Zu Druid questions

I can only offer my opinion of the hour and a half I spent with Sean of Zu in his basement listening to the Druids. I was very impressed....enough so, that I am planning to buy a set....even though I work at a high end retailer and have access to virtually any other speaker out there.

My take on the "subjective/objective" debate that seems to pop its ugly head up a lot is that musical enjoyment is a taste. Take 2 people, some broccoli, and some lab equipment....measure 2 pieces of broccoli to ensure they are identical, then feed them to the 2 people. One likes it, one hates it. How do you explain this? In short, you cant determine that broccoli tastes good nor bad by measuring it. Period.

My point is that you cant draw subjective results from objective data. In other words, you cant say that product "X" sounds "Y" because of "Z". Because no matter how many people agree with that statement, there will always be someone who disagrees. And no matter how small the minority may be, they are right as well. End rant. :)

Sorry to those affronted by "grandstanding" with unecessary detailed discussion here on the Zu Druids. As several have pointed out and continue to reiterate "measurements have no meaning", as the Zu Druids are a fantastic speaker irregardless of what a lab measurement would indicate (better than all other high end speakers according to F1Audio) and Sean is a great guy. I don't dispute any of this. For the record, I already stated " Zu Druid's are undoubtedly good speakers."

I understand the need for subjectivists to jump in and aggressively defend preferences given that they select audio equipment without heed to measurements. On the flip side, please understand that objectivists enjoy and learn a lot through technical discussions with people such as Duke.

F1audio made my point much better than I did.
If you like the speaker or vegetable or movie, it doesn't really matter what the gauges, meters, formulae or critics say.
All that counts is that you are enjoying yourself. The Absolute Sound paradigm has completely distracted us all away from our own judgement. It's like letting Hugh Hefner tell you who to marry.

Duke,

Thanks. I did get that part of your post, and appreciate the support for explaining how the Druids can sound despite the measurements, especially those specs that appear in the review of Soundstage.(I have some thoughts on that at the end of this post.) I have always loved reading your threads and respect your wisdom and understanding of speaker designing and building, and comments from you regarding the Zu's interesting and intruiging designs are a great resource and welcomed info.. Not something everyone (especially me) can do, and do well. If anyone is qualified to ad anything helpful and constructive here it definitely is you.So, no dis-respect to you.

My rant is only due to the limited comments from those who have actually listened and compared by their own experience, in their own systems, the speakers the orig. posted lsited as asking for help with, namely the Usher 6 series and Klipsch in particular. I just see so many comments, and so little real info and answers of what was being asked for.

I assumed the orig. poster saw many threads as mentioned in his post, and had a chance to read them..but alas, some here are quick to take a "ho-hum"..here we go again stance. Did they own 6 series Usher or Klipsch speaker and then own Druids to make a fair comparison?? If so, they dont say such was the case. That really was my main point in my rant.

I will say this as to the Druids. They are critical as to set up, regardless of those that feel they are easliy placed within the room. I have read that they can be placed very close to the front wall and sound great, but like most designs I have used, they are much better placed well out in the room. The Cardas ratio seems to work well in my instance. I think many give up, or are unwilling or unable as the case is, and thus sell them, perhaps too soon, without taking the time to work with them, place them and toe them for best sound. Once set up and tweeked and fed good electronics, they shine nicely.I am floored at how much good bass there is in the speaker!

Anyway, thanks and apologies to all for my rant. ;-)

Regards,
Ken