New Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeakers

Allright......I checked it out today. Phil and I both suspected that the speakers are not fully broken in yet. It's been only 2 days that the speakers are playing and no way they are 100% yet. But, the good part is, I was very impressed with the performance of these speakers especially considering the price. Very nice imaging and staging. We ran them with Empirical modded Sony S7700 to Dodson 218 into Blue Circle new integrated(don't remember the model but I think it's their new hybrid). Very good sound. Deep bass, detailed overall, but definately needing some more playing time. I'll be back there in a week or so to check these speakers out again after further break in, but initial impressions are very good. Phil says he will experiment with placement a little more to determine optimal position, but they way they played today, pretty impressive for $3700

FWIW, when Audphile1 came over, I had less than 15 hours on the speakers, but the difference from right out of the box til tonight was already apparent. Right out of the box, the bass was virtually non-existant, but as Audphile1 notes, tonight the bass performance is pretty extended. There's definitely room for the rough edges in the bass and high frequencies to smooth out. Also, I was very surprised at how big a soundstage these speaker throw.

I still have a lot to learn about these speakers in terms of placement and how they interact with my room...tonight, we changed the toe-in by 5-6 degrees, and we noted a significant improvement in soundstage depth and even some tonal balance. I'll play with that more after I get 75-100 hours on them. As noted by Audphile1, at $3700, they are quite good even now...if they smooth out the way I anticipate they will, I will regard them as a pretty serious bargain at their price...

Btw - since posting yesterday, I've probably put another 10 hours on them, and they have already smoothed out significantly since Audphile1 came to listen. At this time, I'm quite happy with the bass response; the high frequencies still need some smoothing, but they are much more listenable now than they were yesterday. Am driving them with a 95wpc hybrid integrated (Blue Circle FtTH) and am quite pleased with the overall sound...

Phil, we'll check 'em out again when I come by to drop off the BC501........which is awesome by the way. Yes, these Adagio speakers are darn good!!!! Way exceeded my expectations for $3700 in both the sound and the looks.

Update....It's been almost 2 weeks. Now we are talking!!!! These Adagio speakers finally gave in to a break in process. Everything smoothed out. Balance is very good with no specific frequency that stands out. Bass is tight, deep. Highs are smooth. Mids are juicy. Placement hasn't been changed much(I think) but the break in of the speakers definately went well. Image is dead center, everything else evenly layed out in the soundstage. Nice, deep stage for speaker of this size and price. I actually could not beleive the improvement since the last time I visited. It's almost like a totally different pair of speakers comparing to the way they sounded last time! Definately a huge bargain at $3700. Phil's got a new transport now - Oracle CDT1000. Landed on his shelf directly from outer space. This thing looks cool. Sounds just as good as it looks. Digital cable was AZ Silver Bytes between the CDT1000 and Dodson 218. Very nice sound. Properly set up with right components up stream, these speakers can really sing. Even with Squeezbox2 into the Dodson using the Silver Bytes digital cable, the sound of the system was impressive. Overall, I would not hesitate to recommend these speakers to anyone based on what I heard today. So, here goes the follow up. Once more it prooves that it is important to let the components break in before judging how they sound. I definately liked what I heard today.