Just ordered some Zu Audio speakers!

madmax

I put these on order today. I plan on using them in a HT as front speakers. If they sound good enough I will probably order the rest of the setup. Has anyone heard any of their speakers?

http://www.zuaudio.com/store/omen/def/Default.aspx

coolsax

no but i've heard they are lot of fun to listen too. They are certainly a speaker I would love to get a hold of sometime. I saw Zu's black friday sale and was tempted myself, maybe sometime in the future i'll try and pick some up if I decide to get into high efficiency speakers. I Ordered some Ascend Acoustics Sierra-1s myself this morning as they had some Bstocks on sale this morning.

madmax

Those look nice! http://www.ascendacoustics.com/pages/products/speakers/SRM1/srm1.html

Don't let the black friday sale bother you, I believe those prices to be their new lower price. Apparently they want to increase volume of sales.

coolsax

yeah, and I think the gloss dark cherry will look great. I've also been considering some Dynaudios Excite 12s, which I thought were just awesome when i auditioned them, but I was emailing Dave over at Ascend and he convinced me to audition the Sierras since they have a 30 day money money back. The Sierras have been reviewed favorably with dynaudio speakers so I thought i'd give it a shot. based on the Soundstage network their measurements are very similar so i'm hoping they'll pan out.

madmax

The dark cherry and espresso look the best to me, don't know which I would pick. This color thing annoys me. It took me a week to decide which color would be best for me with the Zu. Give me only one option and I'm happier.

coolsax

the Cherry and natural are may favorites, i had been waffling trying them out as they had recerts of the natural on sale with the 30 day audition, but i guess they sold their last pair of those recently, however i was pleasantly surprised this morning when they put the premium finish bstocks for sale..for only a little more than the original natural recerts were so, I felt I had to jump now on it for the price.

Hilbert

I like the "Select Quantity" button on the Zu Def page---it gives the eager customer the option of ordering as many as 10 pairs. Are those guys optimists or what.

Must admit the speakers look great. I'd go with electric blue, a soothing color for the end of a hard day.

newrival

Hope to see a review on these after you spend some quality time with these!
Have heard a lot of good things about these. And have hurd the adjective "fun" thrown around a lot with these and am curious to see what that means. To me it sounds like casual dynamic listening. perhaps not terribly revealing. Sounds like an interesting philosophy.

madmax

newrival wrote: »

To me it sounds like casual dynamic listening. perhaps not terribly revealing. Sounds like an interesting philosophy.

That is what I'm thinking as well. If we are correct it should make for great HT, dynamic yet forgiving. Not to mention you only need the lowest power weakest amplifiers to drive them. That saves a lot of coin. Its nice that they give you 60 days for trial and charge no shipping to send them to you and back to them if you don't care for the sound. That would be over $100 they would loose in shipping fees if someone doesn't like them.

coolsax

I read recently that they need a lot of break in time.. some of the guys over at Audiocircle in the cheap and cheerful section have ordered some Omens and a few have gotten them in..

madmax

Many of their speakers are broken in at the factory but they state the Omens are not. Being in a production facility I can tell you this saves them a lot of time and money. Imagiine the noise in the room with 50 speakers breaking in!

polkfan38

I would like to be in that room!

madmax

I just got these Druids in before the weekend to use as surrounds. I picked them because they are tall enough to fire over the back of the couch. As you see them in the pic I have set up in the entry way using a 30wpc Dayton T-amp with an Oppo DVD player as the source. After hearing them in stereo it seems almost criminal to use as surrounds. :cool:

I may actually use these as surrounds in a system with my Duo horns as the fronts rather than the Omen Def. I didn't expect this but the character of the Druids is quite the same as the Duos. If I had known that up front I probably would not have ordered the Omen Def. They might make for a good center channel used as a pair.

Edit: Forgot to add that these are great audiophile speakers that cost relatively nothing and can be sourced and driven by almost nothing as well... with less than 30 watts they are taking control over a huge open room and doing it quite nicely!

madmax

coolsax

very nice..so they sound alright with that tiny little amp?

tonyb

Congrats....and you can ship those duo horns right to my house, why, I'll even pay for shipping being the nice guy I am.

madmax

coolsax wrote: »

very nice..so they sound alright with that tiny little amp?

They don't just sound alright. I could package that amp in a 200 pound case full of polished alumminum and label the outputs as 250 wpc class A and if you knew nothing about the efficiency of the speakers you would easily believe it.

This is whats so cool about high efficiency speakers! Put that amp on my Duos which are even more efficient and you have unlimited sound output capability! At this point a higher powered amp only adds additional noise which you don't want. It all comes down to quality of the signal once you are no longer worried about the amount of power available.
madmax

coolsax

fair enough.. i had seen that little amp on parts express and was thinking about doing a small system for my dad at some point, but wasn't sure how the quality of it was. good to know.

madmax

The quality is beyond excellent so long as it can power the chosen speakers correctly. Any speaker at 96db or greater will be a super performer. It is not enough power for anything 92db or less if loud volumes are wanted. They call it a 50wpc amp but it is really only 30wpc.
madmax

madmax

Last night I moved the Druids from the entry way into the big room beside my horns. The room is approximately 20x35 open area with double high ceiling. With the same 30w amp they really take control of the room. I was surprised that in a MUCH larger area the speakers sounded way larger and more open. I expected them to sound very small. I could live with these as my main setup! Still waiting for the Omen Defs to arrive at which point these will become surrounds.

Slyder01

hi guys,, newbie here and first time posting...would that amp be enough to power a set of front presence speakers? I have a yammy rxa2000 and i need another amp for the front presence.. I just want a small in size amp that puts out a clean sound.. thanx.

have a csi5 center, rti6 fronts, fxia6 rears, small paradigms for rear back(for now) and a set of onkyo from a box set for the presence(for now).. pws 450 and dsw micro pro 2000 for the booming

dorokusai

I've found it pretty hard to not find a decent HT loudspeaker.

madmax

dorokusai wrote: »

I've found it pretty hard to not find a decent HT loudspeaker.

Thats just the thing. I was looking for HT, I bought for HT but now I feel bad using for HT... :biggrin:

madmax

Slyder01 wrote: »

hi guys,, newbie here and first time posting...would that amp be enough to power a set of front presence speakers? I have a yammy rxa2000 and i need another amp for the front presence.. I just want a small in size amp that puts out a clean sound.. thanx.

have a csi5 center, rti6 fronts, fxia6 rears, small paradigms for rear back(for now) and a set of onkyo from a box set for the presence(for now).. pws 450 and dsw micro pro 2000 for the booming

It may be, hard to say. I'd probably try to find something a little more powerful if I wanted to be sure.

Slyder01

any suggestions for an amp,, ive been looking but not sure what to get

madmax

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-812

I've been thinking this one would be cool for something. You could even use as a sub amp if you switch in the low pass filter.

Slyder01

wow that thing is small,, thx madmax.... How about the audiosource,, are they any good? http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=302-649

george daniel

I'd really be interested in reading your impressions of the Zu's in a 2 ch setup
.

Face

madmax wrote: »

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-812

I've been thinking this one would be cool for something. You could even use as a sub amp if you switch in the low pass filter.

I wouldn't recommend it for sub duty, maybe bass shakers or a small pair of speakers at most.

Look familiar? http://emotiva.com/bpa1.html

leroyjr1

The guy I bought my Rotel amp from had some of those Zu speakers on a Conrad Johnson tube setup and I was floored by what I was hearing. Very nice indeed.

tonyb

dorokusai wrote: »

I've found it pretty hard to not find a decent HT loudspeaker.

Unless you travel the low budget lane at Bestbuy.

In general I agree, but it has been my experience that when I found good speakers for HT, I was not content using them for music. But when I went searching for a music first speaker, I found they handled HT just as good. Thats just me of coarse, I could be full of sharts too. Nothings for certain as you get older.

madmax

I've noticed that speakers "meant" for HT often have slightly different curves in their frequency response which helps with explosions, rattling chains and other movie type content. I do not like listening to music through this type of speaker but prefer it (somewhat) for movies.