Zu Audio speakers?

joeinid

joeinid

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Anyone have Zu Audio speakers?

Can anyone comment on the sound? They seem to have a love it or hate it reputation.

I’ve never heard them but see lots of fans online.

Curious. They seem well suited to lower powered and/or tube amps.
 
You should go to WBF and talk to the guy who brings up Zu speakers in every thread. If you started a thread about your dead grandmother, he would bring up Zu speakers in your thread. He would probably say every funeral home should have Zu speakers because they will lift your spirits when you listen to music through them.

Seriously, since you state the speakers have a reputation as either being loved or hated and you are curious about them because you can use low power amps, it would be good if you actually had a chance to hear them in person. Otherwise, you will be hearing from those that love them and those that hate them which isn’t much help.
 
Yucky. Good for funeral homes perhaps, where they are not played.


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my son has a pair (can't tell you which model but they are big) and to these ears they sound superb. Driven by PASS electronics. They soundstage beautifully, thanks to a great set up with plenty of room to breath both behind and on the sides.
 
W9TR said:
They sound like feral cats scratching glass. Worst speakers I've heard this decade.
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Tom, we both walked out at the RMAF demo in 2017.

I will say things sounding significantly better in 2019 but don’t remember the pot pizza [emoji487]

I know no more, no less...

MEP, your comment on the Zu guy on WBF is funny as the others


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UltraFast69 said:
MEP, your comment on the Zu guy on WBF is funny as the others


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We have lots of those. There’s people on there who claim to be building a house for a system.....since Nixon was President.


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Every time I heard Zu, I didn’t last more than 2 minutes in the room, even when they are paired with Pass electronics, which normally are pleasant to listen to.
 
kzhtoo said:
Every time I heard Zu, I didn’t last more than 2 minutes in the room, even when they are paired with Pass electronics, which normally are pleasant to listen to.
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I suspect you, like many others have not heard them presented correctly or perhaps there is a big difference in the models they offer, I truthfully don't know.
 
I’m going to try and listen for myself. I’m not thinking about anything now, just super curious.

Thank you guys for your thoughts.
 
Mikado463 said:
I suspect you, like many others have not heard them presented correctly or perhaps there is a big difference in the models they offer, I truthfully don't know.
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Perhaps. I only heard them at shows, which never is optimal condition. I don’t think they have a dealer network, do they, as they seem to sell things direct?

Even then though, any good loudspeakers have no business sounding like that even not presented correctly.
 
These are well loved by many so I’m wondering if there are big model to model and unit to unit variations. I too have only heard them at shows - but it was in their room with their team demonstrating them so I have to believe it was a good representation of their sound.

There are a lot of speakers I just don’t like because they are unnaturally detailed or over-hyped or have some obvious sonic character that I find offensive. But that’s just me and others will have different opinions. For example I’ve never heard a Lowther driver speaker that didn’t have me running for the exit in seconds. Other people love ‘em.

What I’ve said about the Zu’s before is that they are very idiosyncratic and you need to listen to them yourself.
 
When I had CJ I was looking for a more efficient speaker to replace my Dyn's. I bought a set of Zu, they were Omen cabinets with Soul Super Fly drivers.

They use drivers made for them by Eminence.

I will say they will play lloud as ..... and hold together like nobody's business.

I moved on, I couldn't get any low bass out of them in my room and those super tweeters got to be more than I could handle listening to. They probably would have been good in a home theater where they only had to play above a certain frequency and you could EQ the top end.

They really are designed for SET.
 
I can offer a perspective based on owning Zu Definition Mk IVs for the past seven years. I do not consider myself a Zu fanboy. They are not my destination speakers. My comments below are based only on the Def IVs as I have not heard any other models.

Like any other speaker they require proper equipment matching and system optimization to get the best sound. This includes clean power and good cables. They are not a plug and play speaker that can be plopped in any old system and will sound great. When optimized the speakers are totally transparent and have a wide soundstage. They have a nice low end shove, very good tone and voices are very realistic. In my system they play all genres of music very well, except for classical. Where they come up short for me is resolution. The dual 10” full range drivers cannot extract the detail I personally am looking for and have heard from other speakers. Because of this imaging is not as precise as I would like it to be and soundstage depth while there, is not extended. I would classify these as a more musical speaker rather than an audiophile speaker. At $16,900 for a new pair I believe these are a good value if you are looking for a more musical set of speakers. For the record my speakers have never sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, however crappy recordings still sound like crappy recordings.

As a contrast, in May of this year I had the opportunity to hear the Focal Kanta 2s and the Avantgarde Uno Fino speakers at two different dealers. I was excited to hear these, especially the Uno Finos as I view the Avantgarde Duo XDs as a possible end game speaker. I can sum up the visits by saying I was totally underwhelmed with what I heard from each system. My home system with the Zu speakers was significantly better. I believe a large part of this was due to the systems themselves and not the speakers. If I totally based my perspective of the Avantgardes on that one listening session I would write them off and remove them from my potential destination speaker list. I suspect a large part of the love/hate with Zu speakers has do to component matching and system optimization.

My current system: Antipodes Gen 2 server > Final Touch Audio Ethernet cable > Lampizator Pacific DAC with VC > Bakoon Amp-12R > Zu Definition Mk IVs. All power cords and other cables LessLoss C-MARC. Power conditioning via LessLoss C-MARC Firewall 64Xs (6)

Apologies for the lengthy post.
 
I got the Zu Essence many years ago, and upgraded to the Druids a few years ago.

When I started, I chose them based on the “made in America” tag, and high sensitivity. At that point in time I was doing some DIY amp making. I was doing work in the 12-40 watt range with both tubes, and first watt clones. I did (and still don’t) have room for a more traditional big box high efficiency speaker.

Strengths and weaknesses to be sure. Most agree that there is a Zu “house” sound signature, which is either liked, or not. They have a lot of energy, and I don’t consider them to be “polite”. I continue to enjoy them.

They are also small for a high efficiency speaker, and being bottom ported, are easy to place in a room.

That being said, as I am looking for the retirement system, I’m trying to consider more options, requiring more amplification. The new Druid VI is on my list.
 
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