Zingali Overture series thumbs "up" or "down"

I've owned O3's for several years.

The coloration comments strike me as somewhat curious, as these are quite neutral (especially compared to some other horn designs I've heard) to my ear - until you run the SPLs up. Then they get a noticeably "hard" edge. Many speakers exhibit some form of this behavior, but the O3s get edgy pretty quickly. If you listen loud, I'd approach these with caution.

The other issue is more prosaic, but still bothersome. The foam surrounds disintegrated on both speakers after app. 3 years. A PITA.

Marty

Hi Marty.

Do you know what brand of drivers they used? I have poked around on line and found some indication that Zingali, at one time or another, OEMed the drivers from JBL, but maybe only on the "pro" models made before a certain year. So, i was not sure what they put in the home models made in about 1996 or so?

I can say the Zingali speakers are fantastic. I used to run my Overture 2s with Audio Note 300B SETs but now have a Plinius SA-103 125W Class A. They are fast, deep, dynamic and very detailed yet smooth with a good source. They have magic midrange and are superb on vocals. I also like electronic dance and metal and they rock with the best of them. I am wanting anther pair of Client Name Evos next, I love them.

A fascinating old thread about my favourite loudspeakers with quite opposite opinions. I guess, it only proves that Zingali should be matched carefully. I used to own Ov.3s many years ago, could not tame the bass in my 13’ x 19’ room and sold it, owned various speakers since - from ATC and Shahinians to JMR and finally top of the line Living Voice OBX R2, with outboard crossovers. These are highly regarded and thought to be very transparent, detailed and musical, but don’t come close in that respect to Zingali in my opinion. I could never forget that magical, natural Zingali midrange, and 10 years lated snapped a used pair of Overtures 2. Couldn’t be happier ever since. I am driving it with a 45W Linear Tube Audio Z40, and EL34 NOS Mullards sound fantastic with this horn/compression driver. Vocals, Jazz, Classical, Blues are probably the best genres for these speakers.

well i guess all the opposite opinions has came from the old model overture series with "S" and later model without "S" as they were totally different tuning speakers. the later version use paper woofers and sounds much more neutral, clean and fast but still maintain all the beauty of traditional Zingali sound to me. I have pair of zingali overture 1 with Denafrips Pontus 2 dac and musical fidelity A200dm ( 60w class A) set in my bedroom, all i can say is they sounds fantastic!