I have had a pair of Adagios for a year and a couple of months. As has been commented before, they need a fair number of hours before they really come on song. I would suspect that more than a couple of pairs have been sold before being properly run in. In my case, I was very impressed with the initial demo but somewhat disappointed when I brought them home and hooked them up. Somewhat dull and disjointed would be how I would describe it, not musical and effortless which was what my initial impression was. They definitely open up with time and they required a bit of playing around with in terms of positioning in order to be at their best.
All that being said, I am quite pleased with the sound that I am now getting and have no desire to change or upgrade. As mentioned above, I would describe them as being quite musical and effortlessly so. Fairly quick as well and just a touch on the warm side. I would also describe them as being non-fatiguing, there have been many marathon listening sessions that I have had and they don't grate on the ears at all.
Other comments that I would make would be that they tend to favor the sweet spot meaning that they will sound best when you are in the prime center listening position. They still sound decent in the next room or in another spot in the room but you won't get the full effect unless you're in that prime location. Also, if you have them in a large room they will not have quite as much bass impact as a smaller room. My listening room is not huge by any means but it opens up to the bulk of the rest of my house and the bass is solid and definitely present but does not have quite the impact as the smaller more closed in listening room that I first listened to them in.
Lastly, I would comment that the Adagios will greatly reward you if your amplifier and source are top notch. I completely built my system ass backwards having bought the speakers first, then upgrading my amplifier and then my digital and then my analog source and I definitely feel that this is the wrong way to go. I have only been thrilled with my system after upgrading the rest of the system so bear in mind that this speaker will reward good upstream components. People on the British forums are very adamant about "Source First" and I absolutely believe that 100% now.
The only other comment that I would make is that at the prices that these speakers are currently going for used, they are a great buy.
