|
We spent some time
here, having one customer who bought these and hated them and of
course on the other side all the positive raves [irony intended]
on 6moons. We also go to hear the smaller Zu Audio loudspeakers,
in the other system below, at the Zu Audio-sponsored Rave at HE
2006. We had them play Radiohead's "Kid A" LP, our Radiohead test
CD being left at home by, oh.......let's juts say: someone-not-me.
:-) [They had the
speaker bass sections wired out of phase in order to address
certain room resonance issues - but we are rarely over-critical of
bass performance from ordinary sized speakers at shows - so this
was no problem for us].
In my estimation, the goal of this system
was to sound Enjoyable. The Zu Audio loudspeakers also try to
address being Impressive by paying attention to the bass (as
opposed to resolution) for the younger crowd who, like most
newcomers to our hobby who are not women, want and expect from
their system.
The system did
sound
Enjoyable and so I think they obtained their main goal.
Radiohead can be an amazingly difficult type of music to 'get
right' and it did reveal the lack of ultimate detail and
resolution of this system, as well as a somewhat wacky, but not
totally Don Knots-like, frequency response.
So, the goals would seem
to be Enoyability first, Impressiveness second and Realism later.
The corresponds with Srajan's stated opinion, a prime champion of
Zu Audio at 6moons, that Realism can't be achieved, so why bother
- get something that is pleasing and be done with it. Me, I do not
want my system to be a musical instrument itself, I want it to be
a transparent conduit for the musical instruments on the source
material. It is important for me to 'suspend disbelief' that there
are actually musicians in front of me and that this is really the
sound that they indented me to hear. Oops, getting off track
here.... Comparing
this to the Acoustic Zen Adagio loudspeaker: The Adagio
approach, in my interpretation, at less than half of these
speakers, is going for Realism first and foremost, Enjoyability
second and Impressiveness 3rd - though it can be quite impressive
in a hotel-sized room, as we heard at this show. The Kharma* 3.1c,
more or less the same price category as the Zu Definition speakers
above, is going for and achieves Realism, Emotionality and
Enjoyability, but only then thinks [sic] about bring Impressive.
It is up to the listener to choose what they
wa |
