2bigears, This is long and my journey,
Room treatment advances everything with these speakers or any, I just finally got to put bass traps hanging over them last week, HUGE difference with highs that made the tweeter nearly dissapear, now yes they are bass traps but positioned so the first reflection from the front drivers is dead, and they hang 4" down so the back still does its original intention of trapping(they are Hemholtz type), and Really re-directed the bass to the center of the room instead of losing all the feel into the corners.. By the way I did not stop there, I had to have more after the breakthru, not only did the Volume gain go way up with the studio panels above the speakers but everything is cleaner and more sensitive, so I had a hanging 8ft long rug very nice in another room and moved it on the wall with my right speaker killing its first reflection, Again huge gains in energy directed at the listening position and much more smooth rather than sporadic music all over the place...
Well then I said screw it gotta have more! So I have a large bank of windows next to the left speaker, well it already has some expensive large verticle blinds over them, but I went and found some real nice realitivley heavy fabric Drapes to go over them, Damn now the balance and bass in the soundstage was like dead on and eminating from the center of the room instead of so much behind the speaker, and again further advanced the imaging and smooth highs.. By imaging I mean the voice now comes from about 2.5 ft off the backwall center and you would not even know the speakers are running, the sound completley has moved into the air and made them dissapear phantom style...
Finally I had a custom 9 ft X 6 ft rug put together this week too, and threw it right in front and between the speakers with the 9 ft length of course being horizontal in the room cause the speakers are roughly about 8ft apart, now we treated all surfaces with great clarity and bass room load is very apparent. So I have learned the backward way that yep you spend 9 g's on speakers you better have a room resonably up to the task, otherwise everything will sound very messy, and this was true with my other 3 pairs of speakers I had in this room before the Zu's, but the Zu's came much closer without as much hassle cause they just overpowered some issues, but then they also overpowered the room.
I now have experienced the absolute power of the room, it is the most important and might make any speaker fully enjoyable, I plan to go into a dedicated space in the future with diffusion panels and corner traps etc.. but for now this is as good as it gets, but I have a real bad hall right behind my left speaker that losses a ton of bass and balance on me but you would never know, so once I get a full wall I know the re-enforcment will be ludacris. You can actually walk behind my right speaker and tell its about 9 db better bass load than the left, but not that noticeable sitting in the listening position. Also, all this fires directly into a 20 ft room right into the kitchen which just bounces everything around behind the seating. Also, I found the distance of this speaker with the rear firing drivers is absolutley crucial in getting the best, I have to have minimum of 40" which really snaps things into place with higher output and eliminates the excessive boom factor reflecting off the backwall. Angle and distance apart will be critical as well, I found in my room everything is smooth as glass at about speaker distance 98" apart and with a 2" toe in on each speaker, very Warm and fuzzy sound, like a mcintosh amp or tubes running with vinyl. It took me about 25 different positions over the last 4 months to find the optimal for my space, but it makes a difference.
