Totem Forest or Acoustic Zen Adagio

First I would like to thank everyone for their input. I have to agree with Digsmithd, both the forest and mani-2's metal tweeter can be a bit bright. The other thing that concerns me is how tall the forests are. I think they are only 36" tall. Last time I heard them i noticed that you had to be in the sweet spot for the sound to be good. I know most speakers have a sweet spot, but I don't want a speaker to sound totally different when I leave my listening spot. I have read that the adagios still maintain the same sound even when listening of axis from the typical sweet spot.

To Distortion, I could'nt agree more about SC. I'm in columbia and the nearest "real" dealer is in Charlotte NC. It is really disappointing that there isnt a stronger market for highend equipment in SC.

Because I have zero experience with the Adagio's - I am unable to offer an insight as to how these two well received products compare.

I am chiming in to note that the Totem Forest retains exceptional off-axis dispersion. As usual, all thats needed is a bit of attention towards setup. With the Forests, the trick is to keep the speakers relatively close together with only a very minimal amount of toe-in. Do that, and you'll enjoy full and uniform sound no matter where you are sitting in your listening space.

Good luck in the hunt!

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.)