Acoustic Zen Crescendo or Sony SS-AR1

Aside from the question about a consensus (with respect to which I agree with the above posts), is it just me who is bothered that the OP considers a speaker in the $30K price range to be a "budget" speaker?

No public consenus, but from the perceptions of the Audio press during the past two years such as Postive Feedback, Audioreview and others claiming the Crescendo's can stand up too performance level's of $50K speakers which I find hard to swallow. Robert Lee informed me the Crescendo's can easily handle 1000 watts rms with no sweat. Very power hungry. Sensitivity on the Sony's is 88db, which can handle gobs of power as well. Anyone out there using a pair of high powered mono blocks on the Crescendo's? Talked to a retail dealer in California and he heard the Sony's at the show in Newport, was blown away. Midrange is on the warm side and very rich and smooth. Dynamics are outsanding.

>>07-20-11: Rcprince
is it just me who is bothered that the OP considers a speaker in the $30K price range to be a "budget" speaker?<<

He could be a member of congress.

In which case, $30K is just a dinner and a few bottles of wine.

Or a pair of full range speakers.

:-)

Heard the Crescendo's and didn't think very much of them. There are a lot of people who agreed with me. There is definitely no consensus on this.

Here is one vote for the Crecendo's. I heard these at Axpona earlier this year with triode electronics of Japan components. I kept coming back to this room because every time I sat down I relaxed and just enjoyed the music. They were driven by the 20WPC tri 845se amp which should be given the award of "sounds like 200 but is only 20wpc". Bass response in the room was jaw dropping. I was so impressed with this setup that I bought the amp and have been seriously considering buying the speakers, but I think I am going to give the high sensitivity speaker choices a crack for now as I want to give the amp a shot at driving an easy load.