Zu Druid questions

The problem with the Soundstage measurements was that they hung the speakers in free-air, per standard protocol. They were informed of the speakers' need for floor loading but they were unwilling to break procedure to measure the speakers. The effect was akin to removing the port from another speaker and enlarging the hole.

So the measurements were valid, assuming you hang the speakers from the ceiling. Any Druid owner will tell you that floor-gap is critical in tuning the bass. 1/4" makes a huge difference and having a hard surface under the speaker is crucial. If placing on carpet, an "artificial" hard tile or such will seriously improve bass response.

I'm a Zu guy, having owned the Druids, Def. 1.5's and Pro's. But, not everyone is. The strengths of the Druids will not easily be surpassed anywhere near their price, but lots of folks have different sets of priorities which don't align with them. Those folks will leave saying "I don't get it". That's OK, but somewhat of a pain if the speakers were purchased for the audition.

The advice of hearing them first is good. Try to make it as lengthy of an audition as possible, as many who have been through my room say it took a little time to lock on but that they really dug it once they figured it out.

Some folks can't imagine "going back" from Zu, others can't imagine "going to". There's no way to know without taking 'em for a spin.

Oh yeah, they *really* like tubes!

Ha! A question on how the measurements are flawed turns into a discussion of them. I'm not sufficiently adept technically to answer these questions completely, but I'll speculate wildly (something I'm good at too).

Shardone - Some of this or that might be related to rainbows and puppydogs. If the driver is breaking up anywhere in its band I can't hear it. You couldn't either. Placement of the Druids is incredibly flexible without changing the character of the sound. Hanging the Druids in free air would probably have been acceptable had they bothered to load the chamber with an attached hard plate at the base of the speaker AS IT WOULD BE IN ANY LISTENING ENVIRONMENT.

Bob - I don't know of any technical literature related to their proprietary "Griewe" loading technique. I do know it is distinct from other ventilation schemes. Where horns have wall-distances they prefer, as well as bass reflex designs, the Druids have an ideal floor distance. They don't care much how far they are from walls. Druids are extremely coherent. Blame the faulty graphs, not the speakers.

Bear in mind also, these measurements were made on a two-generations-old model.

I don't pretend Druids are perfect for everyone, but misinformation and derivative speculation should stop.

I wouldn't use the carpet spikes. Follow Kehut's advice and create a "false floor". Spike a hard tile through the carpet and use that for the speaker base. The tuning will never be optimized on carpet.

I did it both ways and it was no comparison.

The Red Wine SS amps are outstanding with the Druids.