The website is wrong about the impedance, I believe. The site shows 12 ohms, while I think the MK-IV version has been reduced to 8. Anybody know different?...
My Druids were upgraded to Mk IV configuration when I bought them in an Audiogon purchase, and shipped to me from the factory. Sean Casey verified the 12 ohm impedance spec in several contexts of our communications then and since. The Definition is nominally 6 ohms with an even smoother impedance curve.
Another quality of Zu speaker engineering is that music with complexity and density to transient events -- OK, music with lots of stuff going on -- is not smeared as volume increases. At concert-level volumes individual instruments can be followed in dense rock. This weekend, my wife and I listened to the SACD reissue of Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" on the Definitions for the first time at as much volume as my room could handle (because, well....you either listen to that album loud or you don't listen to it at all). No speaker in my experience ever played that recording so cleanly. We experienced none of the underlying fatigue or anxiety usually produced by encroaching compression and smearing as volume rises. Now this is an attribute of Zu transducer engineering, with contributions from lack of crossover, there being only a simple network to roll-in the supertweeter and mechanical roll-off between the FRD and the sub-bass array. But it's also a product of efficiency that allows even modest-power amplifiers to perform with plenty of headroom. High-volume music washes over you and you sense the speakers and amps are completely relaxed about doing the work. Similarly, the SACD of Dylan's "Highway 61" never sounded to me as immediate, powerful and clear at appropriately intense volume as on either Druids or Definitions.
I've never listened to much recorded symphonic music because compared to a live performance, the sound is so disappointing. I grew up close enough to Philadephia to have had many chances to hear the Eugene Ormandy-led Philadelphia Orchestra live when I was a kid. Later, I spent a decade in Boston able to regularly attend Boston Symphony concerts in the incomparable Symphony Hall. By contrast, even the most ambitous home systems got orchestral music seriously wrong. Too many drivers with too much crossover circuitry and brute-force amplification that was indelicate. Or too little dynamic range. Or insufficient weight to the sound. Or disturbing compression. And usually some combination of all these were present. So I'd listen to symphonic music only when I was in the mood to experience melody without any pretense of expecting drama. I didn't even try to assemble a system that would be credible on orchestral music because all my experience hearing systems that could scale to a symphony got further from communicating emotion as size, complexity and price rose. Has there ever been any worse sound than Krell tri-amplification using six mono amps? Even Jadis tube amps in that configuration stepped away from what could be accomplished with less.
When I got Druids I started listening to orchestral music again, with just a 300B stereo amp. The dynamic aliveness was present again. Subtlety is preserved when dynamics are assertive. Spaces in the music aren't crowded out. And the Definitions go further, extending the bass foundation, opening the soundstage, planting the characteristics of the native hall of the recording in your room. You will no longer have to choose between dry juggernaut acoustic power and emotional liquid anemia.
A word about cables. I've never spent much time in the cables rathole. Not that cables don't make a difference. It's just that they seldom make an unconditional improvement. Instead, cables behave as though you were just handed a parametric equalizer with the settings fixed in place by someone else who never listened to your room and system. If you could know how all cables sound you could choose for tuning out other component anomalies. The value isn't there, the economics of cables are completely in favor of the vendor, and pricing is based on whim not margin. With some exceptions, most of the cable business is a calculated wealth transfer scheme untethered to value delivery in the product.
However, when I bought my Druids, communications with Zu evidenced them to be devoid of nonsense. Without pushing, Sean Casey laid out his case for his Ibis speaker cables. I bought them and it's a good thing I did. The Zu Ibis cable is the first speaker cable I've ever auditioned that unconditionally improved every aspect of system performance. It is all advantage at the expense of nothing other than money. Every other cable I've heard, regardless of price, has introduced error along with advance. Always an unacceptable degradation to get a specific improvement. The same is true with their Birth and Mother power cords. So many power cords make amps and disc players in particular sound worse. Not Zu. I haven't tried their interconnects yet but will. I expect to have full Zu cabling in the few months.
Both of Zu's speakers are worthy of the best associated equipment you can possibly afford and yet you will find whatever amps and sources you have never sounded better. You can focus on simplifying your system with fewer and higher quality components. Focus on amp quality not power or ability to handle challenging loads. Many modest disc players are delivering good sound that crossovers and inelegant amps are mangling on the way to the transducers. Put Zu speakers in your system it gets easier to balance the rest of your system, musically and financially. Zu speakers can reduce the gear churn for every audiophile who settles on them. You will be surprised how many dissatisfactions with upstream equipment trace to speaker deficiencies. The weakest link probably isn't the one you're eyeing for upgrade right now.
Phil
