Acoustic Zen Adagio, How Good Are They?

Ghasley I don't think anyone is asking for buy, but audition recommendations. There are a vast number of possible amp/speaker combinations, so other peoples experience is a useful starting point. I agree about poor show conditions, but that can be helpful, any room sounding half way decent in a show, must have real potential in ideal conditions

I have also mated the Adagio with lower power tubes. At the moment, I have them being driven by a pair of Manley Labs MAHI mono blocs runing in triode for approximately 17 watts per side.
My showroom is quite large at about 1300 sq. ft. but I have them only 8 feet apart and sitting 8 feet from the speakers. The speakers are a light enough load on the amps to allow for good dynamics and enough volume to fill the room. Soundstage is unbelievably wide but them again, there is about 15 feet to the side of each speaker.
I have also run them with 8 watt 300B SET mono blocs and the sound would make you melt in your listening chair. Obviously there are dynamic and headroom limitations with such low power but sonically..........wow!
My personal preference so far has been 100 watt KT88 mono blocs with a tube pre, tube phono stage and/or tube CD player.
Yes, I'm a tube guy.

Bill

Thanks for your experience Ghastley. I'm auditioning a pair of Tyler Linbrook Signature Monitors looking to replace a pair of Apogee Slant 6s.

The Tylers are a very nice speaker and have convinced me that I need a lot more bass than the Apogees are delivering, but I think the Apogee ribbon tweeter has spoiled me. The Tylers don't have the high frequency sparkle, sharp imaging, and the same natural in the room quality on vocals that I like so much in the Apogees.

How do the AZ Adagios compare with the Tylers that you listened to in these areas?

Another question, the Apogees have the problem of the ribbon having poor vertical dispersion, so the sparkle disappears when you get your ears above the ribbon. How do the Adagios sound when you get out of the sweet spot? Is there a noticeable diminishing of the sound quality? Thanks for any help!

Tom

Hi Tomcy6,
I cannot comment on the comparison between the Adagios and Tylers but can comment a bit on the tweeter dispersion. The Adagio uses a unique, exclusive circular ribbon tweeter so it mantains exceptional horizontal and vertical dispersion just as a conventional dome tweeter.
I to have found many conventional ribbon tweeters to sacrifice vertical dispersion, not so with the Adagio!

Thanks for your reply Response34. That's a big plus in the Adagio's favor.