Anyone heard new Zu Union 6?

Hey Kray, I am also giving Union 6 a try right now to see if I want to trade up from my Dirty Weekends.  They just arrived yesterday.

Have you tried corner loading these?  Because right now that seems to be where they are performing best in my room, corner loaded, Audio Note-style with extreme toe in so they cross over about 2 feet in front of me.

First impression is these are loud and not very forgiving.  They play noticeably louder than Dirty Weekends. Definitely more detailed than DW2, but like you mentioned there is some bite to certain instruments. That said, the sound can be very exciting and piano sounds are much more resolved on Union 6 than DW2.  

Hey @whoopycat good to hear from you. Did you do the base model or a superfly/supreme upgrade? haven’t tried corner loading yet but may give it a go soon. But I do have them toed in pointing directly at me. 
 

how far from the walls do you have them? Loud and unforgiving was my first impression but they have broken in a lot and sound better. First couple days I was perturbed, but remembering how other Zu’s needed MAJOR break in I’m letting them play as much as possible. I also think they are VERY susceptible to your gear/chain. You hear exactly what your DAC, amp, etc can do. I had a ESS9038 DAC that I didn’t like at all with them. Switched back to my favorite type of dacs, R2R, and they’ve been much better. Also my Valvet E2 amp sounded almost too warm on my omegas but on the Zu it’s a much better fit. 

Mine are the standard version with Mission wire and ClarityCaps.  I have them tight in the corners, maybe about 4 inches off the wall.  Your walnut Unions look great, I wish I had gone that route.

yeah I decided to go full upgrade instead of wishing I would have later. 

So after a full 5 weeks of constant usage, I can say the Zu Union 6 Supreme is happily staying put in my house. They've broken in very nicely, and from what I read, they will settle in even more over next month or so. The strident is gone, the top end is open and airy, the low end is satisfying enough (although since I already have dual REL T5i's in stereo I leave them hooked up with just slightly adding to the very bottom.

As mentioned before, I had a lot of changes going on during the process, which made it hard to dial it in from a constant setup perspective. I think the best change was adding a Sonnet Morpheus DAC and Denafrips Hermes DDC. My chain looks like this:

Innuos Zen MK3 -> Denafrips Hermes (USB) -> i2S to Morpheus -> RCA out to amp(s) (Valvet E3, and Oliver Sayes 421a tube amp)

I added two new PC's from Audio Art during the process.

My biggest insight is the Zu's are the most revealing speaker I've owned. Every change I made you could hear it, whether a cable, the DDC, etc.. good or bad, the Zu's let you know... So dialing in has been the key as well. 

Compared to my previous statements, I no longer feel the Zu's are strident or closed in. They throw a huge soundstage, and this is the first time I've experienced front to back placement more extremely. Ex on Eagles live Hotel California track, you can easily tell when the drummer kicks in he's behind the other performers. so you get a 3D soundstage on top of the left to right. 

When compared to my Omegas. The Omegas still have a super sweet midrange, at the expense of being more forgiving. To me that means losing a little size of the music, and a little detail. They are actually more similar than different, but with the right gear the Zu's are on top. I'm actually thinking I'll sell my Omega's (Vintage 8 Dual High Output) and buy a used pair of CAMs (Compact Alnico Monitors) to have as a secondary pair. 

@whoopycat put some major hours on yours, and the roughness is all but gone on mine now.