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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
smeyers OP
181 posts
 
I agree that the speakers (I have the Zu Tone's) image best when pointed directly at the listener (I have commented on this in other threads), but it seems to me that tonal balance is better with them not toed in much, mainly due to some excessive high frequency energy coming from that super-tweeter. When I was experimenting with this, I put my ear close to the super-tweeter, and you can hear some 'hissing' that actully hurt my ears! This 'hissing' is tamed somewhat, when the speakers are not pointed directly at the listener.
glreno
224 posts
 
Interesting question, Drubin. After reading it, I sat in my listening seat and moved around. Are they a one person speaker? No. But movement more than two feet from the sweet spot does result in a SLIGHT change. I think most speakers I've owned are like that, except the Decware 3.0s which I still have, but are for sale. I've had one person speakers. The Innersound Eros comes to mind. Move your head, frequencies vaporize. Fabulous speaker as long as you don't move. I'm in another room right now, and they still sound good. But to get the optimum set-up, you must experiment with placement. Critical listening with ANY speaker I've owned requires an exact seating position where they sound the best. That magic triangle of equal distance seems to be the rule of thumb for the best results with the Druids. But they can play at dinner parties, if that's your inclination.
glreno
224 posts
 
Smeyers, what amp are you using?
smeyers OP
181 posts
 
Glreno, I'm trying two different sets of tube amps.

1) AES Sixpacs with KT-66 tubes

2) Wright Sound Mono 10's with EH Gold 2A3 tubes, and now with Sophia Electric Princess 300b 2.5v tubes

Both are connected in balanced mode from a BAT VK-5i preamp. I also use a Muse 296 DAC fed from a Krell MD-20 transport.
glreno
224 posts
 
All good. I have a Mons Audio PSE 2A3. It wouldn't drive the tweeter in my Decware 3s, and I ended up with a sound something like a bad tube in the mids. I was able to use the tweeter attenuation to get rid of it, but had no headroom at that point. That's why I bought the Druids, which work very well now with the Mons amp. I also borrowed a pair of the Mono 10s to try, and they worked quite well with the Decwares.
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