Zu Omen Dirty Weekend Setup tips

Mine are Rustic Hickory, too. I just couldn't justify spending $150-400 extra for a special paint job on $1,000 speakers. I did spring for the upgraded capacitor though.If I ever move up the line I might look at a premium finish, even the hickory are damn nice to look at. I haven't had the speakers 3 days or finished tweaking the setup, and I'm already thinking about the upgrade path. Shameless.

Looks like you found your weak link. I hadn't changed any gear in years until recently and I've noticed it does change the way you listen. There's the old debate about listening to gear versus listening to music, but sometimes listening to gear makes you hear the music again. I've been playing a lot of stuff I hadn't heard in years. And since I only recently started streaming there is an enormous back catalog of stuff I always wanted to listen to but never got around to buying. Priorities.

Glad you like 'em.  I'm a big fan of the rustic hickory finish.  I had DW's in rustic and my Druids are also in rustic hickory with a light rub to make the wood grain pop just a little bit more.

I've had mind for a while. They aren't that fussy about placement, but I needed the back of the cabinets about 1 1/2 feet from the wall (my wall is made out of concrete) to get optimal bass without muddying the midrange.

Despite the heavy run-in received in the factory, they will still need 50-100 hours before their character stopped changing.

Once you get them right, just enjoy ! I don't find them lacking in bass in the least. In fact, it may boom in smaller rooms.

Your last tweak is either trying the snubbing resistors, or a capacitor upgrade for the high pass to the tweeter (you can also ask for them to be upgraded in the factory, or buy their upgrade kit which can be user installed).

whoopycat - What refinements did you get moving up to the Druids? Not that I’m looking to upgrade right away. (It’s only been a few weeks.) I’m just curious how the rest of the line compares.

For me I think the real test will be in a few months after I’ve fully run in and acclimated to the DW. I wonder what I’ll think when I try my 20yo Dynaudios again.

Druid V has a much more quieter cabinet as well as the larger 16 ohm driver.  This gives you better tonal resolution with much better attack and more resolving bass.  With the Radian tweeter you also get much more refinement in the high treble.  Whereas Omen DW sounds warmer and fuller.

This is a story for another thread, but the downside is that IMO Druid is much pickier about the amp in order to fully open up and go from good to great.  I needed the loading resistors to get my solid state amps to drive them well, the Omens didn't really need them.  So while Druid is definitely a step up, it was not without some frustration for me in terms of setup and system matching whereas Omen DW sounded pretty great to me right out of the box.