Acoustic Zen, Reference 3A and ATC


Hi,

Which ones of the above mentioned produce a sound with faithfull tonality? I read in a review of the Reference 3a mm de Capo that "tonality is spot on", how the other two companies compare with Reference 3a in this regard?

And secondly, again considering all the three companies: Are they harsh or easy on ears? How easy? I have in mind long listening sessions.
keye
I owned the de Capo BE's and now own AZ Adagios. They both do best what they do best. I would say the de Capo's are a bit more forward while the Adagios resolve better.

Either way you're going to listen to music for hours. The only reason why I moved to the Adagios ( a lateral move, really) is because we moved to a place where I could finally have a listening room that could fit floorstanders.
Another thing,
Ref 3A’s loudspeakers proclaim they are all phase coherent (basically due to a non existent crossover), so as are Acoustic Zens due to an implementation of Linkwitz - Riley type of crossover. I uderstood this well?
What about ATCs active loudspeakers with the active crossovers, can the active crossovers be equally as effective? I find this phase coherency thing important.
Many claim to be "phase correct" but all they really do is have all drivers in the same polarity.  This does not guarantee the speaker to be time and phase correct if fact they rarely are.  The only way to know is to look for the triangular step response in the Stereophile measurements.
 Best JohnnyR
 Audio Connection
I have adagios and all my cables except intergrated to outboard power are acoustic zen . I can listen for hrs ,there very nuetral . When setup properly they sing . Mr. lee is great . They really dont need subs but i do run them