Zu Druid IV - the real deal?

D wants measurements from me. What good would it do for me to measure any speaker in my house? Neither I nor anyone else here listens in an anechoic chamber and hardly anyone has their room treated or EQ'd to flat response itself. More to the point, every location I listen to live music in imposes its own acoustic signature too. I've had plenty of speakers in my home that measured "flat." This had only limited relationship to sonic fidelity. No one has yet measured the aggregated simultaneous behaviors of a speaker transducing music. So, yeah, measurements are interesting, and have some relevance, but are not exclusively determinant.

Zu provides specs on efficiency, frequency distribution and on phase coherence. The speakers sound pretty much like they describe, and then some. They also sound like they are missing crossovers, which they are and which is a good thing.

So, bottom line is that in their price ranges, Zu's speakers deliver frequency accuracy, dynamic projection, phase coherence, uniformity of transient behavior top-to-bottom, frequency range and efficiency in sufficient balance to transduce a superior illusion of musical reality from the electrical signal they are fed. Most of us who own them think very few speakers at any price meet or exceed Zus in this regard. And some of the folks who don't own them refuse to accept the conclusion of those who do. It's easy to resolve. Skeptics can uy them and return them if you don't agree. Or get to a location where you can hear them and decide. Fly, drive, walk, hitchhike to Utah and get a demo at the factory from the guys who design and build the speakers. Do what you want, but the answer remains the same. I'm highly experienced at this hobby, have benefit of industry friends if I want something else, get to hear most gear that has any modicum of credibility, and I ventured to buy Zu. The result is that both my systems are at equilibrium and the sound quality I have is the most realistic and natural attained so far, 35 years after buying my first piece of true hifi gear. To answer the original question, yes, Zu Druid is the real deal, and this applies more dramatically still to Definitions.

Phil

as a potential buyer of speakers who likes rock music what are the pros and cons of the druids as opposes to other well reviewed speakers like the taylors or acoustic zens.difficult to audition any of them so basically trying to read up on and listen to others viewpoints.

The Druid is very efficient. This affords wide latitude in amplifier selection. It has a very benign impedance curve, again affording almost limitless amplifier compatibility. It plays very loud without breakup. It is remarkably coherent allowing you to understand the lyrics of screaming vocalists. It is very rhythmic about playback, if that makes sense to you. There is a fullness of tone that you are unlikely to find in other speakers. Its a kind of vitality that really defies description but is easy to detect. Tones are more resonant than what you are accustomed to in speakers at or even above this price range. Bass is a little tricky to adjust initially but comes through as fast and furious once you get it right. The addition of Zu's Mini Method sub takes it to a genuine full range experience. Cabinets do not seem to contribute anything. This is partially due to their design materials and construction and perhaps also to the short excursion of the full range driver and open bottom which emits bass energy. Call Zu and ask them about how all this works. They will explain plainly and not make you feel like a fool for asking.
I don't know a thing about the other speakers you mentioned but I'm hoping you find some useful answers in what I said.
Another fact about the Druids that went over well at my house is that you can postion them right up next to the front wall without significant loss of performance. Good for small spaces and difficult wives.

Been listening to Ani Difranco's live album Living in the Clip. 2cd of many of her concert tours mixed beautifully without all that applause. Afer listening to the first track: I never heard a kick drum (the entire drum set in fact) sound so real, dynamic, palpable, in your face, right there, as my Defintions allow this wonderful cd to happen. Then it happens again with guitar electric on the next track. Oooh. Measurements? Doesn't matter what they are, what you tell me they are, what they are not, etc. I know what I hear in my crib, hooked up to my rig. And the sound has been gettin more exiciting and revealing with age. Remarkable speakers. I know, I know, these are not the Druids, but they are quite amazing and worth a try if you're thinking of a change and have $9k to drop. I haven't been around this block in a while, but when are saw cobra and macrojack: I couldn't resist...

Well that's the kind of answer I expected.

Macro.

Where the problem comes in is you SAY that the X-speaker has superior phase, dynamics, linear frequency response, etc. All easily measurable attributes. But you don't measure which means you don't really "know", because you only know what you've been told what has been suggested. How do you KNOW if you have a properly working pair of speakers in the first place?

I've been talking to Sean since he was at Kimber, much longer than you have I'm sure. My point is you drop all these technical attributes and say that speaker X is superior to Y and For Z reason, and yet you've no facts on how speaker X is actually performing or Y for that matter. If you're going to say it like its a fact then back it up with something substantial.

"I am sure that you will find that Sean Casey at Zu can answer your questions about measurements and design decisions."

This is not about Sean Casey, this is about YOU talking about stuff you don't have any proof of but using it to run down other products and Zu at the same time. Saying measurements don't matter!? Sean busted his ass researching and testing that speaker, and poof, in a sentence you say its meaningless. The driver was a lucky guess...do you realise that is what you imply when you simply dismiss measurements as meaningless?

"God made winter and created me naked. And every year I put on clothes because the artist set me up to freeze to death if I don't."

So its god's fault you decide to live where it gets cold? :)I don't think so Einstein, I don't remember any mention of winter in the Garden of Eden.

What bearing does that have on Zu or this discussion?

You're misrepresenting the performance of the speaker. You downplay all the engineering that went into the speaker and thus you create conflict for ZU. Your good intentions are creating negativity because you don't know what you're talking about, except when you say you like them. That I believe, the rest is unusable.

"It sounds like you are attempting to position yourself as superior to that established manufacturer."

Typical SP audiophile, no I used that example to show you that if you don't have measurements your ability to do quality control is suspect at best, listening experience is not valuable over long time frames without something to base the experiences. My comment are all about you and your comments about how you prefer to feel around in the dark instead of learning facts about audio.

"I don't know the weight of my car keys, the height of my mulberry tree or the time it takes me to shave."

Well if you were to say in conversation you shaved the fastest, you had a larger than average Mulberry tree and the heaviest set of car keys on the planet, ie all the relative qualitative comments about your speakers. Then I would expect, you could back up your comments with some relevant facts. Or without some sense of timing how could I even begin to quantify your shaving speed. How many times do you think you'd could tell me really really really fast, before I'd go, yeah you shave fast :( ...?

I'm just asking you to be fair, you picked on Bartokfan who makes me roll my eyes too, but you're just as bad, just more subtle about it.

Am I making my point?