Re: Zu Omen - cheap or cheerful or both?

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #480 on:** 13 Mar 2011, 02:01 am »

I'm enjoying an older Rotel RCD-855 CDP which has the great sounding and no longer available TDA 1541A chip. You can find a variety of players on ebay with the TDA 1541A chip which are cheap, cheerful and sound better than most of the new stuff.

dboulet · « **Reply #481 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 07:05 am »

Has anyone else read the "History" section of the new Zu audio website (http://www.zuaudio.com/#zu-audio-history.php)? The section labeled "2010 Q4" offers interesting insights into the past few months at the company, and might help explain their recent price fluctuations. Sounds to me like they'll never again offer the kinds of sales that we saw this past December.

djbnh · « **Reply #482 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 07:13 am »

Quote from: dboulet on 14 Mar 2011, 07:05 am

Has anyone else read the "History" section of the new Zu audio website (http://www.zuaudio.com/#zu-audio-history.php)? The section labeled "2010 Q4" offers interesting insights into the past few months at the company, and might help explain their recent price fluctuations. Sounds to me like they'll never again offer the kinds of sales that we saw this past December.

You're not kidding, great but sobering and troubling read from a business "internal controls" standpoint and others. I agree that the 2010 Black Friday and December sales will not be returning and seemingly never should have happened. I hope all works out, and wonder if there are any lawsuits in the offing.

TKonrad.NOLA · « **Reply #483 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 10:19 am »

I was going back and forth about purchasing and after reading that section on their website, I have decided to go another way.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #484 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 11:44 am »

I couldn't pull up the history link. Has it been removed?

I bought the Omens at their intro price of $999 but would not have paid $1500. The Tekton Lores currently priced at 1K also have a tricked out Eminence 10 inch driver but with the highly regarded Audax super tweeter and a 8ohm load.

doug s. · « **Reply #485 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 12:17 pm »

Quote from: Poultrygeist on 14 Mar 2011, 11:44 am

I couldn't pull up the history link. Has it been removed?

the link is there; you must click on the up-down "v" at the left side to read everything...

doug s.

TKonrad.NOLA · « **Reply #486 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 03:28 pm »

Quote from: Poultrygeist on 14 Mar 2011, 11:44 am

I couldn't pull up the history link. Has it been removed?

I bought the Omens at their intro price of $999 but would not have paid $1500. The Tekton Lores currently priced at 1K also have a tricked out Eminence 10 inch driver but with the highly regarded Audax super tweeter and a 8ohm load.

Do you regret your purchase of the Omens? Do you wish you would have gone with the Lores? Based on what I have read, I think the Lore is going to be the better speaker sounding but the Omen looks nicer if you ask me. Unfortunately the WAF matters. I'm a little afraid to purchase from Zu, they are sounding very AV123ish to me.

jazzchaos · « **Reply #487 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 03:57 pm »

what is bizarre about the ZU thing, is that their new high dollar PR firm allowed them to put that stuff in their official history.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #488 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 04:01 pm »

WOW! Some read. Guess that explains the up and down pricing.

I'm glad I bought the Omens at their intro price. I've never heard the Lores but I appreciate the high quality of my Tekton 4.5. The Omens as good as they sound contain no magic inside those gorgeous cabinets.

sebrof · « **Reply #489 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 05:36 pm »

Quote from: DigitalDude on 14 Mar 2011, 03:28 pm

Do you regret your purchase of the Omens? Do you wish you would have gone with the Lores? Based on what I have read, I think the Lore is going to be the better speaker sounding but the Omen looks nicer if you ask me. Unfortunately the WAF matters. I'm a little afraid to purchase from Zu, they are sounding very AV123ish to me.

I don't regret the $999 Omen purchase for a minute. Great speakers that I will enjoy for a long time. If I had it over to do I'd buy the omens over the lore again at the intro pricing. At $1500 vs. $850 I would go for the lore.
I have not read much / anything negative about either speaker. I have no reason to believe that one would out perform the other.

Gopher · « **Reply #490 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 05:42 pm »

Hmm... That all makes a ton of sense. Wow, I exchanged a number of emails with KP and thought his methods were unusual, but never pegged him as a crook!

I hope Zu can recover from this ordeal--they're a great company with a lot to offer and deserve to survive on their merits.

Irrespective of whose fault it is, their pricing structure is probably screwed and people have been conditioned not to be willing to pay what these speakers are worth.

ecod123 · « **Reply #491 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 06:49 pm »

That's a very interesting, and sad, read on the KP's matter. I do hope Zu Audio will overcome these difficulties and survive as a company, because I really like its products and many of the people who worked there.

It explained a great deal about my interactions and observations with Zu over the past months. Coming from a finance and accounting background, I was really surprised that just one person was doing all the invoicing, accounting, adjustment and office duties for a company experiencing such a level of sales.

I was wondering why KP's stated plan to transition Zu from direct sales to dealer-network model would be to usher that in with a huge direct sale campaign of hugely discounted BF and Christmas sales, instead of through the new dealer network. And to follow up with recent unending eBay auctions on their ICs and cables, which often ended up at greatly discounted prices. I figured it was a sales number and cash flow strategy to improve the balance sheets to attract new investors, but never figured it would be so dramatic behind-the-scene.

I sincerely hope Zu weathers this misstep and go on to designing more great audio products.

For disclosure, I ordered the Zu Omen's and Zu Soul Superfly's during the sales, as well as a whole bunch of IC's and cables. I returned the Omens only because I was "outvoted" due to WAF and furniture compatibility issues

but horse-trade to keep the Superfly's

I am very happy with the Superflys and the accessories, as well as the Omens when I had them.

jazzchaos · « **Reply #492 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 07:10 pm »

Quote from: ecod123 on 14 Mar 2011, 06:49 pm

I returned the Omens only because I was "outvoted" due to WAF and furniture compatibility issues

ha! I am headed down that route. I have picked up a set of these from Herbie's audio lab to try out.
http://herbiesaudiolab.net/studgl2.jpg

I am hoping to be able to scoot the omens out of the way when the boss doesn't want to see them.

I have some vibration issues due to being on hardwood floors over a crawl space...so I am attempting to kill two birds with one stone.

Sean

ecod123 · « **Reply #493 on:** 14 Mar 2011, 07:26 pm »

Quote from: jazzchaos on 14 Mar 2011, 07:10 pm

ha! I am headed down that route. I have picked up a set of these from Herbie's audio lab to try out.
http://herbiesaudiolab.net/studgl2.jpg

I am hoping to be able to scoot the omens out of the way when the boss doesn't want to see them. I have some vibration issues due to being on hardwood floors over a crawl space...so I am attempting to kill two birds with one stone.

Sean

Sean,

Let me know how those Herbie's footers work out. My Superfly's are also on hardwood over crawl space (the whole house is raised).

You may also want to try using Home Depot tiles underneath the speakers. Will probably reduce the vibrations and improve the bass too.

About the scooting of the speakers, someone earlier in the thread bought Home Depot industrial ribbed floor mat to place below the tiles to help with moving the speakers. IIRC, the mats were cut to size, glued rubber sides back-to-back with the ribbed carpet surface on the outside. Believe the mats are Shaw's "Rib- It" Have fun and good luck with you know what.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #494 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 12:12 am »

Here is my solution to tighten the bass.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #495 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 12:16 am »

I used black granite tiles from Home Depot atop industrial ribbed carpet squares glued together. This makes the Omens easy to move around. The legs are lag bolts inside plastic feet also from HD.

ecod123 · « **Reply #496 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 02:12 am »

Quote from: Poultrygeist on 15 Mar 2011, 12:16 am

I used black granite tiles from Home Depot atop industrial ribbed carpet squares glued together. This makes the Omens easy to move around. The legs are lag bolts inside plastic feet also from HD.

Ah, Poultrygeist, that's you who suggested the tiles and ribbed carpet solution.

Very nice looking solution, especially with those plastic feet. Which HD dept are those plastic feet found in? Do the lag bolts just slot in or screw into the feet?

Any chance of a close-up pic of the plastic feet? Thanks.

morganc · « **Reply #497 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 02:17 am »

i was wandering the exact same question. Those are sweeeeeet

I

Quote from: ecod123 on 15 Mar 2011, 02:12 am

Ah, Poultrygeist, that's you who suggested the tiles and ribbed carpet solution.

Very nice looking solution, especially with those plastic feet. Which HD dept are those plastic feet found in? Do the lag bolts just slot in or screw into the feet?

Any chance of a close-up pic of the plastic feet? Thanks.

Poultrygeist · « **Reply #498 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 11:05 am »

The plastic cap feet are on the same isle as the lag bolts ( not lag screws ) at HD. The plastic caps are white and I spray painted them silver to match the lag bolt legs. There are several sized plastic cap feet but only one is a nice tight fit for the 3/8 lag bolt heads. I can't recall the length of the lags but they are in one of my earlier posts.

djbnh · « **Reply #499 on:** 15 Mar 2011, 01:08 pm »

Quote from: Poultrygeist on 15 Mar 2011, 11:05 am

The plastic cap feet are on the same isle as the lag bolts ( not lag screws ) at HD. The plastic caps are white and I spray painted them silver to match the lag bolt legs. There are several sized plastic cap feet but only one is a nice tight fit for the 3/8 lag bolt heads. I can't recall the length of the lags but they are in one of my earlier posts.

Is there any sliding of the speakers when they're playing while using the plastic caps?