I don't have a comparison for you - I settled on Rockets quite a few years back. So I looked in here, and have a couple of other thoughts.
Maybe you can ask to bring your ELT center over to his place to see if you like how it plays with the 450s, and if that works well then you have your decision. It would also allows you to make a direct comparison of the 450s to something you listen to every day (as well as how the finishes go together).
If you go off chasing different sounds with different speakers, your budget is going to quickly get blown if you find something else you like and then have to replace the whole set. I'm not saying, "don't do it." , just trying to add a little dose of reality to the fun of new speaker shopping.
take care,
P.S. FWIW, I do think the 450s are one of the two sweet spots for Rocket Mains - the other being the 850s. A 450/ ELT center front end sounds very nice to me at first thinking.
The one other thought would be to see if you can find a pair of the ELT525 Towers - they also have a rosewood finish. I don't know that I've heard anyone's opinion on how they would go with the old ELT center, but it's probably out there somewhere.
Maybe you can ask to bring your ELT center over to his place to see if you like how it plays with the 450s, and if that works well then you have your decision. It would also allows you to make a direct comparison of the 450s to something you listen to every day (as well as how the finishes go together).
If you go off chasing different sounds with different speakers, your budget is going to quickly get blown if you find something else you like and then have to replace the whole set. I'm not saying, "don't do it." , just trying to add a little dose of reality to the fun of new speaker shopping.
take care,
P.S. FWIW, I do think the 450s are one of the two sweet spots for Rocket Mains - the other being the 850s. A 450/ ELT center front end sounds very nice to me at first thinking.
The one other thought would be to see if you can find a pair of the ELT525 Towers - they also have a rosewood finish. I don't know that I've heard anyone's opinion on how they would go with the old ELT center, but it's probably out there somewhere.
