Zu Omens are in!

B Run

Just got my Zu Omens in today! I'll take the weekend to listen to them before I post my thoughts. I can say they are absolutely beautiful, and even right out of the box i'm blown away by how great they sound. Here's a teaser pic, review to follow shortly:cheesygrin:

txcoastal1

I just think you need to pack'em up and drive them to Dallas May 3rd:question:

Enjoy

txcoastal1

^^^^Would like to see them paired with the lil' tuber that Danny got from Heiney

Dawgfish

Awesome! Can't wait to hear your review. Put a butcher block, stone block, or engineered concrete underneath them. It really helps with bass definition. They are very sensitive to placement and setup, especially the vertical angle(adjusted with the threaded floor spikes) and toe-in. Small changes make a big difference with these. Congrats again and sweet set-up btw!

jumpindick

cool! a review would help many people here who may be interested. Ejoy!

B Run

Yep they're 36x12x12. I'm going to try my best to make it if I can, I love how they sound off the Rotel but I'd really like a chance to hear them off a nice tube amp. I've had people over since I got them in but we listened to music all night and I'm really impressed with how well they fill the house with sound. Ill really be able to sit down and listen to them Sunday and will do a complete write up. Still can't wipe the stupid grin off my face when they're playing!

coolsax

Congrats man hope they sound as awesome as they look.

shadowlight

Congratulation. Take a look at the massive Audiocircle thread on tweaking the speakers for best possible sounds. I own both Omen Def Mk.1b and Soul Superfly Mk.1b and enjoy the sound from both. The Superfly are used in 2-channel system while the Omen Def are in mixed mode room, but primary usage is home theater.

mrbiron

It's about time!!!
I have been looking for this thread everyday for the past couple weeks!!

Are these the Dirty Weekend Omens or just straight up Omens? If my memory serves me correct, you got the factory upgrade?
Details man....DETAILS!!!

B Run

Quick details: They are Omen Dirty Weekends. They have a Druid mkIV 08 used driver, and upgraded Druid caps as well. Still haven't spent enough time to give a full review yet but to quote my wife tonight "I was upstairs and could swear i heard someone singing in the living room, like it filled the entire house :cheesygrin:"

tonyb

Congrats man, they look pretty cool. Nice isn't it, when your SQ jumps a few notchs. Can't seem to wipe that grin off your face.

B Run

Ok here we go, this is my first review so take it easy on me. I guess i'll start with my previous speakers and associated equipment. I'm coming from Klipsch F3's, Heresy II's and most recently I was running a pair of RF82's. They paired nicely with my Rotel 1055, much better than the Nad 752 I was previously running. The Rotel has plenty of juice for sensitive speakers and is pretty close to neutral, maybe a tad forward sounding but extremely detailed. I'm listening to music through a first gen AEX using the dac in the Rotel (I know I need to get a standalone dac and better source). I've crossed them over at 60hz letting the sub handle the low end, and have them hooked up with Pepster's VH style PC's and Kimber Kable 4pr's. Pretty basic system but it gets the job done for now.

Enter the Zu Omen Dirty Weekend:
My budget was around $1,000 give or take, and I spent months trying to find the best option for me. I'm 26, and it's just my wife and I, plus some dogs and I had to take that into consideration. I don't have the room for Maggies which I originally wanted, and with pet hair in the house and habit of burning one while I listen I also ruled out Martin Logans for obvious reasons. I still wanted to try something different from the typical run of the mill box speakers, that could be the multi purpose speaker I was looking for. My living room opens to the kitchen and gameroom so I wanted something that can fill the house if we have people over. I've had my eye on Zu for a long time but always kind of wrote them off as they are usually ran off tubes in a lot of the reviews I read and that's a path i'm not willing to go down, at least for now. My wife turns the tv on and off several times a day and watches her shows in here, and it just makes it easier with SS gear. Well as soon as I saw the Dirty Weekend advertised with a 60 day money back return policy I knew I had to have them. Dawgfish answered every possible question I could think of over countless PM's and pushed me over the edge. After the longest 3 weeks of my life they came in Friday night and they haven't stopped playing since.

First things first, I want to give a shout out to Zu's customer service especially Christian and Gerrit. We exchanged about 30 emails and they were extremely prompt and helpful, helping with everything from cheap upgrades to rushing my shipping for me. Fantastic people to deal with, customer service is huge with me and that's why I also recommend Polk so much.

Get to the point, how do they sound???

When I finally got them hooked up the first thing I noticed is the soundstage, it's HUGE. The width and depth blew me away, it's wall to wall. After tweaking the placement and tilting them at a slightly upward angle I've got the height pretty dialed in, still need to do a little fine tuning. They image very well and i've never been able to pinpoint exactly where an instrument is coming from like this before. They do have an overall slightly forward presentation to them, not in a bad way at all it's just something I noticed in my room. The manual does a great job of giving helpful info on proper setup and placement.

The bass is very tight and punchy, I really like the downfiring type design as it works great in my living room and hardwood floors. I've got them at 60hz, the Rotel can only do 60 or 40 and I think 40hz is cutting it close to the published specs. I haven't ran them full range yet but will shortly just to compare. I've been playing on Spotify all day and can't get over how badass drums sound. I've literally listened to every song I can think of with a good drum track and they're blowing me away, they are very controlled and accurate. I like to have a subwoofer with music so I won't comment on whether one is "necessary", I think it's debatable either way and comes down to personal preference. I definitely need a faster more musical one though.

The midrange is very smooth and accurate and the way they can reproduce vocals is like nothing i've ever heard before, at least by anything around this price range. Vocals are full and rich, both deep male and higher female voices just come across as seamless and lifelike no matter who it is.

I've heard some people describe the Zu's top end as "bright", I don't know if it's me being accustomed to horn speakers or the upgraded caps in the crossover but I feel like they have just the right amount of sparkle and presence without being overbearing or bright whatsoever. Even though the super tweeter really only covers 12k HZ and up, it integrates perfectly and blends in very nicely. As I read in someone else's review they aren't hyper detailed like some B&W or Paradigms i've heard, but I also don't feel like i'm missing anything or would change anything if I could, they just aren't designed that way. Sometimes B&W sound almost sterile to me, excluding their upper end diamond series, these are just more fun to listen to I can say that. I do feel the Klipsch had a little more treble detail to them with the horn tweeter but not by much, and comparing a full range driver to a horn is definitely an apples to oranges comparison.

I also have to agree that these speakers are very lively and a blast to listen to. Coming from Klipsch I already had a sensitive speaker that was easy to drive that had a very "live" love it or hate it kind of sound. When everyone kept describing the Omens that way I didn't give it much more thought than "Oh good they can keep up with me Klipsch", well holy crap I was wrong. They are on a whole different level. Best way I can think to describe it, the Omen's have the "live" sound you want, and while the Klipsch can too it's got that bright edge on top and booming bass that you can get at a concert but I always felt they lacked midrange, espcially vocals.

The transient response was something new to me, i'd never gave much though to attack and decay and time but I did notice it, honestly just took me a few songs to realize what I was hearing. Definitely noticeable especially on a good piano recording. I'd heard them described as "fast" but couldn't really understand what that meant until I actually heard it for myself. They are also extremely dynamic. I won't call these more dynamic than Klipsch but they can keep up no problem and sound a lot more musical doing it. They also do well at all volumes and seating positions, but sounded even better when I really cranked em up, no hint of falling apart they were begging for more.

I'd love to give list the music I listened to for this review but I spent the last 8 hours just going through my iTunes/Spotify listening to hundreds of artist from one extreme to the other. Everything from Radiohead, Miles Davis, Tool, Lyle Lovett, James Brown, Ryan Adams, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Van Morrison, Jeff Beck, SRV, Tchaikovsky, Dave Matthews... you get the idea of my taste in music. There wasn't anything I played that they couldn't keep up with, however I will say I enjoyed live/acoustic performances the most on these as they sounded like I was sitting front and center. The top 3 things these do well IMHO is 1) Vocals 2) Drums & 3) Guitar, they sound more lifelike than I expected or even hoped for. They just sound "right" to me for lack of a better description. The very first song I played was Dire Straights "Money for Nothing", and literally started laughing when they guitar and drums came in I was so impressed.

I'll end with this, I still have that stupid grin on my face and can see myself keeping these for a long time. I can whole heartedly recommend them to anyone who is on the fence about trying them. Keep in mind I haven't spent near as much time as most members owning/listening to different equipment so this is limited to my personal thoughts and experience in this hobby at this point in my journey. Forgot to mention they're freaking gorgeous in person and have a high WAF :cheesygrin:

Dawgfish

Great review! Your findings are very much in line with how I think they sound. You did an outstanding job putting that to words. I have to agree with you how they sound great with drums and guitar. They didn't sound quite as accurate with female vocals with me in some setups, but are still excellent! I don't have the upgraded caps in mine though, so that may have something to do with it. I'll have to do that since its such a reasonable and simple mod with these. Try some classical with these. You might not be a huge fan of the genre right now(don't know, just saying), but you will be after listening to classic on these. Try something that is dynamic and lively like Rimsky-Korsokov's Sherezade, 1812 Overrture, Lizt's Hungarian Rhapsody, or Mussorsky's Night on Bald Mountain and you will have a huge smile on your face!

The quickness of these takes some getting used too, but it is breathtaking when you do get use to it. Btw I am running a REL sub with mine and they match extremely well with them. They don't have any problems keeping up. I've tried them without a sub also and they sound great. The sub just fills in the very low region. You could easily get by without one, but a good quick, musical sub definitely adds to the experience. I know I've said it before and I know you have these on hardwood floors, but placing a thick (2" or greater) butcher block, stone, or engineered concrete takes the bass level to another level with these.

Congrats again on the new speakers! They are really exciting and I know you will continue to love them!

B Run

Thanks again for all the help Dawgfish. I'm going to see if I can get the granite that matches my countertops and have two bases cut to put them on. As far as classical I do dabble a bit, but will definitely check out your recommendations. I'll look into REL subs as well, it'll probably be a little bit before I pull the trigger on anything but it's definitely good to know. Tried them full range and although they did a good job I prefer the sound with a sub, sticking with 60hz crossover but would set it to 50hz if it was an option. I agree that they do tend to favor male over female vocals but only by a hair, like you said it could just be the upgraded caps. They will also sound slightly different than yours since they reuse the Druid mkIV 08 driver and caps, he said they sounded pretty close to the Omen standard, not necessarily better or worse just a little different.

Dawgfish

No problem! Glad your enjoying them. It's really ridiculous how good these things sound considering what you can pick up the Dirty Weekends for. They have to be one of the biggest values in quality speakers on the market today.

ROHfan

Congrats, and thanks for the review. I'm curious...how would you compare the soundstage and SQ to SDAs?

zingo

They look great!

B Run

ROHfan wrote: »

Congrats, and thanks for the review. I'm curious...how would you compare the soundstage and SQ to SDAs?

To be completely honest i've never heard the SDA's, so I can't help with that one.

zingo

Having never heard the Zu Omens, I would assume they are faster and can resolve difficult passages better than SDAs; based on my experience with them.

Dawgfish

zingo wrote: »

Having never heard the Zu Omens, I would assume they are faster and can resolve difficult passages better than SDAs; based on my experience with them.

They are definitely faster. It's really an apples and oranges comparison and they sound very different from each other. The soundstage on the Zus is very impressive, but they are not quite in the same league as SDAs. To be fair I haven't heard any other speaker that has the soundstage of SDAs, that's what sets SDAs apart from just about any speaker I can think of. To me the soundstage of the Zus is comparable to DCM Time Windows or Timeframes which for those of you who have heard these knows, that's very good!

I would say the Omens resolve difficult passages better than stock SDAs. Modded SDAs however are a whole other animal. I would definitely give the edge to the modded SDAs. The thing that strikes you listening to the Zus are they are very quick, dynamic, and coherent sounding. There is a cohesiveness to the sound that is hard to describe if you've never heard other single driver (or near single driver in the Zus case) speakers before. They are very lively and very revealing. They definitely have a sound that is very unlike most other speakers I have heard. I have heard some songs on the Zus that I have never heard sound better and on the same token I have heard other songs on these that were almost unlistenable. That to me shows how revealing they are. That's one of the things I love about SDAs, they sound good to great with just about anything you play on them. That's not a knock on the Zus, just praise for the SDAs. I like having both and listening to both. It's cool hearing different listening perspectives on the same material. It really keeps things from getting old.

B Run

Glad someone else could answer that, feel ashamed to call myself a true Polkie without ever hearing SDA's:redface:

polkfarmboy

Nice review, I like your impressions on the top end sparkle these have. The do look great and you can pick out anything to drive them in future without breaking the bank as you can concentrate more on the quality rather than quantity of wpc without breaking the bank

B Run

polkfarmboy wrote: »

you can pick out anything to drive them in future without breaking the bank as you can concentrate more on the quality rather than quantity of wpc without breaking the bank

My friends dad has a Peachtree Idecco i'm going to see if I can borrow to test out, i've heard good things about them and seems like it'd be enough power.

steveinaz

Very cool! They look very KEF'ish.

mhardy6647

Appearances deceive; the design philosophy is rather different than any KEFs I know of (including the coaxials).

I'll be very interested to hear longer term updates from the OP on how he feels about these Zus over time.

boston1450

Nice review and great feedback. They sure are purdy. Enjoy them

B Run

I notice myself getting more used to the sound and they also seem to be opening up a little more over time. Ill post back after a good month or so of getting to know them. Thanks for all the kind words! I'm about to pull the trigger on some cables in the next week or two and try to find the best match. I feel like I've finally got the placement dialed in, a little trickier than most speakers but very rewarding if you take the time to get them just right. They definitely look better in person and I've had a ton of compliments on them, ill try to take better pics soon.

Braddles

Hey B Run.

I have a pair of the Tekton Lore's. down here in Australia. From all reports similar to the Omen.

I can relate to your wife's comments on how they fill the room. I also found the Lore's changed with different positioning.

Fwiw I have found they like a good SET amp the best.

Overall definitely different sound to anything else I've owned.

Congrats on yours.

Jetmaker737

Nice write-up! I've never heard single-driver or super efficient speakers before. You did a great job conveying the sound. Got me curious to hear a pair.

B Run

I hadn't either and they're definitely different but I honestly don't know that ill ever go back. Like I said in the review Martin Logan and Maggie's won't work for my setup either, so they were kind of a compromise but turned out much better than expected. Honestly if I could double or triple my budget I think I'd still spend it moving up the Zu line to some Soul Superfly's or Essence speakers, they're supposed to be a big step up from the Omens. I've heard good things about the Tektons as well and I know a lot of people say they both sound best with SET amps but I'm going to be stuck with SS, at least for a while. Still interested to hear them paired with a Peachtree Idecco or Nova, that will definitely be a possibility in the near future. Thanks again for all the feedback.

marvda1

for your garage.
http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=116213.msg1216832;topicseen#new