Totem Forest or Acoustic Zen Adagio


Any Thoughts on which one of these speakers will work the best with my McIntosh MA6900. I have heard Totems before a few years back, but now that dearler is NADA! When he was there he had both the forest and mani-2 sig's in. I love them both but the forest just sounded a little smoother to me, not to mention cheaper. As for acoustic zen, I don't think I have heard or read anything negative about them, but I live in SC and have no where remotely close to demo. Any comments? BTW, I am considering upgrading to the MAC MA7000 which would add 50 more watts to the mix which probably won't make much difference. Thanks for all your input.
ltecyclist
Axis smaxis....ive owned them both.I have placed them in the same spot.No contest...if you can buy the adagio,more refined.dont labor over it.It comes down to trade offs with all speakers.Both reccomend no toe-in.The adagios win in long term satisfaction of no metal bs.Trust me i have owned alot of speakers and am a working musician.the forests are good,but they do sound hi-fi after the decirnable amount of time,they are very analytical and offer what the adagios are better than the forests are.Which is a very refined speaker,everybody has there wagon to say get on.I have had both,no contest(imvho)
I have to echo Rumadian's comment. I have Forests in a 15 by 17 by 10 foot room. I have them 7 feet apart, with the tweeters about 3.5 feet off the back wall and 4 feet off the side walls, aimed straight ahead to a listening sofa 9 feet away. You can sit people three wide and they all get a serious soundstage.
I do notice a bit of harshness/forwardness in the upper midrange of my system and/or some aggressive sibilance on some recordings at higher volumes. I am wondering if it an be tamed by a different CD player or through cables,

System is simple two channel - Cary 303/200 CDP direct into Spectron Musician II amp; HT Pro Silway Mark II balanced IC's; DH Labs Q-10 remote sense speaker cables.
There are different amps that totem reccomends with the forests...they like plinius.They said it has power with a atouch of warmth that tames hf.Sim worked really well with the forests.I also believe that the particular recordings are just lousy,theres nothing to get around there.The forests are very stark and revealing too.(I do have to admit i still wish i had mine still.)
No opinion on the Forest or the Adagio as i havent heard them.

BIG opinion on the Model One-- stunning and one of my all-time favorite 'things' in life-- let alone 'speakers.'

Just curious (and off topic I know)but have you guys who think the forest or Mani tweeter is bright ever owned the model one? Or-- did you (erroneously) toe in your Mani's or forests (usually a no no with totem)?

The only thing I noticed in a great demo with the model ones head to head with a pair of Audio Physic Step SLE's (terrific also) was a slight midbass lift with the Totems. No brightness there to speak of-- nor in my home in the past.
I just traded off the Mac 6900 integrated for the MC402 and C220 preamp - was running Spendor S9 speakers at the time -
I auditioned the Forest's just before I bought the Spendors 4 years ago...loved the soundstage and tight bass, but they were pretty set-up fussy. Now I own a new pair of Adagio's with the new Mac gear, and brother, you WON'T be disappointed! When they start breaking in (40-50 hours), it gets better by the hour...unless oyu're a bass-aholic (I'm picking up a Hsu VTF2-MKIII just for that purpose) you will LOVE your Mac with the Adagio's. I would recommend a little more power though - the Adagio's rated at 6ohm's...