Has anyone compared ZU mission vs Event speaker cables (and interconnects)?


For the time being, I'm just takling ZU cables. I'm not looking to compare other brands at this point. My next upgrade over the December holiday season will be speaker cables. I'm running Zu Omen Defs with Canare star quad. The Zu events are stretching my budget. Just wondering how a huge difference between Mission (and Libtecs) and the Events.

After new year I'll start looking at interconnects and ZU's are on my list there as well.
aberyclark

Showing 6 responses by nonoise

@ghosthouse 
When Paul sent out his cables to try out, he sent me the single and double runs and I preferred the singles. I can only imagine what the double shotguns sound like. Like you, I enjoyed them for some time but the itch for something else got the best of me.

Beware of the window shopping as it's an indicator that you're going to pull the switch soon. 😃

All the best,
Nonoise
One can say that about all well made cables in that they look similar. I took a look at the cross section of the Mission SC and Belden makes nothing that looks like it, that I could find.

Saying something like that would be akin to "I opened the hood of the car and it had a motor like other cars I looked at."

Zu has it's own looms which gives them lots of leeway in configuring cable geometry. Their cables are built from the ground up in house. They even choose the color of the insulation as they feel it messes with the sound. They'll gladly talk to anyone who'd like to know more. They're very up front about it.

All the best,
Nonoise
@milanos111,
Yes, they are better sounding in the context of my present system. When I had the Tonian Labs TL-D1 speakers, it was a toss up at first, depending on the music, but in the end I preferred the Zu Events. 
The Tempo Electric are a very fine sounding speaker cable and so simple in approach and execution. They edged out the Zu Mission SCs with my older set up.

All the best,
Nonoise
@aberyclark,
The Mission SCs are good but the Event are even better. To my ears, the Mission beat out Clear Day, Tempo Electric, Mapleshade Double Helix, and a few others I have laying around, with my present system.

The Event SCs better the Mission, enough for me to say they're worth it. The Events I have are the Mk. I series which are no longer available. It's too bad you missed out on the sale they had while the Mk. II came online. They have a fuller, fleshier sound than the Missions without a loss in detail, air and ambiance. The tone and timber are better as well. Extension and definition are better, and so on. 

I wouldn't say they are a YUUGE difference, but to my ears they are better enough that I wouldn't go back to the Missions, but that is the nature of this hobby: to justify the costs to get that last bit of improvement. 

What I like about Zu is that they take quite a while to come up with a better cable and do a lot of in house as well as beta testing before coming out with a new and improved version. No flavor of the month for them.

Try to wait it out a bit and see if Zu has any sales as they periodically pop up several times a year and keep an eye on their eBay site as they offer discounts there now and again. They are great to deal with and are very accessible and open on the phone. Should you ever need to reterminate their cables, they'll do it for $10/connector with a one day turn around.

All the best,
Nonoise