Zu def 4 are they the best speaker made?

RE best speakers made? uh... nope. Probablay not.

In Good Fellas Peci confronted another uy about his commentary on 'funny'. Funny How?


best ever how? Value? estehtics? materials? Performance alone? etc.


I’ve noticed the greatest percentage of the time, and I mean, like 90 -97% of the time, the retail price on the high end audio device is pretty close to how it performs. Of course, ultra ultra high end stuff has a different measuring stick.

Example, $10K speakers are usually better than $5K speakers. I don’t have to know a lot more initially than what playing field things are on financially. Eventually I will need to become more vested.

I usually look for a great sound first. Normally it means there is a good setup happening. It means too, the speakers are most capable and removed from further suspicion of being a weak link.

I try to listen in as close to the speakers as I can get, reasonably. Staying just a few feet away, and it doesn’t matter much as to which speaker. Although I will do the same thing with both. I’m only looking for tonality, richness, naturalness, speed. Nothing from the staging. Not looking for imaging. Listening for what low end extension is or may be there.

I’m trying to remove the room as much as I can from the sounds the speaker can generate. If, when, or where ever possible. This routine isn’t likely done at a group showing I’m pretty sure.

If a setup using the same speakers repeatedly sounds bad or just off in a few areas, it is hard to decide what is amiss.

But it only takes one instance of speakers providing great sonics to indicate it is not the fault of the speakers when they are not sounding great. Speakers can be bi polar “di ploes’, but they are not manic. They are merely the true slaves of a system.

Great speakers tell us what is happening up stream. The room thru the speakers is telling you how much they are being held back or up, or supported.

I don’t feel bad rooms make great speakers sound bad. Bad rooms make great speakers not sound as good as they could or should.

The real issue is applying appropriate blame.

Abrupt run in periods, bad power, mismatched amps & speaker combos, these items can really adversely affect speaker performance regardless the room.

If all 3 facets of the demonstration are at odds, poor amp to speaker match, power line issues, and unfriendly room are present, chances are the presentation ain’t gonna be good despite the expense of the various products..

Traveling gear takes time to reacquire its legs. Posts have been made on these pages reflecting such things as altitude making or forcing chages to the equipment. I’ve noticed too, merely mixing in and out various ICs can take a full day for them to resettle in.

If one stops to really consider all the various factors that need to fall in line for a recently arranged and ‘temporary’ audio system to perform great, well, it’s a mix of good stuff, lots of exp, a bit of luck, and if it all comes off sounding great, my hat’s off to whomever formulated the setup..

I would prefer to have my gear setup as a static display, if the sound of it all playing was not on par with its usual nature.

I have one of the first pairs of Definition 4s (having upgraded from the Def 2s). Sean delivered them and set them up personally; cannot ask for more. I have been lucky with great customer service from Zu, Ancient Audio (Krakow, Poland), and DejaVu Audio (Vienna, VA).  All three seem to be on a mission to make their customers happy. I have tried several SETs and have settled on a 300b SET as a good compromise between sufficient power (no, I have not tried an 845 SET) and warmth. 

As I have mentioned in other posts, it was a real plus to be able to audition Zu speakers at home - and for a protracted period of time. I cannot imagine spending 10k+ after hearing speakers only at a show - regardless of how good they sounded. Conversely, I would never dismiss or form any negative opinion about any speaker based on how it sounded at one or even many shows. The home and show environments are so different. 

I owned a pair of Union's. When hooked up to Atma Ma-1's and an MP-3, they gave my Vandy Treo's a pretty good run for the money.
However, they lacked a certain depth- hard to put into words. 
Perhaps the Definition's are a better speaker, but I'll stick with my Vandy's for my main room.
My office has a pair of Omen Bookshelf speakers (MK2). 
I like them.
B

Best speaker .I would rephrase it most musical Louddpeaker, Hardly 
Not even in the top 20. There are way too many  high quality
Reference speakers out there.

I’ve owned druid mk3, omen, and now the definition pro with upgraded drivers and tweeters. the older druid’s didn’t work for me, not sure why, i think zu hadn’t really figuired out the design of the version of the driver they were using at the time it or possibly was a mismatchwith my tact millenium and I wasn’t willing to give up my millenium at the tim. omen’s were fine but at that pricepoint you can’t expect too much. My definition pro’s are just about a perfect match with my First Watt Sit-2 amp and ps audio perfectwave dac. have owned them for a few years and and will keep them for many more. The newest generation of the drivers that Zu is using today are pretty spot as far as transparency and detail is concerned.

I heard the Druid MK VI’s recently and they sound really really good. One negative I could discern, and this is something that I remember from my old druid’s, is that to me, snare’s just don’t sound right. There’s a grit and courseness to snare drum’s that doesn’t sound natural. Bottom end extension with no accompanying subwoofer was impressive. I actually thought they were running a sub and they weren’t. Was told they spent quite a lot of time dialing in the speaker placement. They can’t touch my Definition Pro’s tho’. not even close.

With all that, what I truly don’t understand are the price increases that have occured over the years. Mk3/4 druid’s retailed at $3500(I paid 1900 on sale and they were worth 1900 not 3500 imo), MK 5 was something like 6500? And MK6 are now a whopping 10K! which is older Definition territory. I want to know what kinda special sauce they are putting in that s--- to justify the steep increases. Def’s are now 17K! Zu used to be about somewhat affordable audio, no longer it seems.