Decision between Zu Definition OR VS DB99

Duke,
I hear nothing very negative in your comments. As a Druid owner, I guess I would have to say that my speakers are about fun. They're just so musical and so high on the PRaT scale that I just notice my toes tapping and disregard any concerns about accuracy. Others have said that they are linear, precise, accurate, faithful, cohesive, etc., and they may well be. I find them to be engaging. As for bass, I didn't have much extension until I experimented and it turned out that in my room they worked best right up against the front wall. Also, it is important to gap them properly from the floor in order to optimize the Griewe loading. The Zu boys have been over the top motorcycle enthusiasts for most of their young lives and as a result of that passion came upon a fellow named Ron Griewe who is a former editor of some biker mag. This Griewe fellow had conducted research over many years in the area of flow and displacement in motorcycle exhhaust. Sean and Adam recognized the potential this held for speaker design and purchased the rights to apply his findings to their designs. This is a large part of why the Druid performance is so much bigger than the speaker itself. Srajan stated that the Druid was equal to his AG Duos in almost every way. WarrenH is correct when he recommends trying them at home. The Definition is no more fun than the Druid but it offers a more solid state friendly impedance curve, more downward extension, better resolution and more compactness than you get in a Druid/sub arrangement.

Has anyone here used the Lamm ML2's with the Zu's?

Show hotel listening conditions are compromising to every piece of gear exhibited, but are especially challenging to loudspeakers. I've heard Zu at 3 shows and while they were more than competitive relative to other speaker exhibitors under the same conditions, the sound available in the peculiar floated construction of hotel buildings was not more than a fraction of what's attainable at home.

Zu has sometimes exhibited with speakers that were not fully broken in, and during the break-in period, there is definitely some peakiness to midrange tones that levels out. That trace of horn-like shout you can hear when brand new, is real and disappears.

MJ mentioned that he thinks the Definition has a more solid-state-friendly impedance curve. While the Def's impedance curve is smoother over frequency range, most solid state amps will sound smoother and more musical into the Druid's 12 ohm load, though they will be down on power while doing so.

The 38Hz bass performance of the Druids is not dependent on proximity to boundary reinforcement. They will do that in the middle of a room. The boundary that counts is the floor, where the gap spacing for the Griewe model is set. On Mk4 Druids, Sean specs a CD jewel case thickness worth of gap. Tiny deviations up or down from that make significant differences. On older Druids, that gap should be about doubled. Narrowing the gap will make the bass drier and tonally less rich. Widening it will soften bass definition and introduce a fatter bottom. Amp characteristics can be countered with some slight tuning.

I agree with Duke that the absence of crossover likely has benefits additional to the ones I've previously cited as being obvious, but in general a crossover speaker sounds regressive after hearing the octave-to-octave consistency of Zu.

Phil

Phil, Cobra, Desmond or Freddy... Are the Druids with the two speaker sub better than the Hales T-5's? Yes I believe the Hales have a crossover.

Phil makes some good points. I'll simply say from a consumer's perspective...from my perspective...I'd rather have an opportunity to hear the Zu loudspeakers set up in an ideal environment, either at a dealer's showroom, or at the home of a gracious owner, so all the less than ideal circumstances can be eliminated from the equation. I'd prefer this over the possibility of having to re-box the speakers and pay for the round trip shipping for the provilege of a demo. This is a marketing issue that provides a barrier, IMO.