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Zu Tone/Druid Tonal Anomalies

I like to hear anyone with Zu speakers if they have had a similar problem. I recently acquired a pair of Zu Tone speakers. Certain aspects about them are very good, such as soundstaging and speed, but it seems to me that unless my pair are defective, there is a serious issue with tonal accuracy. Right away when I set them up, I noticed that they sounded quite hollow. I then made a lot of measurements, both close miked and at the listening seat, with both a Behringer DEQ2496 and an RS sound level meter (using both pink noise and frequency generation). In both cases, it fairly closely matches what I am hearing, which is a severe rise in the upper midrange. I am trying to use a Z-Systems RDQ-1 digital EQ device to correct this problem, and have gotten much closer to a natural tone and flatter curve. What this required was a 7.6 db cut centered at 1.4kHz at a width of 1.5 octaves. This is quite a cut! For reference, I've had two other sets of speakers (Monitor Audio GR60 and NHT ST-4) in the room at almost exactly the same position, neither of which had this problem. I spoke to Sean Casey at Zu about the problem, and he thought it might be room interaction, which might be true to a point, but the anomaly is just too severe, and makes this point less viable since my other speakers didn't show the problem. I noticed in another thread here, that a couple of people heard what seemed like a similar problem with the Druids.

I am very curious as to what others have experienced with any of the Zu speakers in this regard.

Thanks,
Stew
smeyers
smeyers OP
181 posts
 
Thanks Mihilli, I was told the speakers had about 70 hours of playing time when I received them, so I do plan on spending some time to see what happens after they break in a bit more. I find it a little hard to believe that they will change that much however.

Miklorsmith, yes room interaction might have something to do with it. But as I mentioned earlier, I also did some close miked measurements. I do realize that my room is not an anechoic chamber, but the anomaly seems more than would account for that. Have you tried to measure the response of your Druids and/or Defintions? It might be that you do have an upper midrange spike that you find pleasing.
miklorsmith
146 posts
 
Well, the Definitions in my room currently are showing a 12 db rise in the same area you're talking about and higher. I'm measuring from the listening seat and the rise is obvious there. In fact, it's so obvious that I can hear it ringing off the glass bar and window that my listening seat are between. It is not pleasant and is something I'm working on through acoustics and will be aquiring a TacT to help as well.

With most music, the notes are not prolonged enough to pressurize that frequency. Piano and blazing guitar do light it up though. I assure you it isn't something I prize.

The Druids didn't do this, and I think they're actually rolled off around 2 db in the presence region. I'm no expert but I seriously doubt it's the speakers.
mihilli
33 posts
 
Yeah Stew, I was pretty dubious that they would change that significantly as well but change they did!

Good luck.
stiltskin
499 posts
 
Hi,The audio store I deal with just recently picked up the Zu line...Just for fun I brought my David Berning 1 watt per channel o.t.l. amp in .I beleive it was the Druid ,a floor standing model...Anyway, the little Berning amp is a [fabulous] match .The three of us were struck by how well the Zus and Berning performed...
matrix
305 posts
 
Don't Eq or you are not using this setup right but might need subwoofer, Guarantee its now showing you the equipment problems. If there is any hollow sound its my empty head with my system. But fact is using the druids or Tone I could not really comment much cause they are for very specific character music in my opinion, not full range rock music or anything with a lot of weight, cause they will sound not bright but etched. Definitions are perfect especially with the smoother midrange running 2 drivers totally spreads this out, and of course the powered 8 woofers round everything out to the max. So if you got something in the chain causing these spikes or whatever you need to try other preamps, cd whatever, cause it will happen, I had to move to extremly well controlled and very very smooth equipment, these speakers with 10" full range are like looking into large hi-definition window they will pick up repeat and amplify everything in your chain, and remember you have no compression circuit to cushion for you(no crossover) they are raw and will sound raw. For example if you have a sony CD or DVD player you will hear it. They are super sensitive, and by the way I do not like the Zu IBIS cables, they sound hard and etched too, the most warm cables in the lineup and perfect in my opinion are the Zu Libtec's. This could make a big difference, but I don't know what cables you are using. Beyond that yep a room will kill you if it does not like your speaker.
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