Hi All,
This is a re-post of the Zu Druid Loudspeaker review that I posted about a year ago in the Zu forum on HarmonicDiscord. I am reposting here for your reference, as I have upgraded, and I will soon be adding an additional review of the new Zu Druid 2 Loudspeaker, and the new Zu Retro Sub.
It is in multiple parts, and it is long, so please enjoy!
PART 1
COLD OUT OF THE BOX IMPRESSIONS
Here it is, the official Beginning review of our experiences with the Zu Druid Loud speaker. At this time, they have been running 24/7 since Wednesday at 12:00 noon (approx. 80 hours) and per Zu they aren’t fully broken in unlit about 400 hours. To be totally candid, I have never even considered owning a pair of speakers with this level of performance. Usually, from what I have experienced, they are way out of my price range. Not that $3600 per pair is cheap, but so far, this is way beyond a $3600 pair of speakers!
Lets start from the beginning…
The Druids arrived, each in a large heavy cardboard box. The boxes are sturdy, and just “small” enough to be able to be managed by one, if you can’t wait for help (like me). These are heavy speakers near 60 lbs each, so those with back trouble; you might want to have some help. After un-wrapping the shrink-wrap, I laid the box on the floor and took off the lid. Carefully shrink-wrapped and supported by foam, lay a piece of modern art. After removing them from their boxes, I looked them over to take in the beauty of the craftsmanship and hi-gloss finish. The shrink-wrap left some marks on the clear coat, so a little automotive wax to the rescue, and presto instant shine. The color we chose is graphite, and the aluminum ring and base were anodized to match our Integra Research RDC-7. These are truly beautiful speakers, my wife walked in and stated, “ WOW, those are awesome” so there is a high WAF. The footprint is only one square foot, and they slip into home decor quite well.
The base plate is drilled to accept spikes, two sets are provided from Zu, one for carpet and one for hard floors. I leaned the speaker over to install the spikes, and what is this? The bottom of the Druid is open.
Yes, I did say open, you can see right up to the driver. There is no fill or batting inside the Druid cabinet. This is a whole new design concept, which Zu has developed, for more information please see the Zu site.
After setting the speakers in their locations, I connected my ZU WAX speaker cables to the Cardas binding posts. If you have not seen the OEM Cardas post, it can be seen on their site. This is a radical binding post, only one, so Bi-wiring is out of the question. I did ask Sean at Zu regarding this, and the reply was “that since the Zu super tweeter is designed to only work in the higher frequencies, there is no benefit to Bi-wiring.” The Zu claim to fame is the B3 connection, which uses an 8-pole speakon to keep the geometry of the WAX speaker cables right up to the voice coils. There are no crossovers in the Druid, none. For more info on that please refer to the Zu site. I just got them hooked up and playing, when the FedEx guy showed up with my WAX with the B3 termination. I will be comparing the two cable connections after they fully break in.
The main technology that is incorporated on the Druid is the 260mm (10”) full range driver, followed by the enclosure, and cable technology. The three are 100% original to Zu and form a synergistic relationship. While the Zu Zu260FR driver is void of any crossover or filter elements, the Zu/Audax super tweeter does employ a proprietary filter with a primary crossover point of 15,000Hz.
First Listen...
My first song that I played was from Alison Krauss, Ghost in this house. Right out of the box, they have more detail than I have experienced in my listening tests. They came across a little bright at first, but after I adjusted my speaker levels, the brightness has faded. Please note, that since the sensitivity is so high on the Druids, I had to drop the speaker level by approximately 11.5db! They are so detailed; I can’t find the words to describe what I am hearing! My wife put it this way “You are no longer hearing the strings of the instrument, you are hearing more of the resonance of the instruments body”. These speakers really reveal what you are listening to, and they also let you know how well, or bad, the recording is. I am a big Type O Negative fan, so that was the next CD on the list. They have a heavy bass guitar rhythm, and the Druids let me really feel and hear not just the bass, but what the bass strings were doing. Did I mention they are very detailed? Any CD I chose had so much more music than I can remember.
I sat and listened for about 5 hours throughout the day, I could not seem to take myself away from listening to what they would reveal next. The speakers disappear in our room, imaging is very tight, and the soundstage is HUGE! The only thing that the Druid lacks is low bass, and Zu states this on their website, so this is no surprise. Is this a bad thing? No, there is more detailed deep bass than I expected, but they sound really phenomenal when they are integrated with a Sub.
I presently have Energy C-4’s as my mains and an Energy RVS-1 as the center. The Energy’s are a good speaker, but nowhere even remotely close to the Druids. The thing that always disappointed me with the Energy’s was how the center never seemed to quite mesh with the mains during a movie. The Druids came in and integrated with the Energy RVS-1 center better than I could have ever hoped. This created a huge soundstage for movies that was missing before. We were unable to localize the center as we could before. This created a very enjoyable experience for us, and we can’t wait to try the Druids with the Zu center channel speaker. I have seen early renderings of the center and it looks great, if the Druid is a sign of things to come, the future of home audio is sounding very promising.
I will continue to update my review as the speakers break in, and I will be doing an A/B comparison with them, to Revel F30 and B&W 804’s. The reason for choosing these speakers for comparison is they are in my price range and the same price as the Druid. Should the Druids prove to be giant killers, I will try and compare them to the best speakers the local shop has to offer and report back. If you have any specific questions, please post here or send me a personal message.
If any of you are considering the Druid, don’t hesitate to try them, as Zu does offer a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied.
PART 2
THE DIFFERENT CONNECTIONS
It has been almost 450 hours of break in time on the Druids, and they definitely have matured, with a real personality. They have continued to perform as stated above except that; they have further developed the depth of the soundstage, the bass has increased a little with a whole lot of control and detail, and the imaging is insanely dead on.
This has been the weekend to test the different connections that are available on the Druid and the WAX speaker cables, the B3 vs. the large copper spades. First I want to say that the WAX is truly a great speaker cable with either type of connection. In my opinion it would be really tough to find another cable with this kind of quality at its price, let alone any other price. Also a big thanks to Zu for allowing me to test 2 sets of WAX cables in my home with the Druids.
The B3 connection will only matter to those who will be using speakers and WAX speaker cables from Zu. To those whom already purchased a pair of WAX, and are considering Zu speakers, Zu will work with you regarding changing the termination on your existing cables.
The differences are noticeably apparent. When we went from the B3 back to the spades there was a definite loss of low-level detail and the soundstage seemed smaller. The bass had less detail, control, and a muddier sounding presentation. The length of note decay was also less. All of this combined did not seem to present the music as emotionally involving as the B3 connection does.
If you are considering Zu speakers, and WAX speaker cables, the B3 connection is definitely the way to go.
Please note that this comparison is for the type of connection available by Zu only, and that the differences stated here reflect our personal experiences and opinions.
Next weekend is the big test, and I will have a detailed report of our findings soon after.
PART 3
THE BIG TEST
It is the day after the A/B Shoot out, and do I have a lot to tell! We started with my wife’s audiophile uncle Charlie, from Virginia, stopping in for a visit and a preview of what the Druids look and sound like. The first few comments were: “Who would put the tweeter below the driver you aren’t supposed to do that?” “Nobody in there right mind would use a 10” driver for full-range service, they are too slow.” There is no batting or fill inside the speaker, let alone the whole bottom is open!?” “12 Ohms?” “This design goes against all of the rules and should not work.”
We were originally going to test against the Revel Performa F30 and the audio store had already agreed to allow this. Charlie had then recommended we go against something better. Something more a reference standard, Like the Revel Ultima Salons! This way we can really tell where the Druid stands compared to a well-known and revered speaker. When we arrived at the store where the test took place, we asked for permission to compare to the Salons. A few minutes later we had the Druids sitting next to the Salons, looking quite slim compared to the intimidating size of the Revels.
This move allowed us to upgrade the system as well, the reference system was comprised of the following Mark Levinson gear; 335 Amp, 32 Reference Pre-Amp, 360S Reference DAC, 31.5S Reference CD Transport. This system also is well known and speaks for its self at the top of the audio pyramid. For a fair comparison the Speaker cables used on both speakers was the WAX from ZU.
While we were un-packing, Charlie was talking to the salesman, and I overheard the statement “well the F30’s are over here in this room, more where these (the Druid) will compete”. Once again, an assumption/prediction was made before even hearing one note! This is a whole new speaker design, which goes against everything that has been proven. We all know that people hate change, and this is a radical departure from the norm, so hang on tight world here comes the Zu Druid.
The musical CD choices were; All the Pretty Horses Soundtrack, Alison Krauss – Forget About It, Sara Brightman - ?, The Sounds of Wood and Steel.
We started with the Druids, and the Levinson gear combined with them was absolutely amazing! I was totally blown away by the detail and spaciousness that I was hearing! As we listened though, I could not take my eyes off of the Revels. They were intimidating the hell out of me, and I hadn’t even heard them yet! These are the “Big Boys” and here we are, a virtual David and Goliath match, I had my fingers crossed that we wouldn’t be laughed out of the room by showing up with an unknown small speaker (only 60 lbs Each). After listening to the Druids for a while, I was enjoying the musical presentation and feeling a little more confidence. Charlie and our wives liked the sound, but we still had to hear the Salons.
After switching over to the Salons, I powered up the amp, took a deep breath, and pushed play. Due to the sensitivity of the Druids, we had to turn up the volume by 10 for the Salons. All of a sudden I had this goofy grin creep on my face and it stayed there all day. The Salons are beautiful sounding speakers, but they weren’t laughing us out of the room. On the contrary, they did not seem to have the detail that the Druids presented! The Druid seemed to have a “faster, snappier” presentation. The Salons have better bass extension, and thus presented a fuller more developed soundstage. This is the only obvious fault that the Druids had shown, and it is plainly written in their website, so no surprises there. The Salons also smoothed out some of the edginess in Sara Brighman’s voice.
We switched back to the Druids, and there they were, toe to toe with the Salons and not backing down. Were they better than the Salons? No. Were they worse than the Salons? No. Each speaker had its high and low points. But for a speaker that costs approximately 1/5 of the price to even be mentioned in the same sentence, as the Salon is amazing in its self. As we were finishing up our listening tests, the Salesman came back in the room to check on us. Charlie asked him what he thought, and he replied “those Salons sound real nice”. I did not have the heart to tell him we were listening to the Druids….
Our wives really liked the Druids for both sound and looks. There is a high degree of performance coupled with styling that gets high wife approval factor (WAF).
After we got back from the test, Charlie listened again. And the same comments came, as before “They sound real nice, for a design that would never work”.
Needless to say, we will be keeping the Druids and looking forward to more speaker offerings to come from Zu.
PART 4
CABLE UPGRADES
About 6 months after I got my Druids, I have upgraded interconnects to the Zu Varial, and the new Zu Ibis speaker cables. The new cables from Zu have greatly transformed what these speakers can do. The detail and finesse that is presented is absolutely breathtaking. The bass is tighter and also seems a little deeper. The imaging has been greatly tightened up, they imaged quite well before, but now they are extremely tight on the center image. The soundstage is as huge as can be; Truly massive! I have yet to hear a speaker that presents it's self with this kind of soundstage width.
The thing that impresses me is how the speaker performance keeps getting better when higher end equipment gets introduced into the system.
PART 5
OFFICIAL REVIEW
The Zu Cable Druid Loudspeakers review by John Potis is up on
www.soundstage.com http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/zucable_druid.htm Check It out!
Coming soon… The Druid 2 upgrade and the Retro Sub Review.
