Okay, I will jump in.. First off I will say that the definitions in specific work well on hardwood, possibly a little better response than directly on carpet, but probably cause the floor resonates a little better. However truth is being on hardwood with a rug out in front of them have been the best overall that I have experienced just kill the first point reflection with some type of rug.
I have used the factory supplied spikes.. #1 they are about at least an Inch too LOW for me.. Now I have used Sistrum Stands and Both types of Audiopoints, the 1.5" and 2" versions.
Stock spikes makes them sound far more Muddy, and almost Hollow compared to getting them up a little higher and or with better vibration control on heavier spikes, This is my opinion and might not be completley a rule of thumb in every single acoustic environment. But I lost a bit of impact and 3 Dimensionality with the stock spikes of both the version cut off tips and with the tips Zu can supply.
Solid Brass spikes were far Better feel in the room than the Steel Nubby spikes supplied. Why? Don't know, better energy transfer? Just better Height? Or just better Mass? Well the brass are probably 10 times the weight, they are over 1.5" higher using the 2" spikes as well.. You equate why or how, but yes the Spikes sound quite different no question on that.
The cabinets vibrated much more on the Sistrum stands, the stands worked best on hardwood, but were pretty bad on carpet...
The 2" heavy solid brass spikes sounded the best in all configurations more or less, and they seemed to really eliminate any excess cabinet vibrations as well as bring the tweeter up to 37" vs. 35.5". I hated spending the money on them but they were just better. Experiment its pretty easy, Oh and Flat on the floor with NO spikes I thought would definatley obtain the most increase in Fullness or something and make the room Shake more, well Nope.. On spikes were always better and cleaner Bass and Midrange output whether the stock or Heavy brass spikes were used. I have never tried them on blocks of solid wood so I have no comment. |
Who is OP? I was simply giving a breakdown of my own experience, not really defending warrenh or anybody.. Unfortunatley right now I have Carpet on concrete in my new room and on the wood floor they were much better in that respect, but this is just a preference..
And Trust me I did not think they were muddy or losing impact until I heard them on the different spikes opposed to the Stock.. then it was fairly apparent you could be missing something, Hey I would have never thought this myself believe me it just happened
I spent about 3 weeks going crazy moving and switching between spikes cause I did not want to think that Brass would have better effect.. I actually moved from an Audiophile costly amp on the bass arrays to Crown myself and had very good results, but this was well after my Room change and spike change.. Always a better tool to do the Job and its just being lucky or finding it that makes this more interesting. |
Op.... Other People? Old People? That might make sense!! Ha |
Mihilli, I believe its a standard 3/8" thread... Mainly I believe a lot of the fuss here is that the Height in fact changed the soundstage quite a bit.. The Original spikes only raised them about a Half inch or so, but you could maybe get them to go about 3/4" out of the cabinet from the floor.. I just simply found the Solid 2" Height better period, whether it is due to it being Starsound material, Brass, Or just a beefier spike is really not explainable by me accept they just simply worked better overall and sounded a little more clear, solid and yes much easier to place the cabinets, and they are much much Tighter fit to the body of the speaker with A much more Solid platform it seems. Try something out it can't hurt, How much this is worth Funding wise, well thats the real justification in the end and up to you. |
Druid Spikes
Luckily that speaker is much more manageable in size and weight than the Defs, and you should be easily able to adjust the spikes with the standard Jam Nut supplied by Zu
You are forced to use a specific Height with the druids as I understand for the Port tuning underneath, so You can't go with any solid barrel spikes and must use the stock threaded rod type in this case. But again they are lightweight and very thin speakers, what is giving you difficulty on Leveling them? If your doing the 2 CD case stacked height or whatever it is that is suggested by Zu I would just stick the Jewel cases under each corner and lower each spike to match this distance at all 4 points and don't worry about being level to the room or floor, as you distance underneath to each corner would seem to be the criticle distance for the port. |
Bartokfan, Excellent Idea
. You have tylers right? Okay you are in an excellent position to make your dreams come true, FREE shipping with a 90 Day return policy on Zu.. you are the authority here and are the top representative of Tyler to give a fair shake and put on your own Head to Head A-B test to prove to yourself and everyone you made the best choice in American Built speakers
Please get back to us when you record your findings, take some pics.. By the way Zu charges very little for and even sometimes Nothing to ship nearly 300 lbs worth of speakers.. I Have seen just recently Quotes from Tyler acoustics supossedly that they will charge 300 to 400 to ship a pair of the bigger models, and a few guys were asking around on some recent threads that they want to make sure about them before such a costly audition to get them in home. I have nothing against Tyler, but since it seems you have this strange facination with proving something you are infact in the best position to do this instead of telling everybody " please tell or conduct a shoot out" etc
You have jumped in about 100 times on these threads and really have nothing to say accept its impossible that the Seas Excell Driver could be bettered by something else. So please get a pair of Zus for free and return them! Nobody else wants to pay and possibly wait 5 weeks for delivery on Tylers. By the way 3 or 5 weeks wait, and paying shipping costs is not a knock at Tyler, that is perfectly acceptable accept the fact that it is just easier for somebody already with Tylers will have an easier and cheaper way to get the Zu's. |
Oh boy.. No wonder, I think he must feel if he causes enough rumble online about Tyler that they will just feel that they owe him a Deep discount for support or freebies! Who knows the mind of the delusional? |
Rwwms
Nice post... as stated it will be very room dependent, for example I can only get a maximum of 11 feet from the speakers which is where I have seating now, so I unfortunatley can't try out the 4 or 5 ft from the backwall without being 8 feet total away from the speakers...And this does not work unless your a big nearfield listener I guess.. I find with the definitions I have and could sit at least 12 or 13 feet away with no problem and even bigger surrounding soundstage with at least 2 ft between speaker and backwall.
But I agree with what you say. Honestly the bigger overall average room you can put these in the better options you will have, and I have done the Long wall setup as well with better than the shortwall results myself too. |
My tweeter center is about 8 ft apart. so average would be 10.5 to 12 feet back, but I could do 13 and it sounds really good too with bigger sounding music
. Just can't permanently set up this way cause there is a Landing that goes up about 8" behind my chairs that are butted up against it right now leading into a hallway. |
I do have some room treatment, and quite literally this is very room dependent as well, but I get just an intimate sound with the right spacing and sitting from 8 ft, or 14 feet... But again I guess it depends on the way your room will carry frequency response. My room is FAR too small for Definitions no doubt, its only 12.5 feet wide so the further you get away the more powerfull everything sounds. I would consider a 15 ft X about 28 ft room more optimal, I use to have them in a 14 ft X 29 ft room and could easily sit 14 feet away with full spectrum results. |
Rwwms, ha funny you say that see my system link :) |
I found butterworth 6 db set at 47.5 hz excellent in one room... and in my other room linkwitz 12 db set at 50 or 53 hz very good.. So in this case you have much more room tuning flexability with the pros no doubt. |
I believe Zu simply markets the standards to the audiophile community do to set up issues, lots of problems in helping on intergration due to choices of about 50 processors out there to handle the crossover etc.. I mean that can't deal with all products and combos that the pros could use
End user is not just plug and play anymore and it is more complex
Not to mention more cables, more power supplies to plug in, and simply more cost and confusion to the customer. |
