I attended the morning session of the Zu Cable East Coast Speaker Demo.
My impressions of this company are overwhelmingly positive. Zu Cable, and the event itself, was populated by young, high energy people with true passion for music. Audio per se taking a back seat, is the means to the end. I had a great time, and came away with nothing but the utmost respect for the people of Zu Cable. It seemed that we were all on the same page, no BS, just good sound.
I must admit when I first read people raving about their cables here on Audiogon a while ago, the "Oh no, not another cable company!" dismissal feeling went through my mind again. However, from the minute I made the phone call about 10 days ago to let them know I would be in attendance, the impression that I was dealing with a very atypical high end audio company struck me immediately. The fact is that for a while now, I have been reading the overwhelmingly enthusiastic opinions of their customers. Most of those who attended already owned Zu Cable products. And, it seems they couldn't be happier
I can't really focus on the sound of their cables, as we didn't do any swapping or mixing and matching while I was there. But, I will say that you can add Zu Cable to the number of cable companies I endorse. They don't simply slip a fancy braid and hyper termination on an off the shelf product. No, they engineer these cables, which is a rarity beyond what most of us would expect. They fit into my sensible cable cost category. The best interconnect they make is $499, and the next best cable is $199 - meeting my under $300/m IC rule.
But, as has been laid out in this thread, the star of the show was the new flagship speaker. The price of the speaker will be $6000, in piano black finish. I must say that at this price point, it is one heck of a lot of speaker for the money. 4 powered 10" drivers on the rear, and a MTM arrangement on the front consisting of 10" whizzer coned drivers(looking a bit like Lowthers, but larger) and a more typical looking dome tweeter. The large speaker features a sealed box alignment. Claimed sensitivity is 101 db/W, with a minimum 4 ohm impedance. Low powered tube amps are said to be easily accommodated.
In a large, square room, with the speakers in a conventional arrangement firing directly out from the back wall, I heard some good things and some not so great things. There was no bass boominess and the speakers did not come off as shrill or etched. The speakers were far apart, yet still imaged to a fair degree. I noticed the midbass region was lacking in weight. But, I was most troubled by the tonal shading of some familiar recordings. However, I felt there was probably about 200% more speaker than this challenging room was giving us.
After listening to me talk way too much, the guys accommodated my suggestion to try firing the speakers out of one of the room's corner. We didn't even do it that carefully. Bingo! The imaging snapped into focus, producing a coherent picture of the performance and solidifying the bass a great deal. I knew that there was even a great deal more that the speakers were capable of in terms of both imaging and low frequencies. As it was, the speakers surprised me in terms of their imaging, much better than I normally encounter with larger speakers. I have no doubt that with this kind of piston area, bass should be the last thing that one worries about.
Personally, I found the drivers a bit stiff, which made me wonder if they could really open up and let the speaker sing, but I have this complaint about most speakers, and the designers defended their position well enough for me to accept that we will agree to disagree. Again, I find just about every speaker I come across to fall into this complaint of mine, including some exceedingly well regarded products, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I understand that buying a speaker direct from a manufacturer requires a tremendous leap of faith. It isn't for all of us, and I will be the first to admit that a purchase of this magnitude mandates a careful audition to ensure long term happiness. But, I will say that they definitely get a recommendation from me, as I think that in a good room, with careful placement, they seem quite capable of producing a very high level of sound quality. Especially, at their price point. But, what I really recommend is that if the Zu Cable Show comes to your area, please make sure you go and check it out!
