Another Zu Thread

OP - Original Poster

I will probably try some beefed up spikes at some point.

Having owned the Druids, Def. 1.5's and now Def. Pros, I can say these are all really different speakers. The Druids are mellower sounding than the other two but also less revealing. All can fill a large room with a handfull of watts. If you're a bass junkie, you'll need subs for the Druids, if you're not, they actually have very nice bass. I love huge bass and the 1.5s weren't enough in my room, but it's a bass vacuum and they seem to be fine for most. None are particularly sensitive to room positioning, as I've had all within a foot of the front wall with no problems.

Not everyone likes the Zu speakers. I'm not sure what the issue is with the Druids, and I'd still have them if I didn't fall into a little money. Lots of folks are very happy with them, but not all. In my giant bass suckout of a room, the 1.5 bass was light and the presence band was peaky. I suspect the active presence band is one reason some folks don't like the Definitions - it serves some music exquisitely but gets agitated with a few keys of a piano and with blazing guitar music.

To solve both problems, I went for the Definition Pros. This required a separate amp and EQ in the bass. I ended up with a Crown K2 and TacT 2.2XP, which fully controls the crossover between the main and sub arrays as well as EQ potential. I drop the presence band down a few db, raise the crossover frequency from the 40 hz in the 1.5s to 65 hz and now I have a setup that will serve ALL music at ANY volume. Yes, I like girl with guitar, yes, I like Metallica, and Snoop Dogg, and heavy electronic, and yes I like to CRANK it some times. Set up this way, even my 2 watt SET amp can happily oblige.

But, it plays very well quietly which is how I normally listen. SET magic and still the ability to bring the house down. It sounds like an Aphile wet dream but it's the real deal. It's also a fairly complex setup but it's transparent, revealing, warm and honest. 20 hz to 20 khz can be as flat as you want in-room or you can choose to skew the response to taste. The subs and mains blend perfectly, as they are essentially coincident.

I'm not one to exaggerate to make a point. The reward is a setup that can be tuned to suit any reasonable listener.

And, oh, flame away all ye naysayers about that which could not be. If I had that attitude, I wouldn't have "made it".

We're the smallest cheerleading squad on the planet and just like a cheerleading squad, we're undermining our energies by focusing on that boy "Spike".

This is a discussion for way down the road, like when the OP actually has the speakers. FWIW, I'm using the stockers on carpet on concrete and they aren't muddying up anything. Now, going from an audiophile-type amp to a Crown on the bass array, that's another story.

Re: getting any adjustable, 4-spike device perfectly level is tough. I'd try to lean the speaker so three points are touching, then rotate the 4th until it makes solid contact with the floor. Cinch extra nut and you should be there.

Otherwise, very thin shims should be able to do the trick.

Bartok, if you're not going to follow your promised, self-imposed banishment at least stay out of the Zu threads. You don't see us wading into your shallow waters regarding your chosen flavor, hmmm?

I don't think so. The footprint is too small for three so you'd need an outboard plinth which I don't think Zu offers.

Call Sean at Zu about the Pros, I think they are a slight upcharge for the beefier drivers.

I've had Druids and both models of Definitions within 6" of the front wall and had them sound good. My Pros now are only about a foot from the front wall and I'm very happy with them there.

I have no doubt they would sound even better further out into the room but my room doesn't allow it. The more important consideration with the Definitions is 213cobra's advice about keeping at Least 10 feet from the listener as the drivers take that distance to properly gel. If you have 12 - 15 feet, it's buttah.

Argh. OK, here's why Bartok should be excluded from the Zu threads - to date he has added no productive dialog in any way, shape, or form. Derailed threads often do not find their way back on track and this is destructive to genuine information-gathering efforts.

Bartok does not even try to contribute one iota of ANYTHING, he is merely lobbing rotten fruit on the stage. Until he brings something productive to the table, I will not "lay off" his tired act. Repeat after me - self imposed ban, self imposed ban. I see his word is as meaningless as his hollow rhetoric.

I wonder how his challenge might go using my choice of SET amplifiers.

Re: The Druid spikes - my feeling about them was that even with the designated carpet spikes, the bass gap could not be properly tuned. So, I spiked one of the Home Depot paver blocks to the floor below the carpet and used that as the base for the speakers. This was an effective strategy and I encourage anyone having issues tuning the bass in the Druids on carpet to try something similar.

And, while all the Zu speakers do sound better in the sweet spot, they are enjoyable anywhere in the room. I will be hosting a sizable listening session in my home this upcoming Sunday and I'm not worried at all about the many different spots the listeners will be sitting.

I love my speakers so much as do the other faithful owners. These discussions would be so much more helpful if we could just try to leave personal baggage at the door and avoid pissing matches. If I were an outsider looking in at one of these threads I'd be really turned off.

Hey, I'm not an outsider and I'm still turned off.

These questions aren't about US and OUR agendas.

The Pros have much more output potential and can be infinitely tuned in the bass. The 1.5's have a useful bass attenuator but I was never able to get them to pressurize my leaky room.

With the 1.5's, natural response of the rear drivers is flat-ish in response and does not need EQ. I don't think flat-to-20 hz is an expectation with the 1.5's but most folks aren't too concerned with that. They are crossed steeply above 40 hz and only an attenuator is available to adjust their output. A person could probably dig into the speakers and change that XO point/slope but I'm not adept enough to try it.

The Pro subwoofers are professional drivers, capable of significantly more output than the 1.5 drivers. However, their response curve is ragged and must be EQed. Without EQ, they run to 1 khz and fall off sharply from there.

With my TacT I can adjust the main XO point/slope as well as that for the subs. While a certain amount of shared output (bipole) is useful, i.e. shallow XO slopes, doing too much like running the mains down to 40 hz will muddy the sound. Further, getting the little main amp out of the bass zone makes it perform even better higher up.

Well, the main question was how far to keep the speakers away from the front wall. My response was merely that the more important distance was between the speakers and listener.

If one had 15 feet to spare from speakers to listener but was constrained to an 8-foot separation, I would advise to try that, then move the listening seat closer to get a wider spread. At some point, an optimized location will be found. Getting somewhat closer to the speakers will also increase distance from the rear wall which can only be a good thing.