Zu speakers...anyone?

[BHamm]

They advertise some frequency response specs that just don't jive with things like physics or measured response. Like 30something hz frequency extension on Druids. They'll do 30hz, but they are -30dB or worse at that point. They pretty well incapable of producing anything remotely resembling deep bass.

So, as an interested party, does that carry over for every speaker they have ever built. Most examples and references I have seen are based on the Druid. They no longer produce the Druid, and have stated they are building on its short comings. I have heard both sides of the argument; some say the bass is awesome and others say it has none.

 

[dnewma04]

I don't know off hand if it is across the board. I know that the very expensive Zu's had the ability to produce presentable bass in a PA application in vegas. In a room with typical gain, i wouldn't be surprised if it went deep enough to satisfy most people.

 

[automojo]

Thanks.
Have you heard other single driver or similar type speakers to the Omen? If so what were your impressions?
I have a pair of Tekton single driver speakers and really like them. I've been interested in Zu and the Omens specifically, so I'm just trying to get your point of reference. i.e.: If you've never really liked SD speakers vs. if you like SD speakers but don't like Zu it tells me something.
FWIW - The Tektons are the only SD speakers I've really ever heard at length outside of a show, so I have almost no experience with this type of speaker. I drive the Tektons with a 2A3 SET, but I have a vintage receiver that I'll try. Maybe if the Tektons sound like the Zus you heard it might point to the Carver you heard the Zus with...who knows.

Sorry about the long winded explination-in a nut shell I don't really have a like, or dislike of SD speakers, I can appreciate many types of audio setups-even though I prefer a highly dynamic, musical system-that can play loud or soft, without any loss of detail or balance (I guess I just described most peoples ideal system!)-I like high powered systems in general).
I look for a certain purity in the sound of lower powered systems-maybe not so much purity, but a softer presentation that lends musicality over ultimate detail. Perhaps this would be the strength of the Omens-in a low powered class a tube setup, because the midrange is pretty good. With that kind of power, you won't realize the short comings in the bass, and the highs would be (hopefully) tamed by the tubes. I'm skeptical, but no expert on low powered tube setups by any means.
I do think there are some great options in this price range, paticuliarly vintage-maybe not as attractive, but it's about the sound anyway

 

[rifftrax]

Not necessarily disagreeing, I don't know, it just seems like every review we read is saying the same thing once you get over the "It felt as though my entire body was lifted upon a great breeze and transported 3000 miles over the ocean to the very venue in which the recording took place. I was now in downtown London, capitol of the universe. The bass was firm and detailed, bringing back memories of the Wilson Grand Slams I had here just over a year prior. I could almost count each pulse, each visceral cycle of the massive 30 cm drivers with the drum beating in my chest. That stage layed before me was immense- tall and with a wide breadth, defined depth placing the cellos off to my left. The high hats and cymbals were oh so crisp and sweet with a shimmer without a hint of grain, like granulated sugar around the rim of a glass of eggnog. Gillespie was in the room, not 3 feet in front of me and in this moment I dare not open my eyes for fear of the ecstasy evading. I could hear her lips part, feel the warmth of her breath on my face as she said the words 'I love you John'. Softly, softly..." If you know what I mean.

Having subscribed to stereophile for the past two years and reading every single one of their reviews I can say that's not even remotely close to being true.

If that's not what you're referring too, then disregard.

 

[voltcontrol]

Not necessarily disagreeing, I don't know, it just seems like every review we read is saying the same thing once you get over the "It felt as though my entire body was lifted upon a great breeze and transported 3000 miles over the ocean to the very venue in which the recording took place. I was now in downtown London, capitol of the universe. The bass was firm and detailed, bringing back memories of the Wilson Grand Slams I had here just over a year prior. I could almost count each pulse, each visceral cycle of the massive 30 cm drivers with the drum beating in my chest. That stage layed before me was immense- tall and with a wide breadth, defined depth placing the cellos off to my left. The high hats and cymbals were oh so crisp and sweet with a shimmer without a hint of grain, like granulated sugar around the rim of a glass of eggnog. Gillespie was in the room, not 3 feet in front of me and in this moment I dare not open my eyes for fear of the ecstasy evading. I could hear her lips part, feel the warmth of her breath on my face as she said the words 'I love you John'. Softly, softly..." If you know what I mean.

Not sure if I should be rolling on the floour laughing or be really scared by that text.

 

[barredowl]

""It felt as though my entire body was lifted upon a great breeze and transported 3000 miles over the ocean to the very venue in which the recording took place. I was now in downtown London, capitol of the universe. The bass was firm and detailed, bringing back memories of the Wilson Grand Slams I had here just over a year prior. I could almost count each pulse, each visceral cycle of the massive 30 cm drivers with the drum beating in my chest. That stage layed before me was immense- tall and with a wide breadth, defined depth placing the cellos off to my left. The high hats and cymbals were oh so crisp and sweet with a shimmer without a hint of grain, like granulated sugar around the rim of a glass of eggnog. Gillespie was in the room, not 3 feet in front of me and in this moment I dare not open my eyes for fear of the ecstasy evading. I could hear her lips part, feel the warmth of her breath on my face as she said the words 'I love you John'. Softly, softly..."

ROTFL, is that from the 6 Moons Zu Druid review? EXACTLY the reason I am in the "pro sound" big solid state watts into full full range multi driver speakers plus a sub with measurements and EQ camp.

 

[evsentry3]

They advertise some frequency response specs that just don't jive with things like physics or measured response. Like 30something hz frequency extension on Druids. They'll do 30hz, but they are -30dB or worse at that point. They pretty well incapable of producing anything remotely resembling deep bass.

I suppose that would depend a ton on you're definition of deep bass.

The Druids measured pretty much flat to the 40hz point in my room! I say pretty much flat because that was as per an analyzer that didn't have a extremely fine resolution. And they were by no means loaded in corners.

If you're after room shaking bass from movies then you're looking in the wrong place. If you're after satisfying music then the Druid was a great choice. The high efficiency gives great dynamics that you don't have to push levels up to crazy loud to get. If you're after impressing the neighbors (with the windows closed) then get something else!

As far as the comment about a ton of better sounding speakers, well a few years ago an audio buddy of mine and me went to the Denver show. We'd never even heard of Zu before. Out of all the rooms, the Zu room was one of only 3 or 4 we had any interest in going back to. A very few that had anything like the life to the music also had those stupid to the max prices attached. Both of us had a pair of Druids within a few months, despite having no intention of getting any speakers. And both of us have several other nice speakers around then and now. Like Thiels, VOT's A-7's, yes my EV Sentry 3's, Coincedence, Martin Logan's and so on.

After several years...no regrets! Love the music they make!

EV 3

PS..Oh, I have a pair of DIY tuned column kind of speakers (about the same height as the Druid's) that with 8" drivers certainly hit the 40 and might just about get the 30hz point, so I don't know why it'd be impossible! And that's with 2A3's driving them!

 

[dnewma04]

I'm glad you like your druids.

 

[evsentry3]

Thanks! To me it's about the life in music. Can it communicate? Change your emotions? Do you listen for a long time into the night? Or are you constantly changing songs part way through, looking for something that's just missing?

The single driver style speaker, common sense would tell you, will at some point congest as you go up in level. You can lessen that effect if you are high passing and using some kind of LF augmentation. The highly efficient, don't need a brute amp, can excel when you don't want (or can't) run super loud driving. Trying desperately to push dynamics thru a whole basket full of crossover elements and stiff mounted, all but dead, drivers!

 

[dnewma04]

Druids can certainly change my emotions.

 

[mhardy6647]

Druids can certainly change my emotions.

Monitor cleanup on Aisle One! Monitor cleanup on Aisle One! Stat!

 

[automojo]

I suppose that would depend a ton on you're definition of deep bass.

The Druids measured pretty much flat to the 40hz point in my room! I say pretty much flat because that was as per an analyzer that didn't have a extremely fine resolution. And they were by no means loaded in corners.

If you're after room shaking bass from movies then you're looking in the wrong place. If you're after satisfying music then the Druid was a great choice. The high efficiency gives great dynamics that you don't have to push levels up to crazy loud to get. If you're after impressing the neighbors (with the windows closed) then get something else!

As far as the comment about a ton of better sounding speakers, well a few years ago an audio buddy of mine and me went to the Denver show. We'd never even heard of Zu before. Out of all the rooms, the Zu room was one of only 3 or 4 we had any interest in going back to. A very few that had anything like the life to the music also had those stupid to the max prices attached. Both of us had a pair of Druids within a few months, despite having no intention of getting any speakers. And both of us have several other nice speakers around then and now. Like Thiels, VOT's A-7's, yes my EV Sentry 3's, Coincedence, Martin Logan's and so on.

After several years...no regrets! Love the music they make!

EV 3

PS..Oh, I have a pair of DIY tuned column kind of speakers (about the same height as the Druid's) that with 8" drivers certainly hit the 40 and might just about get the 30hz point, so I don't know why it'd be impossible! And that's with 2A3's driving them!

That's interesting, because the Omens, I heard of them, don't have a flat frequency response down to 30hz, as the bass output vs the mids and the highs is way down-they just don't match.
I'm not talking room shaking bass-bass output enough to match up well with the mid and highs. Low frequency bass output is a bit useless IMHO unless it's up to task with the other frequency domains.
I'm not one that needs room shaking bass, only when the program material, and playing levels call for it-not into the home theater thing, nor do I prefer subwoofers do to the disconnect and imaging limitations with the main drivers.
Again, prehaps the best match for the Omens anyway is a nice smaller tube amp-but they didn't seem like a very involving speaker, given their design goals and limitations-again perhaps it was the Carver amp-but I'm still skeptical.

 

[boyo]

Boy my Omen's are giving me very firm bass and the experience in my room is very different than what was described above. Of course I'm using a vintage tube amp (Sherwood 5000) rather than SS. I'm a DCM user previously, but the Zu Omens are an amazing speaker, especially but not because of the price. Don't read too much into the measurement BS that you've heard on various boards (dealers??). I'm glad I didn't. I'm into a more emotional presentation, I guess.

 

[dnewma04]

Well, by nature, measurements should help remove some BS, not create it. At the audio show I went to, most people couldn't sit for more than a minute or two before making weird faces and leaving. There were about 4-5 people who never seemed to leave who were completely enthralled with them. So much so, that I thought they may have been getting paid by Zu. Most others cringed and left quickly. Perhaps, the Omens are a extraordinary step up from the Druids.

 

[boyo]

They could be. I think they have more in common with the Soul than the Druid. Let's see what the reviews look like. I'm thankful for an inexpensive, US Made product with a generous return policy that's killing my array of vintage speakers. Forgive my skepticism with regards to the haters.

 

[Art K.]

For those who keep coming back to the Druids, they aren't the only speaker that Zu has produced. I'm still interested in hearing some of their offerings...not enough to buy without listening though.

 

[dnewma04]

They certainly aren't the only speaker, but they were the speaker that was most accessible and the speaker they paraded around the audio shows and sent out first for review, hence, if people have experience with Zu speakers, it's very likely that experience is with the Druids.

The APT-50 they used in that aluminum horn lens was something to behold.

I have a pair of speakers that use very similar drivers. An eminence 10" mid and an APT50 tweeter, but in coax format with well designed crossovers and the parts used have the potential to sound quite decent.

I'd be willing to give the new speakers with the tangband tweeters a shot, as well. They won't help the 5-10k range but I'll bet they smooth out the highs to some degree.

 

[legalalien]

Jeez what have I started...and I thought my Advents were polarizing but I don't think I've ever read as much love/hate on a speaker as the Zu's. I'm wondering if some people like the IDEA of the Zu's more so than what they actually do. They seem like a good bunch of guys but that alone will not get me to part with my green, man I wish I could hear these things.

 

[dnewma04]

Here is what I would suggest. Poll the SMAC members to see if anyone else has any interest in Zu's. If there are 3-4 of you, split any costs associate with returning them between the members then arrange to have each of you have a couple of weeks of listening on your own systems. If you don't like them, the out of pocket costs will be nothing more than a cheap rental fee.

You can use the saved money to purchase hearing aids to fix the damage.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

 

[BHamm]

Or you can drop by my house in northern California for a listen after mine arrive.