Zu Omen Dirty Weekend II 1 Year Revew

A

ABuilder

Audiophyte
Noticed that Zu was doing another batch of Dirty Weekends soon and I thought I would go ahead an share my review of my Omen Dirty Weekend IIs with the upgraded caps that I have had for a little over a year now. If you want the short version, I love them.

I use them in a great room for both music and TV. The room is very large with vaulted ceilings and some speakers just don't work well in the room.

First off, their design is part of why I selected these speakers. I only saw pictures online, but to me and my wife, they actually read as nice furniture instead of the standard black box speaker or really everything anywhere near this price point. Obviously a subjective thing here, but with them being in my living room, the style/design matters to me, I'm also a car nut and a sucker for chunks of machined metal. May be odd to some, but big pieces of machined aluminum are expensive and are luxurious pieces of metal if that makes sense. They are kind of like the jewelry of the auto world and is something that you can't just bang together in your shed so they have a certain draw of craftmanship to me. Anyways, when I finally got the Zu Audio Omen Dirty Weekend IIs in rustic hickory, I was blown away. Pictures do not do this quality justice. Up close they are impressive. Everyone that has been over at my place since I have gotten them has commented on them. I have never had anyone complement my speakers before or even comment on them. They are always just kind of background and not a conversation piece. Zu's are another story though. Everyone notices them. They come off as quality hand made furniture grade, not a TV accessory.

Now moving on to the sound, which I am guessing you care a lot more about. I'm not and expert here but as far as my taste, I tend to like Focal, Revel, big Klipsch speakers like the Cornwall and Forte. I listen to classic rock and acoustic music and like a speaker that presents a strong vocal with good detail from string instruments. I love hearing the reverberations but I like having the separation of instruments and notes. I also use the speakers for a TV. Been using a basic Denon AVR 3500H to power them.

When I first started them up, to be honest the sounded fine. Better then the Sony speakers I had in place before, but not special either. My wife was happy right away though and felt the dialog on TV was much clearer, which I do agree with. However, they were not super dynamic and I was not getting the reverberation I was looking for from string instruments. I ended up deciding to take my dog to work and let the speakers blast for a couple days. It actually made a fairly noticeable improvement in my opinion. I also played with the height and tilt of the speakers off the ground, so I don't know how much was speaker adjustment and how much was burn in or whatever to be honest. However, I feel like these speakers have now come alive like nothing else I have owned. Zu says they focus on vocals and I was not sure if I would like this. I thought I would, but I was not sure if the perfect measuring speaker would be more pleasing. Turns out, I sure do love it. Vocals really do stand out clearly along with the classic guitar rifts I love. There is more impact and wonderful clarity. This seems to excel both for my music taste as well as TV. I also feel like the smack of a snare drum has a quick impact that sounds more natural and these speakers have actually made me appreciate aspects of music I never did before. Probably partially because I was never getting the real sounds and impact from the speakers I had before. I am guessing multiple things play into this. I've never had a full range driver before or a speaker this sensitive before, but boy does it work. The one area that I don't think they excel is cymbals. They are good, but some other speakers do better to my ears.

Originally I had these paired with a couple RSL Speedwoofers. Played around with the placement and and crossover but I could always tell what was coming from the Subs and what was from the Zu DW IIs and I did not like the subs. I'm not a basshead and I prefer to need to check if the sub is on because I just want it to be natural. The sharpness and clarity from the Zus just made the bass from the sub seem sluggish. I ended up testing it out without the subs, and it turns out that is both my wife and my preference. The DW IIs seem to have pretty good bass extension to me. No, they don't rattle my windows or give that impact for home theater, but sound wise for music they sound best without a sub in my opinion. I know a lot of people on here may not agree with me, and everywhere I need was telling me I needed X power for a room my size. For some people I am sure that is true, but I wish I had tried them out without a sub before I bought two and fiddled around with the subs so much trying to make everything clear.

Zu Audio has a policy that you can basically trade up to a more expensive pair of speakers within a year and they will give you the full credit of the original speakers. When I originally bought these, I was thinking I would try them out but may very well upgrade. Nope. I'm keeping these. Frankly, they sound better then I was hoping. They sound better then I have heard in a big room like mine then anything else I have heard and I know some people with some nice stuff. For what I paid for these things, I feel like I need more. If it would not piss off everyone I worked with, I'd get a set for my office. Heck, I even went out in my garage and started looking how I could move stuff to fit them well for decent sound. I'm not trading up because I just don't see the value. How much better could they get and is that worth triple the cost, probably not for me. My father in law ended up with speaker envy of me and his old system is big bucks. I say old because I'm pretty sure he is buying a set of Zus tomorrow. I'm not even tempted by any other speaker at all since I got these and I'm normally tempted by everything.

Overall, highly recommended. The build quality is on another level. I feel like saying that over and over is not enough though. You really need to see them in person to appreciate the quality. They are special. I know the pictures look good, but in person these really are on a whole different level then the competition. If you paid this much just for the cabinets, I would imagine you would still be thrilled with them. But somehow you get great speakers too. Not good speakers. Great speakers. Like constantly lose track of time listening to and consistently not get enough sleep great. Lose yourself in the sound great. I do not understand how they do this for the price. I really do not understand how they do it in the US. Seriously.

The score card below(I'm a hard grader, do expect a perfect score from me)

Design/Build: 8.5/10
Material: 8
Craftmanship: 9
Wow factor: 9

Sound: 7.5/10
Music Vocal 8
Music acoustic: 7
Music Rock: 7.5
Music Rap/Funk 7
TV/Movie: 7.5

Value:9/10
Performance/$ 9/10
Buyer's remorse/grass is greener/wondering eye factor 9/10
Customer Support N/A Not needed to date

What would it take to lure me away? Hm.. Maybe some nice Ohm Welsh's but nothing new is tempting me currently.

Would I recommend them? Um.. hello. Yes!

Any downsides? Size. There big with those 10" drivers. Also might also start you wanting to play with tubes, at least it made me want to.

Basically, I'm thrilled with the purchase and love these things. I don't love everything, far from it. I'm normally pretty hard on things and would not recommend the RSL Speedwoofer or the Denon AVR 3500H for example, but I do fully recommend the Zu Omen Dirty Weekend IIs with the upgraded capacitors. I think it is clear that Zu Audio is trying to build their reputation on these. I say grab them up while you can, and I know they sell out fast, but I can't see this lasting. I could be wrong, but I think they only do these to adverse and get their name out there and they don't make much of anything on them but hope to drive other purchases from them. Even if somehow had some huge margin on these, I would still feel like I got more then my moneys worth.
 
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S

shadyJ

Speaker of the House
Staff member
It's good to see that you have something that you enjoy. Zu speakers are a very acquired taste. I have heard them on several occasions and didn't care for the sound, but that is just my own preference.
 
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