Zu Audio

[Spychedelic Whale]

After years of only Headphone listening, I'm finally jumping on the speaker party.

Coming from the headphone hi.end I must say it has been pretty disappointing on the performance side with speakers..Most need to get the volume up to lvls where it gets shouty or annoying to get some kinda engaging sound and most just sound thin.. specially if music is not perfect jazz records, some get crazy details but again, music is nowhere engaging. 

Enter the Zu's, I heard the Zu Omen Dirty Weekend II on the dealer(have never heard of them) and loved the sound, totally different from most known brands, this speakers can truly rock. They have such a dynamic and forward sound, the mid range is a bit in your face. All this without sounding too aggressive or bright, paired with an Hegel. Also heard them with the Leben tube amp and the system just turned to a very sweet tone while still keeping all that force.

Very engaging speaker, it kinda reminds me the type of sound of the HP1000 which is my favorite headphone for the kind of music I listen mostly, rock and metal. Now I'm curious about the higher models, unfortunately the dealer has no stock and is only ordering after purchase. 

So I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with this brand models, or know other speakers with this kind of sound?

 

btw, to my taste they look rather beautiful specially for such entry price:

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2021 by Spychedelic Whale

[blessingx]

I think it's fair to say you'll get a wide range of opinions on Zu speakers, but I still love my Zu Gloss Prismatique Orange Souls. Hardly listen to Rock or Metal though. Due to a few reasons other than sonic, I may eventually switch to KEFs, but I'm a fan (especially with vinyl). 

[swt61]

The Zu is a kickback IMO. It's reminiscent of popular speakers of the 70's. If you like that 'in your face' presentation, then you might also like vintage Cerwin Vega, JBL, Panasonic Thrusters etc...

Albeit the Zu is a jump in quality over the aforementioned brands. Still, you can get pretty close for a fraction of the price of the Zu's. Not sure where you're going to find a grouping of those vintage brands to audition though.

 

[morphsci]

Good choice. My short list for my next set of speakers includes the Zu Omen Def, and it is near the top.

[jp11801]

love the concept of Zu to sold on the endpoint of the Zu speakers. Not great all arounders, I had the soul superfly and great that it worked with my 300b amp but it really did impose its sound on the music

 

anyone in Europe should check out System Audio or Amphion as a better value and more accurate sound. SA is more pleasing sounding Amphion in more studio monitor like 

Edited January 26, 2021 by jp11801

[Spychedelic Whale]

3 hours ago, jp11801 said:

love the concept of Zu to sold on the endpoint of the Zu speakers. Not great all arounders, I had the soul superfly and great that it worked with my 300b amp but it really did impose its sound on the music

 

anyone in Europe should check out System Audio or Amphion as a better value and more accurate sound. SA is more pleasing sounding Amphion in more studio monitor like 

Thanks for the suggestion I will check them out.

16 hours ago, morphsci said:

Good choice. My short list for my next set of speakers includes the Zu Omen Def, and it is near the top.

Today I went to a store that Had the Zu Omen DefII and oh yes.. do they rock.. they obviously sound bigger,  the only problem is their "wife acceptance factor", it is not so good, being much bigger than the others and they use the same drivers of the Omen and DIrty weekend so sound shouldn't be that different, from memory they aren't. Did you hear other models ?

I also listened to the Soul Supreme, and damn.. this is a big step up from all the other models. The detail is amazing but still keeping that emotional engagement, the plates/drums hit so hard and poor recordings were still very enjoyable. They just push your focus entirely to the small details without any effort, the Def II, Omen and Dirty Weekend were a more of relaxed listening kind of sound compared to the Supreme, that is.

Honestly I am not sure if such detailed focused sound doesn't get tiring after some hours, if I had the money I could see having one of the other models when feeling for a more relaxed session to complement the hyper detailed Supreme.

I listened them with Leben 300 Tube Amp and RME Dac-2 FS.

21 hours ago, swt61 said:

The Zu is a kickback IMO. It's reminiscent of popular speakers of the 70's. If you like that 'in your face' presentation, then you might also like vintage Cerwin Vega, JBL, Panasonic Thrusters etc...

Albeit the Zu is a jump in quality over the aforementioned brands. Still, you can get pretty close for a fraction of the price of the Zu's. Not sure where you're going to find a grouping of those vintage brands to audition though.

 

hmm I will look into classifieds.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Spychedelic Whale

[Spychedelic Whale]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Spychedelic Whale

[Torpedo]

Stay away from Leben, just sayin'. Did you go up to Spain to listen to those?

[Spychedelic Whale]

26 minutes ago, Torpedo said:

Stay away from Leben, just sayin'. Did you go up to Spain to listen to those?

Why, build quality? 

It was in portugal, but funny enough those Soul Supreme are going to Spain for an audition I was told.

Edited January 26, 2021 by Spychedelic Whale

[jp11801]

5 hours ago, Spychedelic Whale said:

Why, build quality? 

It was in portugal, but funny enough those Soul Supreme are going to Spain for an audition I was told.

soft sound, leading edge of notes are muted and to my ears lacks dynamics

[Torpedo]

Plus subpar build quality. Those Leben were quite popular in Spain for a while, there were tons of posts by fanboys, so an acquaintance had the chance to open and check one. Not worth the price of admission, way less if you want it to feed headphones.