Acoustic Zen Adagio, How Good Are They?

I too found and enjoyed the Adagio's in three rooms at RMAF this last weekend -- the Modwright & AZ room (1010), the Triode room (1121) and the BPT room (9025). I thought the BPT demo tunes (another delightful, free CD) sounded particularly nice on the Adagio's, even in the less than optimum room acoustics of a show environment.

Dan and Robert were a little chagrined to discover mid-show that there was a signal phase anomoly in one of the Response Audio modified tube power amps (100wpc I believe) which, when corrected, snapped the sound in their room into some of the best at the show (IMHO). Great lesson there -- when in doubt, ignore your eyes and trust your ears!

Cheers,

Sorry about the phase issue. I was startled to hear about this. The request for amplifiers at this year's show was short notice for us and I had only a few days to get things shipped out to ModWright. At least they were in excellent hands at the show and this was noticed easily with teh educated ears that were running the room.

Lgo51...."which, when corrected, snapped the sound in their room into some of the best at the show (IMHO)...."

Thank you for those words.

I had a chance to listen to the Adagios today at the Acoustic Zen factory. First of all, Robert Lee was very gracious with his time and patiently answered all of my questions. He is truly a gentleman.

Here is a list of the associated equipment and room:
pre: Bel Canto Pre1
amp: Bel Canto (some 2 ch digital)
cdp: cheapie Samsung
cabling: all Acoustic Zen (of course)
room: we listened in a sectioned off area of his warehouse which is very large with very tall, exposed ceiling. Needless to say this was not the best setup

Strenghts: The two things that stuck out for me was the depth of the soundstage which was simply amazing! The 3d effect was addictive! The second thing that struck me was the midrange which was smooth, realistic, and not distorted at all, even at ridiculous listening levels.

Weaknesses (or what I did not like): The ribbon tweeters to me sounded harsh and metallic. There was also a problem with the imaging which was probably due to the setup. Voices seemed too large in comparison to the othe instruments. I felt like I was listening to a giant singing 6 feet away from me. The speakers also did not disappear. I heard way too much music coming directly from the speakers themselves. The soundstage width was restricted to the physical location of the speakers. Again, this could be down to setup. Bass was also light but in a confined room I am sure it would sound better.

Misc: Even though I loved the nice finishes of the cabinet, I do not care for the overall look for the speakers. Also, when played at very loud volumes, I felt like the Adagios were straining. It sounded like a small speaker trying to sound loud.

Overall: For the price, these are great speakers. I would like to listen to these speakers again in a properly setup room with at least better source components. They are indeed intriguing and according to Robert Lee they are selling VERY well. I was surprised to hear how many he has sold since their introduction at least years RMAF. Congratualtions to Robert Lee, he deserves all the success he achieves....

Happy Halloween Tboooe! Enjoyed your post. I'm sure that the ModWright/Response/Acoustic Zen room at RMAF will generate a lot of really positive show reports. The room really sounded fantastic. If there was a weak link, whatever it was, even it sounded great. This is basically to say that I hope that in addition to having a great get-together with Robert, you'll also get to hear his speakers in a suitable setting.

Hey Tboooe, I think your mention of the "hot tweeter" may have been due to the amps being used for your audition. One thing I have realized is that the Adagio's sound their best (to me anyway) with tubes. This might be a bit biased coming from a tube junkie such as myself but a lot of the feedback has confirmed the same. Robert wil have the Bella EXtreme 100 tube amps soon so if you get a chance, you may want to arrange another audition with the speakers driven by tubes.

Kmillette........ Thanks for the kind words about the show!

Bill