Zu Omen Dirty Weekend Setup tips

Awesome we have whoopycat helping cat_doorman! Congrats on your new speakers doorman and excellent advice Matt.

Damn. They sold out in less than a day. That’s crazy. Glad I didn’t hesitate. Thanks for the breakdown, whoopycat. Sounds like messing with the floor gap makes the most difference. The bass response is the big unknown for me. The speakers I’ve had for years claim extension to 26Hz. It’s only the last few years that I’ve put them in a room big enough to take the foam plugs out of the ports and let them breathe. I hope the Zu get close enough that a lack of bass doesn’t distract from the areas where they’re supposed to shine. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. How good of a sub do you need to keep up with a Zu?

Zu Audio sells these rubber footers that work very well and take all the guess work out ...

https://www.zuaudio.com/diy/rubber-footers-hifi-4-pack

Congrats on your purchase.  You will a lot of fun with these speakers. 

Rich 

Deep bass isn't really the DWs strongest attribute.  I think they start to roll off somewhere around 40Hz?  I don't have my own measurements in front of me but that's what I recall.

You do have some ability to control bass response by changing how the bottom finger ports interact with your floors.  Plus Zu has a template for using cardboard as gap fillers to further tune those frequencies.  I haven't tried that yet but it's on my agenda.

I took possession of a mine in late January and immediately noticed that they didn't go as low as my previous Acoustic Energy Aegis speakers.  At first I was disappointed but the Zu guys were great about offering advice.

My room is paneled and placement ended up being a real challenge.  Eventually I ended up finding a place where I can live with them until I get around to acoustically treating the room.

If you really like like bass in your music, you might find yourself wanting to add subs to your setup.  I'm pondering that myself.  Right now it really depends on the recording.  Hard rock /metal feels thinner than I'm used to.  But vocal-centric stuff and singer/songwriter tunes sound so good that I'm not sure there's a one size fits all approach.

I might have to have multiple setups with and without subs engaged to find what I want... there's lots to consider and that's a lot of the fun.

Enjoy your DWs, they are simple gorgeous to behold... excellent craftsmanship on the materials.  You have 60 days to live with them, use it before making up your mind.

I don’t consider myself a bass head, I just know over time I must have become accustomed to speakers with decent low end extension, no matter the genre. I had some large stand mounts for years long ago that rolled off around 50Hz. They were great. My decision to go to full range floorstanders had nothing to do with blowing a woofer with over exuberant volume.

No point in drawing conclusions early. That’s the whole point of the 60 day trial. I think my long term plan may involve some subs in a 2nd system. There are a lot of speakers I want to try over the next few years that have limited low end. I’ll have to figure that out when I get to it.

All the advice is appreciated. I’m the kind of person that prefers to learn from other people’s mistakes rather than my own. Doesn’t always work out that way. Sounds like there will be plenty of opportunities for both.