Nice presentation -Zu speakers

that 6moons report says there were never more than 100 people there, and by midnight it was down to 50.

not much of a rave, eh?

Not at all . Sounds like typical Zu lots of flash and little substance...

oh man, i'm SO glad i'm not the only one who has that opinion.

i've never heard the druids, but have always been interested in them. what don't you guys like about them?

An FR that looks like this.

that looks pretty bad.

..but there are a lot of great sounding speakers with some ugly FR plots; totem's for example.

They are supposed to be some of the better sounding speakers out there. What didnt you like about the way they sound when you heard them?
Even most of the people who like other speakers (audiogon, and audioasylum discussions) more seem to agree they are very good. What gear was used in the setup you heard the speakers in?
Here is one review of the Zu speakers.
http://6moons.com/audioreviews/zu/druid.html

Heres a review of there larger speaker. This one is on my short list of speakers to audition, as I'm in the middle of upgrading speakers.
http://6moons.com/audioreviews/zu2/definition.html

Another Druid review
http://soundstage.com/revequip/zucable_druid.htm

marketing mix-up

that is not what I would consider a home audition set-up. My guess is they were going for some brand recognition, works from what I percieve(got a post or few here). They had a lame attempt for a Rave promo, means nothing about the audio performance.

I have never heard and likely will never hear the Zu, same goes for my speakers for most folks. So it goes. Pick what you can have moderate confidence in a sound you find value. Reviews are nice for developing a long/short list after that on your own. A mfg may have one line which excels in one environment/system which there are many may not for your needs. Evaluating speakers like any component proportionate to your investment requires time/energy and patience.

The Zu's(Druids) have a high efficiency which is suitable for even the SET group, which is the poison I am drinking for now(they make my mid list). The MDF cabinet is a minor economic short cut, vs something like Finland Birch. Though this may keep the price in reachable levels for more, and having owned MDF speakers not suggesting MDF is bad, just cheaper. Their natural xover at hi level, typical of a good wide range design, props for this. Bass respectable but maybe just honest and if controlled well darn good range has the makings of a speaker I would advocate(pending implementation testing of course).

Some interesting readings & reviews can be found at:
http://melhuish.org/audio/
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hug/bbs.html
http://www.goodsoundclub.com/
maybe at audiogon but I have not had much luck there your may do better?

Interesting.

The six moons interview had a telling line - something about after this type of promo people not thinking that they were merely for low power applications anymore.

Wonder how much that was driving it - trying to break out of the "polite" SET crowd and move to the X-games segment of their marketing.

I believe you nailed it with your post. Think about it, their market is severely limited with the SET crowd. The SET crowd is not attracted to the techno speaker look that Zu does so well. Look at the Zu website, it is very slick and cool. That "other market" buys on sleek looks (IPod), reasonably good delivery of music (IPod), and coolness factor (ditto). IMO that is who Zu is advertising to now and that is who they were going after in LA at the HES.

Marketing 1A I believe. Unfortuneatly the Zu show was probably the worst promoted event I have seen in some time. Potential for a huge event in LA and no one knew of it, what a shame. Another case study for an MBA program. Wish I had this subject instead of the stupid audio tape computer memory project.

To be fair to Zu, those graphs are of their older, previous Druid speakers. Not that the current Zu speakers have much better measurements; with (near) full-range driver on a relatively wide baffle, you're just not going to have beautiful measurements.

Druid mk IV IMO are nice-sounding speakers and a good value at their price, and almost a god-send if you have flea-powered amps and require speakers in that price range and size. There really aren't too many alternatives in that case.

However, if I owned Druids, I would tend to shy away from low-power SET and use something with better grip on the drivers and a bit more leading transient edge and "pizzazz."