>>...Superfly in the RMAF room to especially in light of the comment they tweeted that it was less than refined and not especially detailed. This doesn't chime with much that's been posted here....<<
I wasn't at RMAF and haven't heard Omen yet. But knowing the driver differences and other details, this isn't difficult to explain. First, hotel rooms are notoriously poor spaces for sonic optimization and don't closely match domestic conditions. Zu has a longstanding history of disappointing show conditions. Search comments on their show appearances for the past five years or so and nearly every public hotel demo results in minor or major eruption of controversy over their sound. Second, the high output driver in Superfly has an especially vivid sound fresh, that can be a little raw and forward until fully broken in. It gets more beautiful with break-in, without losing it's dynamic energy. The driver in Omen is closer to Druid Mk4-08 spec, which ships mellower then Superfly's and opens up with break-in, becoming more vivid and alive. The starting points are different with respect to the sonic attributes of early-stage aging. Most hotel construction tends to aggravate the rawness of the incompletely broken-in Supfly driver while havi somewhat more benign effects on the more Druid-like Omen driver that blossoms with age.
Sean believes the slight cant of Omen's front baffle is sufficient to mitigate the too-low placement of its super tweeter, and suggested to me that the cabinet can be further leaned back a bit by placing the front spikes on shims. By any measure this is a kludge, but Omen isn't intended to be perfect. It's intended to make a properly-packaged Zu FRD based speaker affordable, compact and easy to own. It might be that Omen is disappointing to some people who already own current Zu speakers, as Tone and Essence always were to me, though some who may have favored Druid over Soul or Essence will prefer it. But to the first time buyer coming into the Zu or even hi-eff fold for the first time, it should be appreciated for being the gateway to a complete and more satisfying reorientation of hi-fi priorities and results. Generally, an affordable Zu FRD speaker driven by a great amp at higher cost will yield more convincing music fidelity than a higher-cost conventional speaker driven by mass market amplification.
Phil
I wasn't at RMAF and haven't heard Omen yet. But knowing the driver differences and other details, this isn't difficult to explain. First, hotel rooms are notoriously poor spaces for sonic optimization and don't closely match domestic conditions. Zu has a longstanding history of disappointing show conditions. Search comments on their show appearances for the past five years or so and nearly every public hotel demo results in minor or major eruption of controversy over their sound. Second, the high output driver in Superfly has an especially vivid sound fresh, that can be a little raw and forward until fully broken in. It gets more beautiful with break-in, without losing it's dynamic energy. The driver in Omen is closer to Druid Mk4-08 spec, which ships mellower then Superfly's and opens up with break-in, becoming more vivid and alive. The starting points are different with respect to the sonic attributes of early-stage aging. Most hotel construction tends to aggravate the rawness of the incompletely broken-in Supfly driver while havi somewhat more benign effects on the more Druid-like Omen driver that blossoms with age.
Sean believes the slight cant of Omen's front baffle is sufficient to mitigate the too-low placement of its super tweeter, and suggested to me that the cabinet can be further leaned back a bit by placing the front spikes on shims. By any measure this is a kludge, but Omen isn't intended to be perfect. It's intended to make a properly-packaged Zu FRD based speaker affordable, compact and easy to own. It might be that Omen is disappointing to some people who already own current Zu speakers, as Tone and Essence always were to me, though some who may have favored Druid over Soul or Essence will prefer it. But to the first time buyer coming into the Zu or even hi-eff fold for the first time, it should be appreciated for being the gateway to a complete and more satisfying reorientation of hi-fi priorities and results. Generally, an affordable Zu FRD speaker driven by a great amp at higher cost will yield more convincing music fidelity than a higher-cost conventional speaker driven by mass market amplification.
Phil