Zu Druid IV - the real deal?

Bartokfan - You are a boundless source of misinformation which most of us chuckle about and then move on. However, I want you to be well informed on at least one topic if you choose to discuss it, and that would be my beloved Zu speaker line. It is not a big or well funded corporation but rather a small startup with young and inventive owners like your friend Tyler. I have been to the Zu factory and I can tell you for certain that they have 9 employees. As far as innovation and the Danes go, you have supposed correctly. Zu has it all over them. The products that Zu has presented are all built around a wide bandwidth driver that produces uninterrupted signal from 40 Hz to 12 Khz. This design has been in the works for over 70 years but had been abandoned because of the inability of Western Electric to make it work well enough. The Zu boys took up the challenge and succeeded in their pursuit by using modern materials and instrumentation that was unavailable to WE's very capable staff. Use of a large surface area and very short excursion makes for a very quick and electrostatic like presentation. Since there is no crossover in the mix, the problems of time and phase alignment that challenge Tyler and virtually all other speaker manufacturers do not come up for Zu.
There are many other aspects of the Zu designs that are interesting and innovative, and I would encourage you to explore the topic further by reading and by asking questions of the factory. They will welcome your call.

D_edwards - I think my zen will be O.K. as long as you keep calling me friend. But I'm afraid that measurements aren't valued much around here. This is a very subjective and experiential crowd. We're more into what seems to be than what is, even though we speak in absolutes.
I loved your "frozen in time" thing.

>>I'm just a noob at this can you show me where a serious audio company has documentation on "breakin", especially as a linear function of usage?<<

So you have a lot to learn. Good for you. Email me and I will give you all the serious audio companies you wish to contact. Part of the learning process you know.

>>I think Bartockfan's posts present no such problem for any reader<<

Re-read all of his posts and say that again with a straight face.
Thank you.

"But I'm afraid that measurements aren't valued much around here. This is a very subjective and experiential crowd."

Yeah actually I know that, its what I call "feeling around in the dark". And my history has been to march through your "experience" and show that all they really have is a house of cards for your audio knowledge temple.

You can't build a high quality 12 inch fullrange driver without serious instrumentation, so if those measurements matter so much to you, why do the end product measurements matter so little?

One measurement creates the miracle the next is useless? Tsk Tsk, I see philosophical conflict within you.

"The Zu boys took up the challenge and succeeded in their pursuit by using modern materials and instrumentation that was unavailable to WE's very capable staff."

How does a company achieve quality control, without measuring their product? How does technology advance without documented history? Listening to it? Let me tell you that doesn't work. I've had $17,000 Stereophile Speaker of the Year show up after several weeks "shakedown" at the factory with the crossover so badly miswired, I'm not sure how all the speakers worked. And how did they not hear it? How many audiophile visitors just ate it up as the panacea of audio, and half the drivers were messed up in one speaker? Yeah our ears go both ways when it comes to their accuity.

Its all about measurements Macro, you need to understand that the truth is there, because as you mentioned you are prone to mood swings making you a highly dubious source for information. We all are.

The fact that measurements constrict freedom, temper creativity and limit the heights of self-delusion does take the fun right out of the hobby for some I realize.

But for some of us, measurements are the guide post, proof that we are playing back the musical information as the artist intended, even if that means we don't like it as much. Because the artist comes first and myself; I personally feel editing an artists intentions to suit my self is selfish and a seriously short-sited intellectual decision.

Oh well