Zu Audio... very impressed with them and my Omen MKII. Yes, I said MKII !

A month ago and on a whim, I asked to get placed on the list for a pair of Omen Dirty Weekends. Gerrit replied back quickly and we worked it out that I'd have a pair coming. When I got them, UPS had done a number on one of the boxes and one of the hits was hard enough to break through the box, through the stout foam surrounding the speaker and damage the speaker pretty good. I was pretty bummed about it and knowing it wasn't Zu's fault I figured we were in for a lengthy claims process. After talking with Gerrit to discuss options they came up with a simply amazing offer. Sean (founder and CEO) was going to be east of me and on his way back to Utah from New Orleans he'd offered to personally drop me off a new pair of Omens and set them up. Not only that, they weren't Dirty Weekends... they were the new Omen MKII that aren't even available on the website yet. Gerrit was awesome as well, working everything out with my schedule and Sean's arrival.

Sean came by this week and dropped them off. He helped me set them up and we talked audio, Zu and whatever else came up. He offered any help I needed and was willing to spend whatever time I wanted talking through his product and how to set them up. He truly is customer first in every sense. I'd purchased from them one of the less expensive models they have, and a refurbished version at that. I ended up getting a new model not yet available and hand delivered by the owner himself! This is by far and away the best service I can remember and I can't speak highly enough about the guys at Zu. They owned a problem they didn't cause and resolved it beyond what anyone should expect.

Here are the Omen MKII. I'm breaking them in now.

 

Nice! Best of luck with them, It is refreshing to hear a good account of customer service.

 

After all the trouble Zu went through for you, why would you do that?
Enjoy your new speakers.

 

LOL! How ironic. Fixed the typo.

 

Nothing but good interactions with Zu.

I currently have a pair of Mk 4 Druids paired with a Declare amp. Simple system, awesome sound. The Druids have already been set up in four houses and associated moves totaling 1800 miles using original boxes and foam inserts. No issues thus far.

I appreciate working with awesome companies. Note that the company was struggling a few years ago and managed to get and investor who seems to care as much as the founders.

 

To be honest I haven't cared much for the sound of Zu - I found them too in your face, bright and etched sounding. BUT I heard their new Omen Def MKII here in Hong Kong and it was outstanding - much much better than the previous model and better than their more expensive Essence. What I liked about them was their clarity but this time it seemed the treble was more at ease and more in sync with the rest of the frequency spectrum and they put out surprising good bass response (deep and tight). Pretty nice package for the money. I still think they're going to be much better with a SET amplifier (but then so are all speaker IME) but the Melody P2688 preamp into my 219IA as power amp was excellent indeed. I'd like to hear 45 or 2A3 amp that leans slightly to the warm side of the spectrum on those ZUs cause it might take them up a couple notches again.

As I also own the KEF LS-50 I will be interested to read how they compare once they've broken in.

 

Unfortunately, that has been my experience too. I like what they try to do at shows and the music they play is what they want to hear and not your typical fare, but often the records they play are not the best demo records, and their partnering equipment is not first rate. So I have never much liked what I have heard from Zu.

 

That is awesome of them. Congrats!

 

Couple points:

It might depend which driver units you have heard. There are at least a few generations that I know of. The last two generations don't have that sound in my opinion. The Omen Mark II I have come with the Zu103ND/G1-16 which is the same driver in the current Omen Def MKII.
That said... everyone has different taste and hearing for sure.

It also depends on how the speakers are set up in a room and your relative listening position. This is true of many speakers, and I think may be true more so for some models of the Zu line.

They can sound thin until mechanical and electrical break in occur. I know there are people who say bah.. no break in is needed. Zu's speakers need break in. My KEFs.. not so much.

 

Yep. We were actually talking about the music they play at shows... they play what they like. Sean's philosophy on speakers is to build what he likes. For better or worse, that's how they roll.
Here's similar commentary from AXPONA.
http://www.6moons.com/musicreviews/2015_april/1.html

 

And that's how it should be - you can't please everyone so I like the fact that Sean sticks to what he likes not what he thinks the majority might like. Speaker manufacturers who ONLY seem to care what the majority might like are available (Harman group) but I usually find those products banal - kind of like the Big Mac - it sells because it is least offensive to the largest number of diners but it's not star quality.

I've been told by ZU owners the same thing that it depends on the specific model and driver which is fine. That's why you can;t judge a company on one audition or one model of the product. I like the new ZU model - the dealer here only sells ZU so they are all well broken in because they play them all day. I like them.

Metralla - the music they played when I was there was not for me - some sort of noise disc but well - that's noise to me. I often think some of this music is just in existence to "be different" rather than "be good" and they used mediocre front ends with it at a show I was at as well. The dealer here only sells tube amps and I can play what I know will sound good. Female vocals with the Line Magnetic 211IA ($1600) and the ZU was quite awesome. And for not a whole lot of cash. Loved the deep purple cabinets as well.

 

Thanks, RGA. That was exactly my experience. I hope to hear them at their best one day, because they have many fans and I have been unlucky.

 

Components, room, position, quality of source music, and break-in factor. These things are everything. Get one wrong and it can be unimpressive. Get them all right and it can be religious.

 

I have the Omens and Def 4s. The don't hide bad masters/recordings. You do hear deep into the music, nuances , detail but very realistic. No sameness that reveals the coloration of a less accurate speaker.
I like that black look you have going on. About to order an art trap to hang on the TV between my speakers. I'll let you know how it performs.

 

I love my Omen Defs. Fantastic. Sean was great answering questions before I purchased and helped me decide which speakers to buy based on my set up. Omen Defs were actually cheaper than the Superfly's that I was looking at. I also did some professional photography work for ZU and many of the images are used on their web sight. Top notch company PERIOD.

 

Please do.

 

What makes them Mk II besides the driver upgrade? Anything else change such as tweeter assembly?

I had a similar experience to you with Zu. I bought a preloved pair of Superflys from them. There was some confusion on whether they should've had the mk-1a or mk-1b drivers (that you have now). They sent out new drivers right away, no questions asked. I could definitely tell the difference between the Zu-260 and the Zu-103 driver when I installed the 103. It just has that little extra oomph.

 

I have to be careful what I say as they aren't public yet and I don't know what Sean would want announced ahead of the website. There is a significant change to the cabinets, but nothing you see from the outside looking at them head on... if you get my drift. There is a new tweeter, but from the website I can't tell if the current MK I use it. Clarity Cap MR is of course there, like it is on the MK I. Then the driver upgrade.

 

Update: please note that investor and CEO Kristian Pettengill has left the company in 2011. My previous investor comment is not current and in error.

My apologies for misleading anyone. Thanks to dnuggett for inquiring further regarding my previous post.

 

They are starting to open up. Started with Metheny on vinyl. Then went to Stanley Turrentine on vinyl. Sounded great. Now its BB King Indianola Mississippi Seeds. Great tone coming from BB`s guitar. Gerrit told me the dynamics would be greater on these drivers. Definitely.

I'm no reviewer so I'm not going to try. But I will say this... liking what I am hearing so far. These speakers are alive with great tone. Wonderful with guitar and sax so far.

 

As a fan of what can be called "noise", let me just say that someone who was into Duke Ellington might have said the same thing about Ornette Coleman...or someone into Mozart May have said about Cage or Xenakis. The first time I heard a noise album, it was alarming. It's odd how pedestrian that same album sounds today.'

 

Congrats on the new speakers! I recently sold a pair of Omen MK-IBs (good timing I guess, as it looks like the MK-II are about to be released), and enjoyed many aspects of the speakers while I had them. And yes, the guys at Zu are top notch - very approachable and willing to help out.

 

MKII's have been out at least since last Oct, they just haven't updated the site yet. Probably since they are so busy delivering speaker themselves

Either these speakers take a while to burn-in or my ears took a while to adjust, or most likely a combo of both. I was seriously considering using the 60 day return policy and around day 30-40 things really started to smooth out a bit and come into focus. It was like night and day difference to me. I wish I could remember what that was hours wise, my guess would be around 50-80 hours.

 

What an awesome thing to hear about zu. This is an American made product where the company understands that "AMERICAN MADE" means your going to impart the best of quality that America can achieve and not just use it as a kitschy splash in your page. Customer service and product sound pretty above par there.

Kudos to you Zu!

 

I wonder who you are alluding to? ;-)

Yay Zu!