Hello,
I just purchased a pair of Zu Essences. I heard them at a dealer, driven by some sort of Arc tube amp. They certainly sounded dynamic, but I found their soundstage to be to forward for my liking; a bit bright, too. I asked the dealer for a home demo and he was happy to oblige. I am quite conservative in my purchases. I have not fundamentally changed my system in five years, satisfied and happy. I chose to give Zu a try since I was planning to move and wanted to simplify things a bit. I am often surprised at the bad rap that Zu speakers get. Anyway, I took the Essences home and hooked them up to my Manley Neo-Retro 300b's. Damn, but I was proud of my amps at that point. They firmly set the soundstage back behind the speakers, where I like it, and proceeded to give me a much more dynamic and detailed soundstage that I had previously experienced in my system. My previous speakers gave me a deep and precise soundstage, grat decays, but a very laidback presentation with little bite and attack. The Essences have an often startling attack that is only bright with the hottest, and in my opinion, worst recordings. The Essences are surely sensitive to proper room placing, but they dissapear entirely in my setup. My room is less than ideal, square, large, 12 foot concrete ceilings, and 20 feet of 6 foot tall windows on one side, but I don't have much trouble with soundstage accuracy, size or brightness. I toe in my speakers so that the tweeters cross just behind my head. I hope that helps some...
Ivan
