Acoustic Zen Adagio

[whiskeytango6]

I recently purchased a pair a Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers and wanted write a review but as it goes these are so new they won't be on the review site for a while. They are so new in fact that Acoustic Zen doesn't even have them on their site! Anyway, 5 weeks into listening, 150 hours burn-in time. I've listened to a ton of speakers in my time, as we have done.......searching for the grail that would satisfy our craving for perfection. I've always wondered what the "audiophile" means in this day in age. Is it the love of music? Is it the love of reproduced music? Is it the love of the equipment the makes the music? Or is it the love of searching, testing and buying the equipment that makes the music? I believe it is the love of music......period! Whether in the concert hall or in your living room. We all try to find the equipment that we think will be the end all to the reproduction. Spend $500.00 of a pair of speakers......no way they can be good! Spend $60,000.00 on a pair........they must sound like heaven itself! Like we know what heaven sounds like.
Well, enough bloviating, the Adagios are larger than they look in pictures, I had imagined something like the totems.....they are a fairly tall hefty floor stander, heavy at around 78 lbs. a piece; a note I am sure to their build quality and bracing....oh yeah, build........wow! I have the red ferrari staned burled maple......beautiful! 5 coats of clear lacquer that gives you that "miles deep" shine without looking like they are encased in plastic. I'm not going to go into the sound quality of each octave, I can't, I truly can't discern where the highs mids and lows stop and begin......really weird I know. I can say that they go deep, very deep. They are rated to 30hz and it is a solid 30 and then down to 25? They produce a seemless rolloff. Front ported so you don't have to think about rear placement......Mr. Lee sends a wonderful guide on setup.......use it! I listened to my usual lineup up suspects in listening. The music was clearer, and I heard instruments I have never before heard......it is almost like the speakers have the ability to peel back the layers of tracks so you can hear the separate lines of music! The Adagios play loud, but more importantly they play wide. The stage is all over the place, I hear the instruments where the artist intended them to be, left, right, up, back.......words can't describe. They are authoritative, and sustain "gravitas". In short, because I want to listen to some music.......I paid $4300.00. A price out of site for some, looked down upon by others. To bad, I believe these speakers will become and are in my mind ONE of the best ever engineered and produced No B.S. $60,000.00 for a pair of speakers? For what? So you can say.......these run $60,000.00! ooooooo, look what I can buy! Mr. Lee has has done something unbelievable.........thinking outside the box to make a box...........M

[audio_dude]

Finally....the peace of mind

you want acoustic heaven? check out what florian has!

[drseid]

I auditioned the Adagios about a month back at my local dealer, and I would have to agree that they are truly something special for their price (and overall). They bested a couple pairs of speakers that were more expensive that day (names witheld, but if anyone really wants to know which models they can PM me) -- one was nearly 3 times as costly.

While I might not go as far as to compare them to $60,000 speakers personally, I would certainly have them on my short list for auditioning if I were buying anything up to $10K +/-... Very nice looking speakers too.

As an aside, I heard them powered by a Cary integrated (first a tube powered Cary and then a solid state)... the front end was the excellent Consonance Droplet CD player. I personally preferred the solid state on them, but the dealer prefered the tubes... I guess maybe a tube hybrid would be just about right with them.

---Dave

[basite]

speakers don't have to be expensive (i'm sure it will help) but my advents still play and i guess they won't break *looks at his speakers* even more, when you buyed a pair of advents you paid like $500 and if you want the same quality now, you'll have to pay like 10 times that. So speakers don't have to be expensive at all. those adiago's look good btw.
also look at these: http://www.vaessen.com/products.html especcially the aquarius looks nice

[basite]

speakers don't have to be expensive to sound good (sure it will help) but the advents i have still play good and i guess they will do that for a long time *looks at speakers*. Those adiagos look (and sound) good. Also look at these: http://www.vaessen.com/products.html escpecially the aquarius looks good i think.

[whiskeytango6]

is.....that you can spend 10 times the cost of the Adagios and not get ten times the preformance. The law of diminishing returns has just been crushed by the Adagios. You can have a piece of heaven, have a piece of the $120,000.00 Alex's for a reasonable price. The price climbs exponentially on speakers with the use of proprietary cabinets (Like Corian) or some self blended carbon fiber housing. To what point? To satisfy the ego of the designer? The ego of the consumer? Mr Lee has engineered a marvel with one goal in mind......to make beautiful music.

[audio_dude]

like the paradigm atoms...so cheap, yet so good sounding

or those new ones from bestbuy, one problem, they don't carry them in canada!