Zu Omen speakers

[goatsniffer]

Any idea if these speakers are good

I want to know if my Music Hall A25.2 would run these speakers
Their imedance is 12 ohms

 

[Seth=L]

The Zu Omen appears to be the yuppy version of a Cerwin Vega speaker. They are touting how loud it is, certainly seems to be targeting the "has more money than brains" crowd.

 

[j_garcia]

12 Ohm speakers? WTH?

 

[Swerd]

Any idea if these speakers are good

I want to know if my Music Hall A25.2 would run these speakers
Their imedance is 12 ohms

An amp like the Music Hall A25.2, at about 50 wpc, should easily drive these speakers, but the real question you should ask yourself is why would I want to listen to these speakers through any amp?

According to Zu, the Omen and the Essence, a higher priced model, share the same 10.3" wide-range driver, but have different tweeters. The Omen has what looks like a dome tweeter mounted in a wave guide fixture, and is blended with the wide-range driver with a 1st order high-pass filter at 18 kHz. The Essence has a ribbon tweeter with a 2nd order high-pass filter at 12 kHz. Because of the very high range for these tweeters, you might call them supertweeters, but they really go no higher than most other standard tweeters. Neither model uses a true crossover that contains a low-pass filter for the large driver. And that is the main problem.

I wasn't able to find a review of the Zu Omen, but I did find this review about the Zu Essence. Because they share the same wide-range driver and have similar if not identical cabinets, some aspects of the review are relevant to the Omen.

Figure 5 on the measurements page shows the frequency response curve, and it is not at all smooth.

The Zu's midrange response shows that the so-called wide-range driver is in breakup at and above 2 kHz, and there is a large dip in the frequency response 2-6 kHz range. A driver in breakup sounds harsh and depending on the music, can lead to listener fatigue. You won't be able to hear the large dip, but its absence will affect your perception of treble presence. Good sounding speakers should have a flat frequency response across the entire midrange. These 10.3" drivers should be crossed over to a tweeter at about 1 kHz, certainly no higher than 1.5 kHz. Instead, Zu uses no low-pass filter to block these audible higher frequency problems, and chooses to call them wide-range drivers. They clearly are not.

Figure 2 shows some large cabinet resonances in the range of 300-500 Hz. You would likely hear that cabinet ringing as coloration of the midrange. They could probably be minimized or eliminated with better cabinet bracing.

At a similar price for the Zu Omens, there are many other speakers available that won't have these problems and will likely sound much better.

 

[TLS Guy]

An amp like the Music Hall A25.2, at about 50 wpc, should easily drive these speakers, but the real question you should ask yourself is why would I want to listen to these speakers through any amp?

According to Zu, the Omen and the Essence, a higher priced model, share the same 10.3" wide-range driver, but have different tweeters. The Omen has what looks like a dome tweeter mounted in a wave guide fixture, and is blended with the wide-range driver with a 1st order high-pass filter at 18 kHz. The Essence has a ribbon tweeter with a 2nd order high-pass filter at 12 kHz. Because of the very high range for these tweeters, you might call them supertweeters, but they really go no higher than most other standard tweeters. Neither model uses a true crossover that contains a low-pass filter for the large driver. And that is the main problem.

I wasn't able to find a review of the Zu Omen, but I did find this review about the Zu Essence. Because they share the same wide-range driver and have similar if not identical cabinets, some aspects of the review are relevant to the Omen.

Figure 5 on the measurements page shows the frequency response curve, and it is not at all smooth.

The Zu's midrange response shows that the so-called wide-range driver is in breakup at and above 2 kHz, and there is a large dip in the frequency response 2-6 kHz range. A driver in breakup sounds harsh and depending on the music, can lead to listener fatigue. You won't be able to hear the large dip, but its absence will affect your perception of treble presence. Good sounding speakers should have a flat frequency response across the entire midrange. These 10.3" drivers should be crossed over to a tweeter at about 1 kHz, certainly no higher than 1.5 kHz. Instead, Zu uses no low-pass filter to block these audible higher frequency problems, and chooses to call them wide-range drivers. They clearly are not.

Figure 2 shows some large cabinet resonances in the range of 300-500 Hz. You would likely hear that cabinet ringing as coloration of the midrange. They could probably be minimized or eliminated with better cabinet bracing.

At a similar price for the Zu Omens, there are many other speakers available that won't have these problems and will likely sound much better.

Those look like particularly nasty speakers, Swerd!

 

[tom67]

The Sterophile conclusion is hardly negative......

"Conclusions
The Zu Essence is not a hair-shirt product, in which regard alone it has surpassed at least half the high-efficiency loudspeakers in the domestic marketplace. Inasmuch as it's among the more affordable choices—exponentially, in some cases—it has surpassed many of the rest. The Essence is something of a milestone.

With its very good bass extension, superb musicality, lack of egregious timbral colorations, and impressive spatial performance, the Zu Essence qualifies as the first loudspeaker I've heard that combines genuinely high efficiency with a level of audiophile performance for which no excuse needs to be made, all while being priced within the reach of the serious-but-not-crazy hobbyist. I'm really impressed with the Essence—and, yes, I could happily live with it myself: It's that good."

 

[MinusTheBear]

The only thing I am aware of Zu Audio is that they love sending spam to one of my personal emails.

Those measurements of that speaker look miserable btw.

 

[emorphien]

lack of egregious timbral colorations

This is a great line

 

[JerryLove]

This is a great line

+1 That man is a master of subtlety

 

[GranteedEV]

smh

at those prices you could probably buy a pair of JTR triple 8s, or a gedlee harper, or a jantzen HES kit or something

 

[KEW]

The Sterophile conclusion is hardly negative......

Point me to some Stereophile conclusions that are negative, and I might start to get interested!

No offense, but Stereophile seldom has anything negative to say about a product they review.

 

[Gpowered]

Point me to some Stereophile conclusions that are negative, and I might start to get interested!

No offense, but Stereophile seldom has anything negative to say about a product they review.

True! And you won't with Zu as long as they keep pumping their 1 page "dorm kid" advertisements into their magazine. Rediculous! Thanks for the measurements. I'll stay with vintage and perhaps a pair of Tekton Lores!

 

[ntrain42]

Honestly, I dont think Zu products are bad at all. I have been going back and forth on picking up a pair(which I can still get for the BF price since their website was all messed up and they never responsed to phone calls or my email). One thing that is excellent with them are they absolute live dynamics. Their FR response is definetly substandard, but considering I have independant 30 band -12db cut eq's on hand I should have 0 issues smoothing them out. And the cabinets are real easy to reinforce and dampen. I have heard and played with the Zu Essense, and there are some characteristics I definetly like with them(but they are WAY OVERPRICED, especially for internet direct), so I am thinking of trying out a pair of Bookshelf Omens which would only set me back about 600 bucks................if I don't like em after EQing em to my room, Im only out shipping is how I see it. I do like the nostalgia look to em though with the old pro style large paper driver and ribbed surround.

 

[Hocky]

I can't comment on these speakers specifically, but I did spend some time listening to their flagship at THE called the dominance. It is an impressively powerful speaker and incredibly efficient. It did image OK, but beyond that, it was not a hifi speaker. It would be a fun speaker to play with, but it is not one that you would want to sit down and really listen to.

 

[digicidal]

True! And you won't with Zu as long as they keep pumping their 1 page "dorm kid" advertisements into their magazine. Rediculous! Thanks for the measurements. I'll stay with vintage and perhaps a pair of Tekton Lores!

I have a couple pairs of Tekton's (the single driver, bass reflex designs based on Fostex driver). I can't speak highly enough of them as long as you are - similarly to the Zu's - NOT looking for a true Hi-Fi speaker. Both of the Fostex fullrange drivers (FE127/FE207) are fantastic in the critical midrange and are very flat - after BSC and phase plugs. They both have extremely rolled off highs (naturally) since there's only so much you can get out of a fullrange driver wave guide.

For less money, and IMO a nicer looking finished product (and definitely a better sounding one) I would just pick up this kit. It does sound very nice with a few tweaks - at least according to many in the DIY and singledriver forums. Plus with the supertweeter - you don't lose out in the highs like you do without. Plus the horn-loading will make the lows more than acceptable as well for anything you're likely to be listening to on it. Could easily be powered by a 3-watt SET or similar.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Those must be the WORST speaker measurements EVER.

Now I know why they call them "Zu" - because the measurements look like a "Zoo".

I would stay the heck away from Zu speakers.

 

[jakebake]

Those must be the WORST speaker measurements EVER.

Now I know why they call them "Zu" - because the measurements look like a "Zoo".

I would stay the heck away from Zu speakers.

Are you talking about the measure ments of the cabinet? What makes them so bad?

 

[its phillip]

Both the FR and the cabinet. Look at post 4. Those are terrible.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Are you talking about the measure ments of the cabinet? What makes them so bad?

All those measurements are important, but the most important measurement is the on-axis and off-axis frequency response. They look absolutely pathetic on these speakers!

 

[TLS Guy]

Are you talking about the measure ments of the cabinet? What makes them so bad?

Lots of things make it bad.

The cabinet is badly made with a nasty resonance centered on 300 Hz.

The designer can't tune a cabinet and looses an octave between 30 and 60 Hz.

The driver is driven well into break up mode with huge suck out and irregular response. Energy is delayed and stored in the cone causing a boat lot of problems at break up. There is irregular frequency response, time delay and beaming.

To boot the tweeter is playing too loud with excess HF energy.

The reviews must have tin ears or more likely want advertising revenue. I feel confident I could write the frequency response of that speaker in a very short listen.

If you look at the results you see what you would expect, that that 10" driver needs crossing over at 400 Hz and a mid range driver to take the load to somewhere between 4 and 5 kHz.

That speaker is an audiophool lash up if ever I saw one.