Zu Presence

[Κώστας Φ.]

"The new Presence is a Zu heartland product. It occupies the long vacant niche between $3,800/pr Druid Mk4 and $11,000/pr Definition 2. It's pinstripe academic to argue whether the Presence is really a souped-up Druid or a scaled-down Definition. It's a bit of both and a bit of neither. From the Druid, it inherits the inverted tweet/mid face, from the Definition two of its self-powered (but optionally externally amplified) woofers. From the Mini Method sub, the Presence borrows the vintage radio motif of slotted grill to disguise its frontal woofers. For the final flourish, it then goes for a triangular cross section, an exciting first in the Zu catalogue.

The 3/4" Super Ply cabinet isn't a casual move just to be different. It was strategically developed over countless discarded prototypes [see below]. "It sports a wider than 1.5 inches glue surface on each of its 60° mitered longitudinal edges for strong joints. This layup uses eight voidless hardwood layers sandwiched between two outer 0.125" MDF sheets to give a very high strength to weight ratio and produce a wideband sound print or broad Q for tone. The triangular divider plate and bulkheads also reduce plate modes by several factors over rectangular panels. With the Presence, resonance modes are spread out as they are with the shape to release energy faster than with rectangles and MDF. The core goals for this cabinet were a reduction of mass; an increase of strength; broadband Q; a wider baffle without having the speaker appear bigger; and a reduction of delay distortion and general noise for the internal acoustic spaces (hence no ports).

...

This new Zu103FRD driver is a Zu product with certain Eminence ingredients and Western Electric roots. It's not an off-the-shelf driver. Eminence contributions are the punched iron, the riveted frame, charging the motor, winding the coil and gluing it to the spider and primary non-Eminence cone. The pole pieces, shunting circuit and center cone are from the machine shop adjacent to Zu. At Zu, the basket is refinished, the whizzer punched and a light but strong adhesive added to both cone faces. James is the only Zuist making drivers and he puts about 40 minutes into each which doesn't count curing. To finish up, there is the one-piece billet trim ring to increase driver rigidity and coupling to the baffle.

In the Presence, the 103FRD sees a sealed sub chamber while the tweeter and twin 10" woofers share the remaining two thirds of the sealed cabinet. Mundorf silver PIO caps and Mills resistors make up the upgraded 12kHz @ 6dB/octave network on the tweeter. The familiar looking whizzer and phase-plug fitted widebander runs wide open of course with no 'electronic limiters'. The integral 120-watt plate amp powering the dual 10s either takes a line-level input (from a preamp or a pre/pro's or home theater receiver's point.1 output); or a speaker-level input (from a bi-wired stereo or mono amp). There is also a direct speaker-level input for the woofers to bypass the plate amp. Simply remove the preinstalled jumpers between the two auxiliary Cardas loop terminals and use the lower of the two. Zu is also finalizing their own direct-drive bass amp upgrade.

It will be an in-house built combination of Hypex bass amplifier, Rane DSP equalization and remote control, all ensconced in a Zu-style billet aluminum chassis. If you provide your own bass amp/s, you also must supply your own low-pass (likely between 40-75Hz) and a bass amp attenuator. Otherwise the woofers on the direct input will run wide open to 2000Hz and beyond.

System sensitivity for the Presence remains Zu's trademark 12-ohm 101dB, frequency response 20 to 20.

...

The wrap

Definition 2 excepted which I haven't heard, the Presence is the best speaker yet from this Ogden speaker house. Best means, the most balanced and refined. It's also the physically most attractive. Its dimensions and form factor seem very classically proportioned from the front. Unlike some high performance speakers, the Presence is quite unfussy about partnering amplifiers. The $,2500 RWA Signature 30.2 is a particularly good match which brings a pair of widebander speakers with active stereo subs and main (integrated) amplifier in for 10 grand and change. Add a good front end like a Raysonic CD168 or Opera Consonance Reference Linear 2.2 and without completely going off the deep end -- no matter how you cut it, this is serious money -- you'll have a very high-level system that communicates even at the whisper levels where most speakers fail to deliver; rocks out when asked to; is flexible to help you tailor the response; can be customized on finish... as Stereophile's legend Sam Tellig would put it, there's an awful lot of there there. Hear hear."


Full Review: 6moons.com