There are many posts on this forum thrashing Zu speakers while Audio reviews continue to praise them. I am the unfortunate owner of the soul supremes. Every once in a while I bring them out of storage and try to make them listenable diferent amplifiers,ect.. Persévérance and luck paid off. Inserting a constant directivity filter seem to work.
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Zu Audio speaker solutions
- Thread starter PeterW
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A constant directivity filter? Is that like a giant acoustic lens?
Whatever you did to straighten those out must be quite an accomplishment.
- Thread Starter
- #5
Actualy, it is a very small accomplishment, they are going back deep into my the basement. These speakers are a joke Reviewers like steve gotenburg and Darko must be on the same substance. These people cost me money.
Unfortunately, audio is full of people like that.
According to Darko the problem is not the speakers it's the recordings:
''Their honesty can be brutal. Play a bad recording and it’ll sound terrible, play a good recording and it’ll sound amazing.''
My experience was different, even showcase recordings sounded bad until I used a bit of EQ to drop the 1-3Khz region by a few dB. That made them a bit more palatable but still obviously badly coloured. How Darko can write what he does with a straight face is beyond me.
Perhaps it's sheer ignorance speaking. One of the first things I learned voicing my own speakers was I could get certain tracks to sound great, at the expense of others. Eventually things progressed to where everything sounds good, some recordings being better than others.
mhardy6647
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What have you tried?
I have -- ahem -- suggestions, although it would NOT be based on an ASR-approved philosophy.
... these sorts of things.
- Thread Starter
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Lame excuse, great recordings sound pretty good even on dirt cheap vintage speakers
Uh oh. SET special effects to the rescue!What have you tried?
I have -- ahem -- suggestions, although it would NOT be based on an ASR-approved philosophy.
... these sorts of things.
Are those tubes 45s?
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mhardy6647
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2A3, although the amp will also run 45s. I can't afford 45s, though.
And, hey, that's precisely why I led with the Fisher 500C* PP 7591A -- the Fisher does a very nice job of rounding off the (very) rough edges of a heritage Klipsch loudspeaker (e.g., the Cornwall, to speak from experience). I reckon it would do likewise with a Zu.
Cars-N-Cans
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That’s like blaming the telephone pole for your car accident. It, too, is brutally honest. “Taking that corner too fast in the rain?! No more car for you…”
- Thread Starter
- #14
Yes, I have tried an expensive tube integrated amplifier on loan to me, I also tied a Hiraga pure class A amp, and various well designed class AB mosfet amps. Same awfull results. The designer of these speakers also makes a point that they are very efficient, Ok but they are also high impedence so that if you use them with a 50 Watt amp you now have a 25 watt amp, unless it's a tube amp, of course.What have you tried?
I have -- ahem -- suggestions, although it would NOT be based on an ASR-approved philosophy.
... these sorts of things.
Well, maybe. Although some judicious EQ may be more effective.2A3, although the amp will also run 45s. I can't afford 45s, though.
And, hey, that's precisely why I led with the Fisher 500C* PP 7591A -- the Fisher does a very nice job of rounding off the (very) rough edges of a heritage Klipsch loudspeaker (e.g., the Cornwall, to speak from experience). I reckon it would do likewise with a Zu.
mhardy6647
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To quote Tom Brennan, albeit a bit out of context*, the best approach to treatment for loudspeakers of the Zus' (plural possessive!) ilk is placement.
Good options include face down or in someone else's house.
I doubt that EQ will help much, although it's certainly testable.
__________
* Mr. Brennan would have been busting the chops of heritage Klipsch with his bon mot -- typically the LaScala, which he has likened to the familiar Sawzall out of deference to their shared properties of timbral subtlety.
I've chatted briefly with Tom. His postings got me interested in 511s, as a matter of fact. He certainly was of the opinion that the Altec approach to midrange horns was better than Klipsch.To quote Tom Brennan, albeit a bit out of context*, the best approach to treatment for loudspeakers of the Zus' (plural possessive!) ilk is placement.
Good options include face down or in someone else's house.
I doubt that EQ will help much, although it's certainly testable.
__________
* Mr. Brennan would have been busting the chops of heritage Klipsch with his bon mot -- typically the LaScala, which he has likened to the familiar Sawzall out of deference to their shared properties of timbral subtlety.
Great Post.To quote Tom Brennan, albeit a bit out of context*, the best approach to treatment for loudspeakers of the Zus' (plural possessive!) ilk is placement.
Good options include face down or in someone else's house.
I doubt that EQ will help much, although it's certainly testable.
__________
* Mr. Brennan would have been busting the chops of heritage Klipsch with his bon mot -- typically the LaScala, which he has likened to the familiar Sawzall out of deference to their shared properties of timbral subtlety.
The placement !!!
I love the reference to the sawzall power tool timbral subtlety
Hilarious , ROTFLMAO!1
I still haven't heard the old Klipschorns like the La Scala. From what I understand, that might help me understand people's aversion to horns.
mhardy6647
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Tom is a wonderful fellow with lots of practical experience when it comes to hifi audio reproduction, too.
The classic Klipsch MR horns, and the cheap PA drivers they genearlly used with them, are horrible things to listen to.
I suspect PWK wan't being ironic when he embraced the term squawker for midrange reproducers.
I cannot tolerate screetchy loudspeakers
Altec did much better, as did may others. As you know, I have been using EMILAR 500 Hz horns on my 'real' loudspeakers after trying quite a few of the affordable alternatives including the 511B.
... unfortunately, none of this will help a Zu owner, except (possibly) for option creation -- but ASR folks in gerneral don't seem to be particularly interested in high sensitivity loudspeakers. Oh, well...
The LaScalas are unbalanced due to the size of the bass horn, with very little in the way of LF output. That's what makes them the hardest-to-take of the "heritage" Klipsch lot, for me.
I can absolutely tolerate the K-horns, but the best ones I've heard were so modified as to barely be K-horns any more.
The Cornwall is likely the best compromise of the whole "heritage" line, having decent (albeit bass-reflex and not horn loaded) bass reprduction. The 1974 Cornies I had were just too harsh overall, although I lived with them for a decade. Some recordings sounded very good on them; others were literally unbearable (at least in places) due to resonances in that MR horn. The current Cornwall IV might be OK -- they're ridiculously expensive, though, for what they are (and what they aren't), I'd opine.
The slightly later Klipsch Chorus ain't a bad sounding loudspeaker (FWIW).
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