Zu Dirty Weekend 6 went on sale today

@snapsc Zus are fantastic at imaging and sounding bigger than they are.

@bourbonkernel

Played some more with them today.

The Zu house sound is all there. The dynamic sound is there. That live attack is there. There ability to be spatial is there. I went through everything and they handle all music pretty well.

There’s something that just isn’t connected down low very well. The bass is marginally better than my Polk RTi6’s bookshelves that are mounted in the corner. Yes, the polks are cheating because they have the walls that help them "beat" but for some reason the Zu’s low end isn’t extending to the ground as much as I would like.

Maybe it’s false expectations, but I was expecting to have to dial BACK the bass on my PMA800NE amp. What I’m wanting to do is to dial UP the bass. So something isn’t quite right. I’m not a believer in EQ because it always seems to color the sound in ways I don’t like.

Depending on the cartridge, my volume knob is 35-40%, listening at 92db peaks. So listening fairly loud.

I moved them out into the room several feet and bass response didn’t improve. I have them backed up to front wall (a few inches away) and they seem to like that. Of coarse placing them in the corners improves bass, but the imaging gets affected. So about 2’ from the side walls is about what they like with some slight toe-in. They like to be wide apart rather than narrow.

I brought out my little Class D amp just to take the Denon out of the equation. Didn’t improve bass response, so it’s not the Denon being weird.

I’m definitely happy with them, but the low end and connectiveness feels underwhelming. It’s strange feeling like I need a sub, when many of the reviews I’ve been reading counter that.

My listening area is about 18’ wide and about 25’ deep. So nothing out of the ordinary there.

You can click here to see where I’m at right now:

I’ve been A/Bing my Polks (you can see them on the photo) and definitelly the Zus are more fun to listen to. Comparing Zus and Polk RTi6s is pretty silly, but it’s amazing how much the Zus all of sudden make it feel like I have a tube sound (the sound is far warmer and organic) where the Polks sound flat. Everything about the Polks now sound flat, the imaging, the depth, the highs, etc.

The Zus are definitely "live" speakers. They "attack" very well. Definitely no issue with harshness at all. They are NOT "background sound" speakers. You wouldn't want to play them at higher volumes and be able to hold conversations with people, lol 

@snapsc 

I agree with @fendersrule in sounding like a large speaker. Especially once you get the peaks up over 80db. The play softly well enough but seem to come alive in my system at that volume.  Good recordings can have a very wall of sound effect. This also happens to be about where I listen most of the time.  These speakers will definitely play LOUD  

Perhaps I’m getting better bass from mine due to my listening space being small (about 12x17 and just a simple rectangle in shape with 8’ ceilings and area rug on hardwood).  I think I found a good balance for mine about 8” from back wall and about ~2/2.5’ from sidewalls.  You may be correct about them imagining better in less bass friendly positions. I haven’t done much super critical listening for sound staging. I certainly prioritized balanced bass and treble response over staging in the short time I spent positioning these speakers. 
 

Also I’d just give them some time to play in. Like we already talked these seem to take some time to really bloom. 

We have our speakers in the same place! Mine is about 8" from the back wall and about 26"-28" from the side wall. They seem to be very happy there!

Yep, the more I listen to them the more I am really really loving them. As far as I’m concerned, those polks can come down. :)

I think you’re right about the break in. I feel like they’re already kicking off more low end the more I play them.

Zu was really cool. They took me through the facility. Like I mentioned I almost ran over Sean as I was backing in, lol. We chatted for awhile. Really awesome small-family place. Everyone that worked there loved what they were doing. So friendly and awesome to talk with. They had me inspect my speakers before and boxed them in-front of me. I saw their break-in room. They don’t break in completed speakers, they break in drivers only. So once those are broken in they assemble and package. This is possibly why as a complete assembled unit they could use a few hundred hours to really settle in.

They also surprised me and had some left over rustic hickory as I mentioned. They don’t build the cabs onsite as some other facility locally does that. To my understanding they finish and assemble.

Here’s a couple pics of the finish. It’s flawless and possibly the best finishing work Zu has ever done.

https://ibb.co/tBvfqnY

https://ibb.co/Jc427v5

Been listening all day. Threw on Synchronicity and man...I feel like the bass is starting to extend deeper.

So yea, I think break-in really is a thing....and this is only the first day!

25 x 18 is a pretty large space. I’m not surprised you are slightly underwhelmed with the bass extension. Makes perfect sense to me.