Zu Audio (Soul 6, Dirty Weekend, Omen, etc)

Audio Gear Talk
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Hi-

Anyone here running the Zu Audios? I’m extremely intrigued by the Soul 6, but man these are some divisive speakers.

  • “For music lovers, not audiophiles”
  • “exceptional clarity”, “dynamic presence”
  • “bite”, “brutally revealing”
  • “whizzer cone nastiness”

I’ve written to Sean Casey, and he is a true gentleman indeed, an enthusiast, and his trial period aged return policy is wonderful as well as flexible as long as you are up front.

But what do people who live with them (or who have chosen not to) think of them? Musical tastes that work with them - and don’t? I’m especially interested in people who’ve auditioned the new Okoume Soul 6’s, but the house sound is certainly a thing in itself! Trying to get even more of a range of opinions before I take Sean up on his generosity to try them out.

For comparison / taste purposes, I’m currently using Devore Orangutan o/96, KLH model 5s, Harbeth P3esr xd’s (in office nearfield), and Vienna Acoustics Haydns (in a second office).

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I’ve had a pair of Zu Druid IVs for over a decade and I’ve enjoyed them quite a bit. I’m currently driving a pair with a Linear Tube Audio UL+ ZOTL integrated amp. The Druids are very fast & coherent speakers that, when properly placed in the room, can be jaw dropping on occasion. Are they my perfect speaker? Nope. They have several compromises such as being bass shy by modern standards and having a very narrow “sweet spot.” However they’ve repeatedly offered a great music listening experience that I’ve returned to even after exploring other speaker options. Once I experienced the coherency of essentially a single driver design, it’s hard to go back to inefficient multi-driver speakers that require a lot of amp firepower to bring to life.

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I own a pair of DW6s, and think they’re fabulous. For reference, I have three systems, in three very different rooms:

  • Dali Oberon 5 + NAD M10 (OG version)
  • Focal Electa 1028be + Icon Audio ST40 integrated amp (EL34 power tubes)
  • Zu DW 6 + Quad VA-One+ integrated (EL84 power tubes)

I have owned, or had in for audition, KLH Model 3, Spendor LS3/5a, and Vienna Acoustic Beethovens. I had the Beethovens for years, and eventually replaced them with the Focals.

All of my rooms are problematic for one reason or another. The room with the Zu’s is particularly challenging, a small box of a basement room with 6.5’ ceiling. bass is extremely problematic. I tried KEF LS50s, various Revel, Dali, and KLH speakers in this room, and all were challenging for different reasons. the KLHs were pretty good, but I could never get coherent imaging with my set up. I finally bout the Zu’s, and after a bit of break-in, they just “worked”. bass is tight and tuneful, with no bloat or boom. I couldn’t be happier.

I recently rearranged the main listening room/living room for domestic reasons. as a result, I now sit much further away from the system than is ideal, and one speaker (Focal 1028) sits in a corner. it is far from ideal, and I’ve spent weeks tweaking placement to clean up the bass, with little good effect. finally, as an experiment, I brought the DW6s upstairs and plopped them in the system. I made one minor adjustment with toe-in, and they were perfect. I liked them so much I’m seriously thinking about selling the 1028s and buying a pair of Union 6 or Soul 6.

For reference, the Focal retailed for ~$7k/pair several years ago. The DW6s are ~$2k, depending on finish. If you’re looking at speakers in the $7k range, I would not hesitate to buy the Soul 6s. In fact, I’ll sell you my Focals at a good price, so I can buy the Souls myself. :wink:

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I have the DW6 super fly speakers in my livingroom system. Absolutely love them. I dont know what is meant by whizzer cone nastiness, I have whizzer cones on my audio nirvana super 15 with alnico magnets. I will never get rid of either pair. There is just something about a full range driver that can reach down to 30hz and below. To me, they put other speakers to shame… subjective opinion of course.

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That is a lot of love. You’ve also had a number of speakers in your home that are to my taste / warm, musical - not overly clinical. Transducers with soul (no pun intended). How would you describe the Zu house sound, as much as you can? I’m stuck on the incredible love these speakers have gotten from some reviewers, but the words they use are just, umm, non-standard.

Thanks

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I can only describe the DW6s, but I’ve listened to them with several different amps in two very different rooms:

  • unfussy with placement. they will reward you with a bit of tweaking of toe-in, but I’ve generally found that bass response is much more forgiving wrt distance from the back wall. if you have a challenging room, need to put them in a corner of close to the front wall, you’ll appreciate this aspect.
  • warm, musical. all the detail is there, but wrapped in a coherent, musical whole
  • present. sound seems to leap out of these speakers, but see above, never in a strident, bright way. it’s hard to describe w/o hearing it. I think this is what people are referring to when they say “non-HiFi”. it’s a big, bold, warm, wall of sound.
    -wonderful with voices. Zu highlights this in the product descriptions, andi it’s true, voices are exceptionally clear in the mix, and unlike many Hi-end speakers, you get the full body of the voice.

on this last point, I listen to a wide variety of music, classic rock, straight ahead and modern creative jazz, traditional American pop (Sinatra, Bennett, and newer artists like Curtis Stigers), and opera and classical. it’s a pleasure to hear the full-range of the human voice reproduced this well.

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Love these perspectives. Also, the variety of musical preferences. To read (some of) the reviews you’d think these were frat party basement bangers. Not warm, natural, amazing with the human voice. I can’t make heads or tails of 6moons anyways.

Ok, so I’m getting the sense that there’s a lot of love here, folks who’ve worked their way through a number of really well-respected speakers (Harbeth, Vienna Acoustics, Focal, KLH, Spendor and keep coming back. That’s what’s hard to argue with.

Ok, I really gotta get off the pot and place an order :slight_smile: Sean waits for no man!

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Johnny,

I suspect it would be a good idea, to search out some objective performance data on these speakers before purchase, so you know what you are buying.

Take the time to search for on/off frequency & power response, directivity, distortion, SPL linearity and power compression and phase…

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I know, they measure terribly. And yet, a lot of reviewers who have other gear in their homes that measure wonderfully have chosen to buy these speakers.

Sean offers what is effectively a 60-day (or longer if you are polite and explain) home audition. So what you’re out is 1-way shipping and the hassle of having $6k+ on your CC for a couple months while he builds and burns in.

Old me would have thought this was a crazy idea given the measurements. New me is very intrigued - enough to probably take a shot.

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the shipping is money well spent, and Zu is extremely flexible with returns. I bought a par of their speaker cables, they didn’t charge me, and shipped them to me for free. after 60 days I returned them (they were good, but not better than the Nordost cables I am using). again they paid shipping back. no questions asked.

can’t beat that.

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I also found Zu to be very accommodating about cable shipping charges, and miss spending time with them at the now-defunct Rocky Mountain Audio Fest. Good People.

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A speaker’s only job is to reproduce the signal as accurately as possible, staying true to the original sound. This means minimising distortion, changes in amplitude, and any other unwanted effects that could alter the signal [like poor directivity matching, cabinet resonances, poor XO’s etc].

Speakers shouldn’t act as tone controls.

Their role is to be neutral and transparent, delivering the sound as close to source signal as possible, with the lowest distortion possible.

Listen first. If you like them after listening, then fantastic.

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Thanks Griz. I have to say that some of my favorite speakers don’t measure that well. My office speakers are Vienna Acoustics Haydn’s. European “musicality first” speakers - warm, crossover isn’t perfect, horizontal off-axis response is decent but not textbook smooth. Vertical drops more sharply as you’d expect with a 2.6KHz crossover. So, when people who do this for a living and spend a lot of time listening to music say things like “they don’t measure well and that’s not the point” I listen up. I totally get it - these ain’t genelecs, Neumans, KEF R3s. The question is whether it’s worth the time to audition, since they don’t have dealers.

Have you heard the Soul 6’s - or any of the Zu’s?

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I’ve seen them at AXPONA and spent some time in their room each year. Not quite my cup of tea, but on the other hand they did so many things well that if I had no way to own the type of speakers I have now, I wouldn’t have an issue owning a pair of these. I’d go all out and order one of the custom finishes, if I bought new. Maybe not the red or blue versions :grin: but of the finishes I’ve seen at the show, they can be very attractive. Nice people, too!

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Love it. Thanks. What are your speakers currently? Would love to know what your cup o’ tea is!

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DW 6 Superfly here. I was not going to keep them, but they have grown on me. Still though for me there is something lacking in the lower end. It may be just me because it is definitely present, articulated and good slam on the bass, but . . . However they do everything else so well. It was the sensitivity the caught my attention, I am using a 10 watt per chanel, Nelson Pass designed and partially built by him for us at DIY Audio. Sounds so great I purposely sought out high sensitivty speakers. The DW 6 is a great match. You should at least try them. I am planning on building an equalizer circuit for this.

I am 70 and chose these as probably the last ones I’ll need. Why I am nitpicking them, i guess.

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Hey Johnny,

…I totally understand that everyone has their own prejudices, budgets, goals and preferences, after all variety really is the spice of life! :blush:

Right now, I’m rocking some JBL M2’s. So, I’m definitely coming at this from a different angle!

I’ll stick by my recommendation to listen first, if you can.
Best of luck with your decision process.