New Zu Mission cable

If people are skeptical, that's great -- I'm that way myself. Once you've been around awhile you see a lot of hype and products come and go and get replaced by the 'next greatest thing'.

I'm using various Zu products in my system currently, but it has come over time and went something like this:

Got a great deal on a Zu DL-103 phono cartridge. Tried it following years and years of searching for the 'right' cartridge which included other Denons, Grado, Dynavector, Shure, Audio-Technica, etc. Simply put it was the best cartridge I've had the pleasure of owning and it's strengths are really strong and it's weaknesses are fairly minimal. This made me curious to try a Zu cable since I felt these guys obviously know something about good sound.

Tried one pair of Zu Wylde ICs and they too were awesome. Bettered others I've tried by a significant margin including Cardas, Audioquest, VH Audio. Got another pair.

At this point you could say I was a happy customer. All came with 60 day guarantees, which I didn't need to use but for the skeptics like myself it helps.

Then I tried the Mission speaker cables. Wow. Great cable and I concur with the remarks Johnnyb53 made about the Libtec and Wyldes in his system. Fast, articulate and musical.

Now I have a new pair of Soul Superflys in my system. Only a few days here but I like them. A lot.

The point of my post isn't to review any of these products - obviously I'm not attempting to do that. But you can try one of their products risk free in your system and see if it works for you.

Thanks for the comparisons Johnny. And also I see that with Zu having completely upended their speaker cable line, a thread on this topic would tend to compare old vs new models.

I just received a B-stock Mission IC in the mail today and have it sitting between my Jasmine LP2.0SE phono pre and upgraded EE Minimax Preamp and out of the damn box they are impressive.

I bought a Zu Bok some years ago for a source and hated it, so I didn't know what to expect from their newer cables (own speakers and a Zu103 no other cable experience with their stuff) but I'm pleased off the bat.

A no brainer purchase during this stoopid cheap 75% off deal. I'll be eagerly awaiting the '200 hour' burn in marker.

I don't get that. Why after launching a new brand a few months ago with great fanfare do they now have B-stock at 75% off? Also the Event line, which seems to have been launched guerilla-style and is better than Mission, also has B-stock at 75% off? Weird marketing strategy.

Speaking with the guys at Zu, none of the B-stock cables are returns or anything, but if an RCA barel has a scratch or a small snag in tech flex or minutely shorter lead, etc. it will be considered B-stock. I have one pair of their ICs and, aside from the conspicuous "B" designation, it looks perfect to me.

As for the Events, the whole line isn't even out yet--just the PCs and LCs. I have no idea what they'll do to promote them when they rest of the cabling comes out next year, but it was mentioned to me that 2011 would be a dry year as far as promos.

My suspicion is that the marketing strategy is one geared towards mass exposure at loss leader pricing. Its probably not profitable now, but they're creating a lot of excitement and internet buzz (deservedly so) around their products and professional reviewers haven't even chimed in yet.

I'm interested to see how well the company does next year and how the market adjusts to them actually observing retail pricing. I for one am rooting for them.