Krell amp with Zu Essence speaker

Afc, could you comment on the sound of the Essence?

The first thing that struck me was the detail. Can hear stuff that really wasn't obvious with my monitors. The highs are silky smooth- much better than the cone drivers on the monitors. Good bass- not thundering, but solid. Excellent soundstage and imaging. Negatives? They seem, compared to the Aliantes, a bit sloppy in the mids once in a while. Perhaps sloppy is a bad term- jumbled is more like it. But that's fairly minor, and the details and sounstaging plusses compensate more than enough. It's more like "live" music. Doesn't seem manufactured at all.

Donzi, did you get your Essence yet? What finish did you get? Need some pics, man! Had some time to really air it out the past few days. I will absolutely guarantee you one thing- if you hook those babies up to those Krell monoblock monsters, you will damage your hearing if you turn them loose. My ears are ringing with only 30 wpc- and I haven't even come close to having the volume knob halfway up yet. The louder these speakers go, the better they seem to sound. They really seem to open up at higher volumes without losing any detail, soundstage or imaging. The imaging, in particular, is fantastic. Sounds pop out from all over the room, not just the center. I think you'll really like them. I know I do. For me, it was a great choice as a main speaker. Need to listen to some Legacy Focus HD's- I've heard some fantastic things about them, but I've never had the privilege of listening to them. Not a big price jump from the Essence, and although the load is only 4 ohms, they're very steady. The Essence, rated at 12 ohms and 9 ohms nominal impedence, has a pretty funky impedence curve- there's a dip to about 4 ohms for the ribbon tweeter component.

I did get the Zu Essence speakers few weeks ago. I got the desert dune with black accents. The color is the only bad thing about the my Zu's. The brown and black looks very institutional. I am running them with my Krells. The sound definitely is forward with an airy and open mid-range. I love the highs. I am interested in hearing them with tube amps. I can't imagine the sound getting much better with tubes. I also have a pair of revel F12s that can't match the Zu's mid-range open airy sound. The Zu's ribbon tweeter is a step above the Revels tweeter. The Revel does have just a tad more low end solidity than the Zu's. I am very happy with my Zu's. I do still worry that somehow I might be damaging the speakers with my big Krells. For fun I will be hooking up a Rel subwoofer this week to work with the Zu's. I usually use the sub with the Revel F12's only.

Afc,

What color did you get? I should have spent the extra $800 on an upgraded color.

Jet black gloss upgrade. Pic up on the "my system" link. I like the JL sub with the Essence. Set the low pass frequency at about 75 Hz, it sounds very good. Augments the low end of the Essence quite nicely.

I doubt you'll damage them with the Krells. It would get painfully loud before you even get close to overdriving them, or even straining them. Mine are loud with only 30 wpc. I can't imagine what 350 would be like. You're talking about more than a 9 dB jump with that sort of power. It would be brutal.