Acoustic Zen Crescendo or Sony SS-AR1

I agree with Kal. There are a lot of great speakers under 30k. Many of which I think are better performers than the Crescendo. That being said, I heard the Sony SS-AR1s, and was so impressed, that I'm very seriously considering buying them. They are beautifully crafted, and sonically didn't really have any flaws that I could detect. I thought that they held their own against dynaudio temptations which cost 50% more.

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I have heard the Acoustic Zen's at several shows, there is no consensus that I know of that puts these speakers as the product to beat under $30k, there are people who like the sound and the speaker does put out a lot of clean deep bass.

I had a pair of Adagios good speaker but not that great.

For $20-$30k you could get a Rahdio, a pair of the superb Usher BE 10 or 20, KEF 207, the Revel Salons, and any of these speakers are similarly priced to the Acoustic Zens and are far better speakers.

I haven't heard the Sony's I think they are a bit much for what you are getting for the money, but I am sure they are musical as hell, great driver compliment.

I am waiting to hear the new KEF Blade, which offers truly revolutionary technology, proprietary drivers, and an elegant footprint for $30k there were many people talking about this speaker, and it may be the one to beat at that price point.

Oracle needs to disclose his dealer status when recommending products/lines in which there is a financial interest.

Readers have a right to know what and/or who hides behind the curtain.

IMO

Aside from the question about a consensus (with respect to which I agree with the above posts), is it just me who is bothered that the OP considers a speaker in the $30K price range to be a "budget" speaker?

No public consenus, but from the perceptions of the Audio press during the past two years such as Postive Feedback, Audioreview and others claiming the Crescendo's can stand up too performance level's of $50K speakers which I find hard to swallow. Robert Lee informed me the Crescendo's can easily handle 1000 watts rms with no sweat. Very power hungry. Sensitivity on the Sony's is 88db, which can handle gobs of power as well. Anyone out there using a pair of high powered mono blocks on the Crescendo's? Talked to a retail dealer in California and he heard the Sony's at the show in Newport, was blown away. Midrange is on the warm side and very rich and smooth. Dynamics are outsanding.