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Obviously that’s a typical forté for active drive and with 150 watts per side plus some strategic DSP compensation one does expect a firm bassment. And here that was the case for both clean and bone dry without requiring loudness control assist. That called for seconds on the rock menu. Enter Dinosaur Jr.’s Green Mind and the cut "Thumb". Envision reverb-heavy low drums, plenty of overdrive guitar, the whiny vocals of J. Mascis – and two transverse flutes. Production values are middling. I imagine that J. Mascis wasn’t overly critical in the tone studio. They probably grabbed a few microphones from some box floating around, stuck ‘em up, started to hammer out the program to analog multi-track deck without any attention to dynamic or S/N ratio optimization, then mixed things down in the same casual spirit, band knocking down the alcohol whilst eyeing the mixing console’s blinking lights and faders with little concern.


In best studio monitor tradition, the Elac instantly pointed out where the production was off – or at least out of conformity with textbook standards. There’s far too much reverb on the drums which additionally rattle and boom. The lead vocals easily distort. And finally what about those desiccated flutes? Regardless, it’s all good driving fun. And that delivers the punch line. The Elacs show up everything but don’t highlight poor productions in a fashion that kills attention for anything else.

At medium levels the Air-X 403 played it pure like a jeweler’s loupe. The treble was highly detailed without bite, the midband clean as a whistle and—if we subtract the lowest sub bass— I wasn’t wanting for ‘more meat’, i.e. hankering after a floorstander even markedly above room volumes. This small box proved so cunningly executed that bass felt properly profound and believable. Take "Walkabout" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Funky, dry as the dickens and flat-out fantastic, percussion plays a dominant role. One hears deeply tuned toms, a fat bass drums and impressively virtuoso walking bass. The Elac dug deep and pummeled my gut as long as I didn’t attempt SPL which standard lease conditions wouldn’t have tolerated in the first place.


At low levels meanwhile something got just a tad lightweight in the bottom. Here the dynamic loudness control came into its own. With it engaged, things sounded just as full at low levels without feeling at all overcompensated. If you like to (or must) listen quietly in the evenings, this guarantees a coherent gripping performance no matter what. Limitations only raise their head when one cues up very bass-heavy fare at high levels, i.e. nasty electronica or full-scale symphonica with a 16-foot organ register. Eventually the box shuts down and the bass begins to lose its power relative to the higher bands
Obviously switching to my Neat Acoustics Momentum 4i towers, I had more low-end heft even at moderate levels. The Brits’ isobaric bass loading energized my room more than Elac’s mid/woofer did to lead to a broader more stately presentation. Time to switch scenery for something calmer, i.e. modern chamber music. "De Tout ton Coeur" from Anouar Brahem’s Le Pas Du Chat Noir showed how effortlessly the 403 cast a grand stage in typical monitor fashion. Here were simple piano, acoustic guitar and double bass. The music flooded the room in organic fashion. The piano fanned out across the stage, guitar and upright took up place slightly to the left and right of center. The 403 called up the kind of intimate atmosphere which draws the audience into the musical action without putting them to sleep. For that the individual actors were too accurately positioned.