Acoustic Zen ‘Crescendo’ speakers on Triode Corp electronics using Nittobo Acoustic room treatments.

OK.

Surprise, surprise, Neli was here. I hardly ever, ever run into her when I cruise the show exhibits. So I spent my time wondering whether this was the first time she has ever seen me photograph a room for the show reports or not [I do an unorganized sloppy job on our own exhibit rooms - don’t know why, and I am trying to be better].

All to say that I did not listen much to this room.

But she did: really good layout of the soundstage, really good soundstage depth [we are used to some of the best soundstage layout and depth I’ve heard anywhere - here on a day to day basis - so this is an extreme compliment]. She also thought, whether because of the room treatments or the amp’s innate abilities, the sound was not flabby in any way [we talked about and we really like the way the speakers degrade really, really well when paired with less than optimal equipment - i.e. we are not sure they EVER get flabby and uncontrolled. They degrade well enough that one could put a $1K solid-state amp on them and still get something worth listening to. ]

The Crescendo [and smaller Adagio] are really, really good general purpose speakers for general purpose listening and an extremely good bargain at their price points. They do like power [see how the watt meters in these amps in this room behave in the photos below], and, although we do carry them here, I did not intend for the previous sentence to be salesy [go ahead and buy them somewhere else then - most people do - the vast majority of our customers are looking for extreme high performance in $30K+ speakers or extreme high-efficiency (or both ) . But the Crescendo and Adagio are still great speakers].

Sweet Neli in the sweet spot

The system in the Acoustic Zen, Triode Corp room

The Acoustic Zen ‘Crescendo’ loudspeaker

The Acoustic Zen ‘Crescendo’ loudspeaker

The Triode Corp (Tri) TRX-M845 monoblock amplifier

The Triode Corp (Tri) TRX-M845 monoblock amplifier

The Triode Corp (Tri) TRX-M845 monoblock amplifier

The Triode Corp TRX-M845 amplifier

The Triode Corp (Tri) TRX-M845 amplifier

The Triode Corp TRV CD5SE CD player

The Triode Corp TRX-1 preamplifier

Nittobo Acoustic’s Acoustic Groove System room treatment

Nittobo Acoustic’s Acoustic Groove System room treatment on the side wall first reflection points

The Orb ‘Destat’ CD destaticizer. Removing static from CDs really does work, in our experience, but it has been hard for us to incorporate it into day to day listening.

Wherein we go into more detail about the sound at this year’s CES.

First, Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen knows how to set up a room at a show. He knows what kind of sound he is after, and if the amp he was supplied is not doing what he wants, he will put it on static display and use something else that gets the job done.

What this means is that 1) you can go to their room at a show and be pretty certain it is not going to suck. In fact, it will likely be quite good sounding [we’ll go into what good sounding means in this context below], and 2) that the amps he is using are amps YOU can use with these Acoustic Zen speakers and be pretty sure that it is going to also sound good.

Yes, this is indeed extremely rare. By far most rooms (99% or so), even ones we give best of shows to, either A) sound good because they got lucky and the unfamiliar amp from a manufacturer who was the first to agree to share costs of the room JUST HAPPENED to sound good with the speaker manufacturer who was the first to agree to pay some of the room costs or B), the quality of one of the components, or the speakers, is so good that even with mismatched components the room still sounds pretty good.

Acoustic Zen has paired with Red Dragon, Edge, Response Audio and Tri.

Essentially, the Crescendo speakers are full-range Adagio speakers, which were already pretty full-range but were not enough for people with larger rooms or who listen to a lot of classical music and want the lower octaves to sound realistic. The Crescendo has a greater ease of presentation and a bigger, fuller sound.

Which I think is the point of these speakers.

First, most speakers in this price range suck. They are a joke. Few attempt to do full range and those that do usually suck more.

Let’s talk about the ones that do not suck for a minute.

We have the Marten Miles III and Kharma 3.1C. More detail, more transparency, more audiophile, but no where near the authority or frequency range.

The Soundlab A1 has the frequency range, but not the authority unless you really out a mofo amp on it, but if you want a electrostatic then you are probably not reading this post anyway.

You got the Wilson Sophia [not the range or sense of ease], Avalon… not sure which one [not the authority or range], Audio Note [if you have corners available. If you do then this might be a possibility, with careful attention to setup]. Let’s see… what else?

Most people who come here to demo these speakers, to tell you the truth, have just come from auditioning the B&W, Definition, and JM Lab/Focal. They have just been fed tipped up midrange hell and musical slurry. They are rarely audiophiles and we have so little time to demonstrate to them that they are on the road to ‘audio hell’ [when they see $350K speakers, they think we have already arrived at audio nutsville ]. The Acoustic Zen are audiophile-grade speakers, whereas the others are not [sorry]. Which takes us to the next section.

These speakers have what I think of as 2 distinct sounds - depending on the amp driving them. With a Red Dragon amp, or little Kharma amp, these are very dynamic, fairly quick sounding speakers. With Edge amps and tube amps, these are more…tube-like, a little more harmonic and continuous. With BAT amps you can achieve the middle ground - more or less.

We’ve found people greatly prefer either one or the other with these speakers [whereas we do not. We like both flavors of sound].

I think these speakers are for music lovers, not quite so much into the sophisticated sound gymnastics as some audiophiles are [guilty as charged, love those crazy subtle details and intricacies!] , and want a audiophile-grade full-range speaker for an audiophile-grade 2-way speaker price.

[Still no Comcast… So miniature photos is what we got for supper again tonight]

The conference was not much busier today than yesterday, it seemed to me, which was different than last year.

But oday, they did not hand the conference microphone to the SpeakerCraft people, at least it sounded like they were from SpeakerCraft, but he was such an exuberant salesman - SHOUTING his enthusiasm, that the SPLs had us all curled up in fetal positions on the floor trying to stuff carpet fibers in our ears - anything to try and protect ourselves from the Onslaught. But seriously, it was LOUD but decipherable as words in some parts of the all, and total noise in others, and in some the volume was just ridiculously loud. I mean, the announcement system is perfect if someone is trying to tell everyone in the hall that there is a fire. It would work fine. Just keep sales people away from it.

Velodyne has a new subwoofer. Looks like it will produce some of dem bass type notes, all right.

A close up of the marketing specs. Of course, who cares about THD? Most poeple probably care about dynamic distortion. But is is not a horn, nor is it pulling 100 amps, so THAT is likely going to be more than 0.5%. But I bet is is something to hear.

Gallo Acoustics’ cute little speakers.

The EDGE Electronics room at T.H.E. with Montana loudspeakers.

The EDGE Electronics room at T.H.E. with Montana loudspeakers.

The HAL Audio Server user interface. Media server user interfaces were all the rage this show. Kind of like an iphone for non-liliputs. Or an iphone for the home. Or for people who have large fingers or bad eyesight. Personally, I am in all 4 of those cagtegories, so these UI’s interest me.

The new Acoustic Zen subwoofer

Phillips had a supersized remote control. Kind of cool to imagine actually using something like this. A remote control for giants. CEDIA is become like Gulliver’s Travels, I guess.

At least some people are looking for some good sound to be associated with good video…

ADAM speakers has a new line for the home. These use a improved Heil driver for the tweeter and midrange.

Another Media Server interface.

Another Media Server interface.

Sonus Fabers new Cremona M

Sonus Fabers new Cremona center channel

Over at T.H.E. Show. [need to insert speaker manufacturer name when brain comes back on line]. The gunshots had WAY too much low bass. Sounded more like close canon fire, the way it punched a person in the chest, or morter fire. Not that I have had direct experience with those events, but I had heard a gun go off before).

Media Max’s Media Server user interface.

So far the Totem booth has the honor of best of show in the main conference, (oops need to put up a photot ot two) and EDGE / Montana at T.H.E. Show (which only has 4 or 5 rooms this year, depending on how you count - though we did not wait in the line for the Maggie / Bryston demo there).

After going through several system configurations, this one was perhaps our favorite, especially of those with speakers driven by solid-state amplifiers.

The Adagios, in this configuration, in this room (that wall behind the speakers is not symmetrical and not flat…) seemed to prefer the more aggressive Kharma digital amp than the more powerful, more laid back, and more expensive EDGE amps. It helped wake them up, so to speak.

All Nordost Valhalla cabling. Yeah, each cable cost more than the speakers… but we save money using the Office Depot power strip, see?

But in the end, this is a fairly reasonably priced system at about $25K + cables.

No, these speakers don’t sound as tight and controlled and have the finesse of the $45-$50K Kharma Mini Exquisite and Marten Coltrane speakers… which just seems to depress our visitors who are auditioning the Adagios.

Maybe we should just hide them next time?

We already go through the ‘You really don’t want to hear these. You’ll be spoiled and will never be able to go back”. Doesn’t work, though.

And we really LIKE the Adagios… what other speaker can you play (successfully) rock & roll AND opera on in this price range? Like none, man.

We had somebody come by who wanted to hear the Adagio loudspeakers in a larger room… and it was easiest to bring them upstairs…

.. and put them on the Audio Note Ongaku integrated amplifier…

… driven by the Emmlabs CDSA single-box CD / SACD player.

After we got over the initial shock of how much efficnet these speakers were than the Audio Note speakers they replaced…

They sounded pretty darn good!

We know some system builders like to put cheap amps on expensive speakers… well, this is the other side of that coin.

And in this case I think it worked better, as there weren’t any nasties… mostly just limitations on dynamics, mostly midi- and micro-dynamics, and various subtlties that we in the high part of the fi like to have along with our music.

We sold our red ones to someone who just had to have red - so Neli picked walnut this time.

Still breaking in. Which is the reason for the choo-choo-train speaker setup…

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.

… also breaking in.

Showroom (show area) 3 now has thge Soundlab Ultimate 1 electrostatic loudspeakers as permanent residents and the Acoustic Zen Adagio as guests.

Neli tells me there are a number of people who want to hear the Adagio’s in a larger room, so here they are for now. We still have to fuss with the positioning… and they might even end up against the long wall where we can, because they are front ported, try putting them from very close to the wall to out in the middle of the room.

The Soundlab U1 really, really sounds nice in this system. Yeah, it is an expensive front end - let’s see, about $130K for a $32K speaker - but it makes that system sound quality on a par with some of the best systems we have heard, bar none. Not just in coherence and detail, which the Soundlabs always have, but involvement and suspense and emotionalty and naturalness. Magic? Can’t tell yet, with the show and all this breaking in we haven’t got a chance to just live with it for any length of time yet. It was the introduction of the M10 that really put this over the top.. and we found this out by accident, if you will remember, when we were just trying to break in the M10 at high gain (volumes) and so put it on the hard-to-drive Soundlabs.

The equipment rack for Showroom 3. We have the Emmlabs CDSD SE transport in front, Edge Signature One amps behind it, and on the HRS MXR equipment rack the Audio Note M10 preamp and its two large Galahad power supplies and the Emmlabs DCC2 SE DAC. Lots of Shunyata Anaconda power cords, Jorma Design No. 1 speaker cable, and Nordost Valhalla interconnects - and I think we have a Jorma ‘Prime’ interconnect in here too.

The equipment rack for Showroom 3. One of the Galahad power supplies is on the top whelf - it was the only way we could get 4 things on the MXR rack given that one of those things HAD to be the M10 (for the reasons of curiosity and because we didn’t want to have to step over those big boys every time we wanted to put a CD in the transport).

[No, your eyes do not deceive you, the Edge amps are indeed on the floor. One, they do not sound so bad there, this is not the first time they have visited the carpet. Second, we really do not have enough HRS M3 Isolation Bases to go around - we know we need them, we know we want them, we know we will get them, but for right now… it is on the carpet they go]

As far as how the Adagios are sounding at this point in their breakin process…. see next post.

The Adagios arrived yesterday evening…

Now the break in.

They need to name another Excedrin Headache after the break-in processes.

“Got lots of congestion? Experiencing strange rhythm and pacings? Is this something new in your life? Then you got Excedrin Headache #6753. Take two asprin and call me in 200 - 600 hours.”

Actually, it sounds pretty good right out of the box. Speakers disappear really well but there is some congestion, as to be expected (considering their current positioning… aka none… they are doing great).

OK, pics:

Our Acoustic Zen Adagio.

Acoustic Zen Adagio, Kharma Mini Exquisites and SoundLab Ultimate One loudspeakers in listening room #2.

Yes, it is getting silly crowded in this room.

Acoustic Zen Adagio in another wood finish at CEDIA Expo 2006

Acoustic Zen Allegro subwoofer in a lighter finish at CEDIA Expo 2006

… as well as the Acoustic Zen line of cables (which we have been recommending for years - even though they are not quite in the stratospheric, some might say astronomical , price range as the cables we generally prefer here).

But the Adagios are not just a good value, they are an exceptional value. We believe them to be a high-end loudspeaker at a lower mid-fi price of $4300

We have a number of customers (and fans) who get a little short of breath (or their significant others do ) when they think about purchasing $50K speakers.

We will also be getting in, hopefully in the near future, the $12K or so Marten Design Miles III and Kharma 3.1c loudspeakers - which are also near-full-range like the Adagios.

And of course there are the Audio Note U.K. loudspeakers at these price ranges for those who just want a speaker to sound good

All of these speakers we have heard either many times or for many hours - and they have our full respect and we have recommended them many times.

Although we specialize in the ultimate cost-no-object high-end audio system, we really do try to help people with systems in all price ranges.

I guess what all this means is that people who actually make it to the store here will soon get a chance to hear that there are a few bargains out there (a very few) and that in the end you get what you pay for - but there can be happiness, satisfaction and pride-of-ownership at every price range.

You just need to stay away from the crap and the glitter and the over-hyped junk.

Just to give y’all out there some perspective, we will soon have loudspeakers here at AF that are $250K, $145K (on sale, somebody buy these now please , $55K, $50K, $40K, $33K and now…. $4K.

OK, a picture of the Adagio speakers similar to the ones we will be getting in a few days.