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Zu Tone/Druid Tonal Anomalies

I like to hear anyone with Zu speakers if they have had a similar problem. I recently acquired a pair of Zu Tone speakers. Certain aspects about them are very good, such as soundstaging and speed, but it seems to me that unless my pair are defective, there is a serious issue with tonal accuracy. Right away when I set them up, I noticed that they sounded quite hollow. I then made a lot of measurements, both close miked and at the listening seat, with both a Behringer DEQ2496 and an RS sound level meter (using both pink noise and frequency generation). In both cases, it fairly closely matches what I am hearing, which is a severe rise in the upper midrange. I am trying to use a Z-Systems RDQ-1 digital EQ device to correct this problem, and have gotten much closer to a natural tone and flatter curve. What this required was a 7.6 db cut centered at 1.4kHz at a width of 1.5 octaves. This is quite a cut! For reference, I've had two other sets of speakers (Monitor Audio GR60 and NHT ST-4) in the room at almost exactly the same position, neither of which had this problem. I spoke to Sean Casey at Zu about the problem, and he thought it might be room interaction, which might be true to a point, but the anomaly is just too severe, and makes this point less viable since my other speakers didn't show the problem. I noticed in another thread here, that a couple of people heard what seemed like a similar problem with the Druids.

I am very curious as to what others have experienced with any of the Zu speakers in this regard.

Thanks,
Stew
smeyers

Showing 2 responses by 213cobra

213cobra
885 posts
 
By the way, nothing I've heard in midrange tonal anomalies when the drivers are new hinted at a 7db variance, but I have heard the apparent rise seem boosted as I moved further from the speaker, in some rooms, further indicating the room can be an exciter. I've also noticed the phenomenon Miklorsmith notes, wherein a burst guitar or piano tone can, as he says, "light up" a specific freqency spike, but for me that too mitigates with extended use.

Phil
213cobra
885 posts
 
A brand new pair of Tones will honk or shout some until broken in. My Druids did the same thing. My Definitions less so. Room interaction can exaggerate this. The rise you are hearing, insofar as it is driver-generated, will mitigate with break-in day-by-day until you hear them settle into a natural response. At least that's my experience. Room interaction definitely affects the degree to which you experience this phenomenon.

Also position. The speaker is smoother even new on a stout pair of stands. The Tones are also more sensitive to room effects than the Druids and much more so than the Definitions.

How much use have your Tones been subjected to?

Phil
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