Anyone listen to Zu Audio's Definition Mk3?

I ordered Def Mk2's in May 2011........after six long months of delays caused by "new upgrades", one of the first production pairs of Def Mk3's arrived at my doorstep in Nov. 2011. My Mk3's have been used exclusively with Cary 2a3 SE monoblocks, a Cary SLP 50B preamp, a BAT VK-D5SE CD player, and well matched cables throughout.

Having lived with Def 3's for well over a year now, I can say that they are the most satisfying speakers I have owned in my 40 plus years in the audio hobby. Like most music lovers who have been around for awhile, many speakers, including, but not limited to, Klipschorns, Spendors, Magnepans, Shahinian's, Soliloquy's, Vandersteens, and most recently Azzolina Audio Grande Sfera's have spent significant time in my home. Though the Def 3's rarely fool me into thinking live music is being performed in my dedicated listening room they way the Grande Sfera's (read Lowther) did, and though the efficiency of the cornerhorns along with their effortless bass production with Altec 515B woofers is not matched, and though they cannot image nor provide the enormous sound stage of the Grande Sfera's, and though the sparkly grey finish doesn't meet the wife acceptance factor the way the small LS3/5A's finished in specially ordered teak did, they consistently please me more often on a wide range of musical styles than all the previously named speakers I have owned.

The Def 3's do all of the important things really well, even if they don't take top prize in any one performance category. They are so good overall that I have no choice but to award them with the best of show trophy in my small audio world! And award goes to Sean for stellar communication throughout the ordering and build process, and for providing tremendous personal sevice and support following delivery!

2a3nut, I was wondering, given all that has been said about the Def 4s, if they will ever fit into your music equation?

I'm back to listening to my Def4s with Quads and a Valvet preamp. The Quads are still fantastic amps. I think 6sn7 + KT88 is one of the best combos for Zu that I've heard.

Warren, I have pondered that very question a number of times over the past year or so. The real problem is that my audio blood has been infected by the Lowther bug.

I recently had the opportunity to spend an entire week at my daughter and son-law's home where I became reacquainted with my Lowther based Azzolina Audio Grande Sfera's. On small scale acoustic music, Lowthers are fully capable of tricking one into thinking that a live performance is occurring in the living room. The ability of Lowthers to resolve the very finest details and to get instrument and voice timbre exactly right is something that Zu's new nano drivers simply cannot do.....in fact, the nano's are not even close. On the other hand this extremely high resolution ability is the very thing that drove me to the Definitions; Lowthers make poorly recorded music sound really bad, and in many cases, intolerable. Definitons, in contrast, sound really good on most all recordings. Currently I am tossing around the idea of a Lowther project, and will likely go that direction prior to taking the next step up the Zu chain.

2a3nut,

Lowthers, and other full range drivers are amazing in their ability to tease out detail and perk up music. For me, almost all implementations I've heard were just too rough and peaky and seemed to "shout" too much for my taste (I still like the speaker). The most interesting Lowthers were the ones with the field coil magnet structure. The best implementation I heard of Lowther drivers was a three-way system made by Horning--a modified Lowther driver was used as a wideband midrange driver.

For full range drivers, I prefer Feastrix drivers. They have the same sort of issues with peaky response and poor bass, but, not nearly as much so as Lowthers. Unfortunately, they are WAY more expensive than Lowthers. A really interesting newcomer to the full range game is the Taiwanese firm Tang Band. I heard a few speakers using their full range driver, both in full range speakers and as midrange/tweeters in two-way designs. They manage to deliver the kind of dynamics and liveliness of full range drivers with surprisingly natural tonal balance. The Tang Band speakers are also MUCH cheaper than the competition.

I recently heard a system that uses an old Western Electric 756 full range driver as a woofer midrange in a two way design. This was a quite nice sounding system whose primary weakness was a lack of deep bass.