Robert Lee was asked this very question while auditioning the Adagio at THE SHOW. His response was an emphatic yes. Certainly at 89 dB and 6 Ohm nominal impedence, it would be easily driven by many tube amps. |
It's very promising. They should sound good with my Cary SLI-80. |
is there a picture of these speakers somewhere on the net? Just curious what they look like. |
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The Adagio's are very SET friendly! Your Cary SLI-80 cranks out 80wpc in ultra-linear mode and 40 watts in triode which I think would be a match made in heaven with the Adagio. I ordered my Adagio's a while after RMAF, as the Zen room pulled me back for 3 lengthy listening sessions. I received them prior to xmas and I have tested them with a pair of SET 15 wpc 6C33 mono-blocks. We just moved into our new home on Jan 15th, and my new listening room is now quite large. I have a friend who is selling his deHavilland Ios ST 845 integrated, to move into a pair of GM70's. So I jumped on the Ios as at 27wpc, it will give me the oomph I need in my now larger room. As Kmillette mentioned at 89 dB and 6 Ohm nominal impedence, it would be easily driven by many tube amps. |
You will find a picture if you search in Auduo Asylum/Speakers. |
Hey Phil. I was actually going to e-mail you to see if you heard these. Just curious what they sound like. Thanks for the link.
Transl, thanks, I searched the asylum and found some pics there. |
What's special about this speaker? |
Audiphile1...I got your email, and you've got a response back!
Drubin...These speakers use a round ribbon tweeter and a pair of ceramic-coated fabric cone woofers with a custom "short-voice-coil/long-magnetic-gap" voice coil design. Asides from saying "they sounded excellent, with a very silky-smooth and warm character being driven by a pair of Class-D amps", not sure how else to answer your question... :-) |
I will be reviewing a pair very soon for Positive-Feedback.com, keep your eyes peeled. I do not have them yet or I would offer an intitial opinion...I should get them this week.
John
PS: I will be reviewing them with solid state gear. |
Thanks Philnyc. That's exactly what I was looking for. |
Who makes those - anybody know? |
very little known company called Acoustic Zen. |
This company is well-knowm for its cables. |
Audphile1...I'll be receiving a pair in about 2 weeks if you want to come by to check them out... |
Phil, sure!!!! Let me know when you get these, I'll stop by. Thanks. |
Transl, I've been just a little sarcastic in response to the post "Who makes these". You didn't take it seriously, did you... :) |
I've been aware of AZ since Robert Lee left Harmonic Tech and have read reviews on almost all of his different cable iterations since the company inception. AZ is quite well known to anybody that follows this business. I was asking about who made the ceramic coated paper cone drivers in the Adagios. If your answer was that Robert is manufacturing his own drivers, then thanks for the info.
Regards, |
Westborn...I don't know who manufactures the drivers, but I'd be surprised if AZ manufactures them themselves; I'd expect that Robert specs them and has someone else do the manufacturing. On another note, the woofers are ceramic coated fabric cones, not paper... |
Phil, you got a pair. Who's selling them? |
Westborn, I thought you were talking about the speakers and it wasn't clear you wanted to know just about the drivers in specific. No hard feelings man.... |
Drubin, I am an Acoustic Zen dealer. |
Drubin...I am an AZ dealer, so I am getting them directly from AZ... |
Sorry for the double-post...the first post didn't appear for a few hours, so I thought it didn't go thru... |
.. I appreciate your tonge in cheek... I was zipping through and didn't read it right.
I am the worlds worst about using cryptic wafts of dry sarcasm on the web and emails, etc. which I expect folks to 'hear' with the smile in my voice.
It's all good here. |
And, the verdict is .... ? |
I just received them yesterday, and just set them up this morning. Robert Lee says they take 1-2 days to start sounding good, and 3-4 days to really break in. Personally, I'd be surprised if the break-in was that quick (I've had ribbon-tweeter based speakers before, and the break-in was much longer)...but Audphile1 will be coming over to check them out tomorrow... |
yes....looking forward to that and I'll post my impressions later on this weekend. |
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Allright......I checked it out today. Phil and I both suspected that the speakers are not fully broken in yet. It's been only 2 days that the speakers are playing and no way they are 100% yet. But, the good part is, I was very impressed with the performance of these speakers especially considering the price. Very nice imaging and staging. We ran them with Empirical modded Sony S7700 to Dodson 218 into Blue Circle new integrated(don't remember the model but I think it's their new hybrid). Very good sound. Deep bass, detailed overall, but definately needing some more playing time. I'll be back there in a week or so to check these speakers out again after further break in, but initial impressions are very good. Phil says he will experiment with placement a little more to determine optimal position, but they way they played today, pretty impressive for $3700 |
FWIW, when Audphile1 came over, I had less than 15 hours on the speakers, but the difference from right out of the box til tonight was already apparent. Right out of the box, the bass was virtually non-existant, but as Audphile1 notes, tonight the bass performance is pretty extended. There's definitely room for the rough edges in the bass and high frequencies to smooth out. Also, I was very surprised at how big a soundstage these speaker throw.
I still have a lot to learn about these speakers in terms of placement and how they interact with my room...tonight, we changed the toe-in by 5-6 degrees, and we noted a significant improvement in soundstage depth and even some tonal balance. I'll play with that more after I get 75-100 hours on them. As noted by Audphile1, at $3700, they are quite good even now...if they smooth out the way I anticipate they will, I will regard them as a pretty serious bargain at their price... |
Btw - since posting yesterday, I've probably put another 10 hours on them, and they have already smoothed out significantly since Audphile1 came to listen. At this time, I'm quite happy with the bass response; the high frequencies still need some smoothing, but they are much more listenable now than they were yesterday. Am driving them with a 95wpc hybrid integrated (Blue Circle FtTH) and am quite pleased with the overall sound... |
Phil, we'll check 'em out again when I come by to drop off the BC501........which is awesome by the way. Yes, these Adagio speakers are darn good!!!! Way exceeded my expectations for $3700 in both the sound and the looks. |
Update....It's been almost 2 weeks. Now we are talking!!!! These Adagio speakers finally gave in to a break in process. Everything smoothed out. Balance is very good with no specific frequency that stands out. Bass is tight, deep. Highs are smooth. Mids are juicy. Placement hasn't been changed much(I think) but the break in of the speakers definately went well. Image is dead center, everything else evenly layed out in the soundstage. Nice, deep stage for speaker of this size and price. I actually could not beleive the improvement since the last time I visited. It's almost like a totally different pair of speakers comparing to the way they sounded last time! Definately a huge bargain at $3700. Phil's got a new transport now - Oracle CDT1000. Landed on his shelf directly from outer space. This thing looks cool. Sounds just as good as it looks. Digital cable was AZ Silver Bytes between the CDT1000 and Dodson 218. Very nice sound. Properly set up with right components up stream, these speakers can really sing. Even with Squeezbox2 into the Dodson using the Silver Bytes digital cable, the sound of the system was impressive. Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend these speakers to anyone based on what I heard today. So, here goes the follow up. Once more it prooves that it is important to let the components break in before judging how they sound. I definately liked what I heard today. |
My dealer, who has been in the audio business for 30+ years, and who has seen it and heard it all (mostly unimpressed with what he has heard), was extremely impressed with the Acoustic Zen speakers and placed an order. |
I am going to order a pair. Does it have a biwiring option? What are the finish options? |
The Adagios are not bi-wireable. There are two colors available...red and light maple (AZ calls them "Figured Maple" (red) and "Mappa Bur" (light). You can see pictures of each here:
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/viewtopic.php?t=24700&highlight=adagio
http://www.audiocircle.com/circles/galleryimage.php/albuu78/image037.sized.jpg |
there are 4 colors available light Bur Maple,
Honey Bur Maple , Figured Cherry, a high gloss black
all finishes are a high gloss. |
There are 5 colors...walnut finish also,which is not gloss but matte finish.I have figured red maple.Lovem!!The figuring is almost perfectly matched from one to the other. |
To answer the origonal question about amps. I use mine with a Karan K180 and Viva Solista SET tube amp. THe K180 at 180 watts of SS power, sounds goood, very good even, but the Solistas 22 watts are much better. There is more dynamics, base grip, they even make the speaker sound louder. When I bought mine, the distributor suggested 20 watts as a minimum for tube output, if you wanted to hear complex symphonic music to full effect |
forget about it I have beeen speaking with different guys and the Chinese junk is horrible ,it may sound pretty decent today just look inside though the capacitors ,resistors and coils are rubbage. Just ask the guy doing the reference mods the caps are as light as a feather =cheap and will sound worse over time just ask
any modder , Hyperion is another I have had people tell me their press board cabinet or what ever they are made from was breaking at the corners .
Buy a speaker from North America or Europe, you may pay
a little more but it will last. |
Audiophile1958, what are you talking about? Care to explain your thoughts please? |
