Acoustic Zen Adagio, How Good Are They?


Just read the glowing review in TAS. Has enyone heard these and if so is all the positive press justified?
128x128rja
Sorry to hear about aforementioned passing. No personal disrespect meant.

You mean to say there was a reviewer and the name was really Anna Log?
Hi Dgolly,

No, Anna Log was just her professional name. Her first real name was Valarie. Sorry, but I'm not sure of her last name. I think it was Kurlycheck.

All the best,
Tom

Aggielaw,

I'm the dealer in Chicago so take what I say with a grain of salt and bias on my part.

That said, I've found the soundstage to be as wide and deep as some of the best speakers I've heard. The limitation seems to lie with the associated equipment that your using to drive the speakers. I've put several solid state amps in and while the sound is very good, the soundstage slightly clapses. I put a Grommes 360 monoblocks in and the soundstage becomes almost larger than life. The presentation becomes 360 degrees, almost like surround sound depending on the CD your playing and the way it was engineered.

I've also found that the best sounds with these speakers come from a combination of a solid pre and a tube amp. I've had the speakers at least 6 weeks now and they have 400 hours plus on them. It took around 100 hours to really get comfortable with them with minor changes over the next 100 hours.

FYI - the solid state amps/class D amps I've tested with include the Luminance KST-150 with some small upgrades and the NuForce Ref9.02's. Preapms used include the Modwright SWL 9.0 SE, H-Cat, Heron Audio VSPT2. Source equipment include a highly upgraded Gyrodec SE with ORBE upgrades, April Musics Stello DAC and CD Transport, Sony XA777ES SACD/CD player and the Modwright 3910 w/Absolute Truth Modifications. Cabling is Revelation Audio Labs for speakers and interconnects and some power cords, also, Virtual Dynamics David and Power 3 power cords.

Joe
Joe,

From your experience, can the Adagios be driven by low powered SETs such as the Art Audio Carrisa?

Roy
I have a 14x14 room with 10ft ceilings.....can these work in this enviorment? If not do you have any recomendations? I have a budget of $ 5000 for a quality 5.1 set up I listen to 50% MUSIC AND MOVIES.

Robert