Yup, they arrived at my work yesterday. I had a fun time lugging them home and into the house. I got them unboxed and unfortunately, FedEx was not so kind to one of the speakers. I was heartbroken to find that the top of one speaker had a couple of chips in it that went all the way down to the wood. I'll have to call Nate on Monday and figure out what to do next.
On to the speakers themselves. The first thing I noticed, these suckers are big and heavy! This is the largest speaker I have owned and they look quite imposing in my living room. The good thing is, they are truly works of art. The high gloss automotive paint (in striking blaze red crystal pearl) came out perfect. Add to that the heavy aluminum base and trim around the exposed twin 10" drivers and the cool Zu logo on the front, makes for one hot looking speaker!
Now to describe the sound in one word, breathtaking! This is by far the best sound I have heard with my system. Notes just seem to jump out of these speakers with crystal clarity. I put on Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds live at Luther College and the acoustic guitar sounded more detailed than I have ever heard. Nice thing is, all that clarity comes through without a hint of harshness or at the expense of sounding bright.
I then put on Eagles Hell Freezes Over to get an idea of the bass. Even in my crappy living room, the bass sounded deep and tight with no boom. I cranked it up and the speakers did not flinch. The drivers were barely moving. The meters on my Mac were almost pegged, the amp was running out of power but the speakers just seemed to be loafing along. I did not realize how loud it was until the end of the song. When the audience broke into applause, it about blew me out of the room!
All this with the speakers just plopped into position where my old speakers sat. I have not even started to play with placement yet. Nate also told me there has been no playtime on the speakers yet and that they should sound considerably better after being broken in. I'm going to try moving them out to my theater room tonight to see what they sound like out there. That should be real scary as the room is fully treated and they will be driven with an amp with double the power. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get them out there!
So yeah, to sum it up, I'm going to be real disappointed to lose the damaged speaker for the time it takes to get it repaired or replaced
