko when do you expect you will be publishing a review of the Navis floorstander and bookshelf speakers?

When Will the Navis active loudspeaker be available to the public and what will be the cost? Thank You!

yep

Could I ask about mixing active & passive ?

Argo Vs ls50w, need to see it.

Andrew Jones TADs are the benchmark.

Mr. Jones just deftly tossed a wrench into what many audio reviewers and publications disingenuously promote: There is no "absolute" sound. It's simply the sound that the publishers', advertisers and reviewers of particular publication believe is better. Bottom line, listen to gear that reviewers report on, decide which reviewers opinions most closely match your own observations, and then give those reviewers' opinions more weight when seeking out equipment to audition or purchase. Some like hyper unrealistically detailed "hi-fi" sound that uncoincidentally costs utterly ridiculous money 90% of the time. Most of that stuff is marketed only for older, rich guys with high frequency hearing loss who are more interested bragging about how much their gear costs than how ludicrously happy listening to music played on it makes them feel. Others prefer style of sound that for them, sounds more natural and less screechy-etchy hyper detailed. I always get a laugh out of these 60 year-old men, these so-called "audio experts" who will endlessly pontificate about this brand of electronics or that brand of speaker when, truth be told, they cannot possibly have anything resembling accurate, full-range, hearing. The factual reality is that as we age, our ability to hear degrades, especially in males. Women have far more acute hearing which adds to the irony. And then factor in how many concerts, car races, etc., with the requisite deafening sound pressures that these reviewers were exposed to in their youth and so on. Ask any audiologist. Any of these so-called golden eared men age 50 claiming to have pristine hearing are more likely liars and shameless self-promoters concerned more about maintaining their public image and writing careers than anything else. Unless a reviewer is willing to provide the results of their hearing tests (and most would rather be caught dead) don't believe for a New York nanosecond that any living individual is in posession of magical hearing superpowers. That's just saleman talk to get you to buy into their "brand" which is more about self enrichment, public perception and their professional reputation among advertisers than anything else. Instead you simply have to find reviewers that like what you like and seem to hear what you hear and ignore the opinions of the golden-eared self-proclaimed audiophiles. For those I reserve the term, "audio-flies". Why that name? Because unlike Mr. Jones' with his consistently and refreshingly honest and insightful analysis of complicated audio subjects, you can always find that other sort hovering around a big piles of high margin, luxury product bullshit swimming in a pool of absurdly priced snake oil. Just keep in mind that those that get all butt-hurt over this comment are likely the worst offenders or the die-hard "believers" of the offenders who are too afraid to trust their own, imperfect senses. Thankfully, John's observations on gear mesh pretty closely with my own and that makes him one of my favorites. Happy listening and a big thanks to John for posting such a fascinating and informative interview!

I'm not a pure audiophile but I think he really understands the modern hifi/audio market...

Mr. Jones is a really brillant engeneer, complete setteld and he knows, how to design and produce very good speakers. Chapeau! His reputation in Hifi allows him, to say the trooth => No doubt, every kind of music ist ART, but there are so many different "artists" in the chain of producing and re/reremastering ... so in fact the decision for your equipment to play music in your home is ART too. The almost hyped goal "identical to the original" is nothing!!! You have to select from the market the parts, which will bring the sounding of the music you prefer to the sound you want to hear. And on the way you have to accept physical, technical and engeneering possibilities! Try one of the active bookshelf-speakers from his brain, and trust your ears !!!! And please Mr. Darko .... change your microphone! It's very difficult to understand you with hundrets of different noisy people beside you! Awful! Sorry, it was a good interview, but ... ah, hear it by yourself and try to understand your comments and questions.

Can someone explain to me how an Active crossover can be Analog? I've never heard of this.

Exactly, he hit the nail on the head. Case in point Bruce Springsteen Thunder Road acoustic version is far superior to the ordinal on the album Born to run, in my opinion.

When he says wireless he means peer to peer network or an Ad Hoc network, this. No the best solution but they got to do something because Apple owns AirPlay. Basically you are going to the party in rented clothes with this before mentioned technology.

I don’t want analog anything( I’m trying to get cleanest sound for cheapest )

Can’t bear Peter Gabriel Genesis !

he looks like his speakers

I would stick with the wired speakers, as I have grave concerns about 5G technology. The less Wi-Fi in the house the better, this will I believe categorically ensure a much healthier cancer free House.

Andrew appears to be sitting in the world's biggest chair! Lol