Acoustic Zen Adagio and Audio Aero
Acoustic Zen Agagio loudspeakers powered by Audio Aero Capitole 50 watt amplifier in main listening room
We wanted to test a theory of ours – that the Acoustic Zen Adagio speaker worked better with amplifiers that were more ’round’ and less detailed sounding.
We also wanted to see if the Adagios could fill a room that is 15 feet by 35 feet by 24 feet tall, which is more or less open on one side, with sound.
Not to mention whether the 50 watt Audio Aero amplifier at 50 push-pull KT88 into EL34-based amp could drive the speakers…
Finally, almost finally, we are looking at building some lower cost systems out of the Audio Note and Adagio / Audio Aero lines and this system, at roughly $24K + cables and rack, is definitely on the inexpensive side here at Audio Federation. Whether we continue in this direction or not depends on the response from our customers – but eventually we would like to have a system, in some as yet imaginary showroom, that is based on, say, Audio Aero Prima CD player and intergrated amplifier and Adagio which comes in at say $10K + cables and rack, tuned by Mike and Neli with special cables and isolation gear. Similary for a comparably-priced Audio Note system.
And, besides all that, we are running out of room and so why not put the Adagios in the least likely place? 🙂
Audio Aero Capitole Reference CD player on Rix Rax equipment rack.
Hey, it sounded pretty darn good!
Technically, and I have not listened all that critically yet but, it did not sound as accomplished as the system with the $70K Audio Note M10 and Emm labs CDSD / DCC2 driving Edge Signature One amplifiers, coming in at $130K, but this less expensive system captured more of the character of what these speakers do well: which is to create a satisfying, room-filling sound in a musical and very competant, balanced fashion. No tipped up mids and bass here, no collapse into mush at the first sign of complexity… not that we are point fingers at the, oh, I don’t know… perhaps the five most popular speaker brand’s speakers that cost less than, say, $40K? Nahhhhhh….
Yeah, there is a hump at the port frequency and a dip above it, like most ported speakers. But it is not overly prominent or distracting.
Listening from my office, which is off of the main listening room, it sounded different, but as enjoyable and nearly as emotional, as the much larger, soon to be shipped, system looming behind there in the photos. Considering the difference in cost and pain-in-the-ass factors, for casual listening one can’t help wondering why someone would want something more than this. But we are a store, so we do not wonder too awfully long. 🙂
Which brings us to in-room, critical listening.
Nordost Tyr speaker cable.
Next step is to put some vibration mitigation underneath the Capitole Amplifier, which is just sitting on its BDR cones on the carpet: most of the notes from, say, 1600Hz on down are muddied on the decay as their deliterious effects feedback upon themselves. I would like to go with a full out HRS Isolation Base and Nimbus Couplers – just to be able to get rid of these effects and be able to start probing for other weaknesses – but they are all on active duty here, so it would pain us to have to steal one from another system….We’ll see.
There is also a question about whether the less expensive Acoustic Zen cables would mate better with these speakers than the Nordost Tyr. If so, that will be a clear win in improving overall price performance.
Anyway…. This system is kind of fun to have up in this listening room, a room which is usually reserved for the big mutha systems we have here. Kind of nice to ‘travel light’ for a change.
