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Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekends

SKS said:
Just curious, since we are discussing tube amps with DWs, what tap do you use since the DW are 12 ohm and most tube amps have 8 and 16 ohm taps. Ive been using mine with the loading resistor that brings the speaker down to an 8 ohm load. Im open to hearing what options other DW owners choose.
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I've found the 16 ohm taps sound best with my DWs. I use a Scott LK-48 and a Dynaco ST70. Just experiment. YMMV
 
8 ohm taps here
I think that as long as the load is higher than the secondary tap rating you will have somewhat less power but also less distortion and increased linearity.
 
I guess I should experiment? I use a Dynaco ST-70, HH Scott 299C, Harman Kardon A230, and Magnavox single ended tube amps I’ve always plugged into the 8 ohm taps. I consider these amps to be as audiophile quality as I can afford. These speakers sound so damn good I just leave it. ****, can it sound better? I have to find out.

Honestly, they get driven by my Sansui 4000 most of the time when I’m home. It plays all day almost everyday for music to fill the house as I go about my day. The Sansui doesn’t have impedance dedicated speaker outputs and always sounds way better than I think it should. It’s a beautiful pairing.
 
I recently started to listen to my DWs a lot more. They have been relegated to a room that my wife uses more than I do until a few days ago. Over the holidays I built a new Akitika preamp to match the amp that I built many months ago. Right from the beginning I thought that the combo would be a good match to my DWs. After exchanging the DWs in my wifes room with a pair of Polk SDA 1C I set to the task of integrating them into my small home office. In this room they will have to share real-estate with a bunch of other stuff.

I decided to set them up in a way that would allow me to pull my chair out a bit and rotate 90 degrees to the right. So far it is working well, the room is a bit cluttered, but the sound is fantastic. The DWs are playing along the long axis of the room so they can be pulled out a bit. My chair has been "sideway" for a few days strait. Almost makes my want to disconnect and store the 5.1 channel set up that occupies the rest of the room. Almost....

I remember being disappointed initially by a lack of space and separation from the DWs compared to some other speakers in my house. I can only guess that bad placement was causing those problems. Happy to be enjoying a newfound appreciation for these great speakers.
 
The sense of space when I first set up my DWs was, in my son's words, awesome. The room they had their worst performance was low (7' ceiling) and narrow. They now reside in the family room where they have lots of space. They do not seem to care which amp is driving them but reveal differences in the signal source.
 
Picked up my DW used for $800. Added the copper Jupiter caps yesterday. Best money I’ve ever spent.
 

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ernieS said:
Picked up my DW used for $800. Added the copper Jupiter caps yesterday. Best money I’ve ever spent.
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Finally! I read this entire thread hoping to hear from someone who could actually compare the Jupiter caps (looking at you HiFiJeff ;)) and yours was the last reply:rflmao:

Could you describe the difference you heard?
 
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I’ve listened to my DW’s with the Erse caps for about two years and just recently installed the Jupiter caps. The change was quite noticeable. It took the harshness out of the highs without sacrificing any detail. They are a much more mature sounding speaker now. Still just as fun but with much smoother highs. So far I only have about 20 hours on the jupiters but haven’t noticed much, if any break in.
 
I'm not surprised one could hear a difference between the Erse caps and the Jupiter caps. I really don't know why they used Erse as their stock caps unless it was for those who think all caps are the same. IMAHO there were better relatively cheap caps available. Erse vs Jupiter is like Chevette vs Corvette. Personally I put in Obbligato caps, don't remember exactly which, and am quite satisfied.
 
Ya. I was little surprised to see such a low end cap in there when I cut the heat shrink off of it. I think I remember those caps being priced around $10 each. They were at least matched though.
 
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