Anyone listen to Zu Audio's Definition Mk3?


Comparisons with the 1.5s and the others that came before? Getting the itch; again......
128x128warrenh
Spirit,
When I went from a tube pre to my current First Watt B1 buffer/pre, I experienced better transparency and more transient snap with my Def 1.9s. This almost hurt my feelings as I was running a Rogue Athena pre which is no slouch and not known for any tube softness. At any rate, the First Watt was an improvement but it is very utilitarian looking and only has 2 sets of inputs. Now I feel I'm just getting the flavor of the KT120 output tubes on my Rogue monos which to these ears sounds magnificent. If you like your Radia, you might try a buffer or passive. The First Watt is relatively cheap.

Matt
1Daddy,

You write

I don`t know you personaaly but based on reading your posts you come off as dogmatic and somewhat childish, as if what you prefer 'has' to be better than someone else`s choice,Come on my friend grow up.

I must say that you have done that to me in this thread and now you do it again. We are not your little boys that you can spank when you feel like it. Writing that members here have to grow up/mature and meet your full manhood stature is condescending.

You have a lot to add on there forums but this daddy paddling the little boy is not one of them.

You can have the last word Dad.
Hey Dad, if I ever ragged on the Audion 845 like 231 does the Krell amp I would be a two year old.


RE: How much of the "high end" is a scam?
Posted by 213Cobra (A) on April 3, 2010 at 20:41:18
In Reply to: How much of the "high end" is a scam?

My first reaction, looking at the list of gear you heard, was to think, "well, obviously you won't get anything resembling music from that stack." But I realize that, by itself, doesn't help.
Now, really, SET OPINION=ON. No, I'm not going to try either to offend anyone or avoid it. That stack represents most of what's wrong with high-end audio and why most people can't remotely relate to it. It's also a prime example of why the SET, widebander and Gaincard insurgencies sprang up over the last 20 years. Wilson, Boulder and to a lesser extent what Meridian has unfortunately become (after a long illuminating contribution to hifi) are the current endpoints of a toneless jag high-end set off on circa 1980. I peg the turning point to the debut of the first Krell amps, easily the bleakest line of electrified dead mass ever heaped upon an ususpecting public of music lovers. The day a leather-eared hifi journalist of stature deemed Krell a contender during our last significant economic calamity, a rush of EE entrepreneurs jumped in to over-fetishize hifi during the Reagan administration, to the point where six figures puts you in the Maxell chair wondering where the fun went?

Has a Wilson speaker *ever* produced a note that sounds remotely communicative of the emotion carried by music? No. Too many drivers, too much crossover, cabinets too dead to do anything but drain life from the sound. Of course to get any jump factor out of the Wilson, you need amps powered directly by the Hoover Dam, so you get complex, toneless Boulders that manage to reveal every transient but left the body behind alongside Jimmy Hoffa. And poor Meridian, once purveyor of digital gear full-bodied and visceral now obscuring music in a jangle of crystalline angst.

People hear these stacks of toneless metal pushing a firehose of sound through dreadnought boxes of pistonic might and they know you're nuts because it just doesn't sound right. Oh, it's *immpressive* but it doesn't sound like any music they ever heard but, you know..., you're an audiophile and the stuff looks expensive so..."what do I know?" is all they can say.

What gives is that the mainstream exotica has become totemic of wealth and conferred exceptionalism. What does it matter if it sounds like a cannonball fired at your face? It looks impressive! Those are brands 'everybody knows'! How about that bass rattling your pelvic structure? Ever hear cymbals hurled at your head like that??

And then of course 90% of this gear ends up in a "man cave" hidden and cherished, so the few times anyone else gets exposed to it who might be sensible enough to hear it and say, "Dude, WT...F?" instead gets cornered into a "demo," which is going to be about everything BUT the music. And the retailer displaying that Boulder....well, can't blame him. It's no different from a shiny Rolex.

SET OPINION=OFF.

Look, these kinds of systems are why a few adventurers prowl the back alleys to find oddities from a lost era. Have you ever heard a full 47 Labs / Sakura Systems system? Zu or Cain&Cain with SET amplification? A Shindo system or Leben amps with simple wideband or 2-way speakers? Heck, let's go mainstream. Walk into your nearest McIntosh & Sonus Faber dealer and ask him to wire up the "nonsensical" combination of Cremonas + MC1.2kws + any Mac preamp and any decent disc player or TT they have in the store.

Good sound is out there that lives up to (or beyond) its price; it's just not where you had hoped.

Phil
Glory,

You missed the point of that post. A post, by the way, I'm happy to have in the permanent record since it probably sums up more of what I think has gone wrong with hifi than any other single post I've written. Thank-you for re-posting it here; the old school forum equivalent of a re-tweet!

And it was in response to a question: "How much of high end is a scam?" Read the whole thread. Why stop with me?

Anyway, Krell was just a start. Dig some more and you'll find other mentions of my disdain. But I've got a long list of gear to cast aspersions to for insults to music fidelity. None of the gear discussed in *this* thread is on that roster of rogue hardware. We're discussing smaller differences between components that all get in the realm of musical credibility, revolving around what we all agree are exceptional speakers. Our differeneces are over answers to the questions: "....but if you have to pick just one, what...?"

Phil
Hi Glory,
No, I`m not assuming the role of big poppa on this thread. IMO we`re all adults who happen to share a common interest of music and the components that reproduce it in our homes.It seems most of us by this stage have had exposure to enough equitment as to be able to form idividual impressions.

I freely acept the fact that people like different components(just as we have varied taste in the music we like). We are`nt(nor need to) all going to make the same choices when buying audio gear, this is logical.
Glory you and others have hit your sonic jackpot with the ASR amp, congratulations(I mean it sincerely). I`ve found utter joy with my Coincident 300b SET(phil with his Audion amps).I t`s sublime for me but won`t be the answer for others, just as the ASR won`t satisfy everyone.

My only point addressed to agear was his attitude that the ASR is a superior choice to any tube and or SET amp without question and that simply is`nt the case. How is it a platitude to state the 'obvious' fact that different ears will prefer different types of sound(this is why an absolute 'best'stance is`nt possible). A large SS class AB amp with NFB will surely be quite different to a SET lower power amp in class A without any NFB(both types have their supporters).Which is preferred is up to the particular listener, always subjective(by default). Within the realm of SS high power and SET there`s significant variations in performance and a hierarchy develops. Not 'every' SET amp is good, but some are outstanding, same thing of course with any genre of amplifiers.

Platitude alert, people will/should buy what sounds best to them if they trust their ears, is there any other way?
Glory I hope you enjoy your current system for many years to come,just as I plan to do with mine.
Charles,
Regards,