They’re certainly the best ever speaker, IN MY ROOM, SYSTEM, EXPERIENCE.
But since no one else has my room, system, experience, it’s a bit of a mute point as an opinion/question.
I’ve been running them since 2013, initially with Hovland tube HP200 pre/Radia SS power, then all-tube Audion Quattro pre/Black Shadow 845 SETs, and now all-tube Nat Audio Utopia pre/SE2SE 211 SETs.
The NATs are truly special powering the Def4s.
I’ve modded them with Sean-approved Lundahl transformers and Duelund caps, replaced the stock spikes w Symposium Rollerblocks, and most critically installed them in a new room with plenty of space around them (9’ to front walls, 4’ to side walls, 8’ apart, 12’ to seat) with absolutely stunning acoustics (I am truly blessed with my new room), and bulletproof power (isolated feed to room, 8kVA Westwick balanced power, Oyaides dedicated lines).
What was a pretty enjoyable but overly rough sound in my old, poor room, has now transformed into a world-beating one. Bass is truly controlled, expressive, extended and nimble. Mids are the biggest winner, maintaining the Zu DNA of tone density and immersion, but now doing the audiophile checklist of stage depth, imaging, texture, delicacy and air. Treble is sweet and sublime.
Its taken 5 years to get to this point, especially 12 months of wrangling the new room, spending a fortune on it in the process, but the Definitions are truly revealed to be stellar performers, with what I still contend is a unique combination of horn-like immediacy, old-school heft, texture and density, with a real ability to communicate the musicians’ intent. Here the true 101dB efficiency always shows its advantages.
But as I’ve found, they can flatter to deceive, and it’s taken me a spend 7x what I paid for them, on room acoustics and power grid, and very careful setup to get them to reveal their true magic.
I contend I may very well have the best sounding pr of Definitions 4 in existence.
And so, yes, the Definitions 4s are the best spkrs ever made.
