Audiophiliac
Well-known member
SMALL TALK:
Well, I am back in Idaho tonight. My vacation was a BLAST! Denver was awesome as always! Moab was way radical! Definitely will be going back there. My first adventure rock-crawling/jeep'n was eventful....we broke 2 out of the 4 rigs we took. It was fun. Hopefully my friends dont keep tempting me to build a rock rig, because I swear I'll do it....then I wont have any $$$ for audio gear....somebody save me....
POINT OF POST:
My drive home today took me through the salt lake valley, where I stopped for a scheduled visit at the Wilson Audio factory. I met with Daryl Wilson, who gave me a tour of the facility, which is nothing short of amazing. I met briefly with Dave Wilson himself. Wonderful people, they all are. I walked away with even more respect and admiration of the company, its products, and the people behind Wilson Audio.
I had an insightful demo of 3 identically matched WATT modules built with different materials, and listened to the differences between them....which were very apparent. I also took part in an A/B comparison between the WP8 and a competitor's speaker, and again, the Wilsons won hands down. :rocker:
All-in-all, I enjoyed my visit! I will own Wilsons one day....mark my words.
My second stop turned out to be an entire afternoon spent with one of the co-founders of Zu Audio. I tagged along with him as he ran some errands, one of which took us to the Kimber Kable factory/headquarters where I had an opportunity to briefly sit with Ray Kimber himself and have a short demo if the famous IsoMike, 8 x Soundlab ProStat/Pass Labs etc. system...you know which rig Im talking about...
I then got the grand tour of the Zu facility, which is undergoing a lot of work, but was still impressive nonetheless. After the tour, I was invited to Sean's home for what turned out to be well over an hour of listening. And let me tell you, the Druid MKIV is one awesome speaker! I was VERY impressed with its sound on all kinds of music. A full tube setup was on tap, as was a vinyl rig....and it made the music sing. I am seriously considering getting a pair of the Druids...in some custom finish that is one-off... For around $3000, I havent heard anything better...Zu has something unique and special in their speaker lineup....and their subs look mighty impressive too, though I didnt get to listen to one...the Druid does well enough for most music that you could likely do without one, depending on your tastes....I like to have that extra help in that lowest octave myself.
CONCLUSION:
Wilson and Zu. They are contrasting companies, in their product mix, business model, and in their overall character. Yet both get an equal amount of respect from me. If I had everything my way, I would have a ML room ( ), a Wilson room and a Zu room in my house.
It was a fun day and if by some chance anyone mentioned above reads this, THANK YOU.
Well, I am back in Idaho tonight. My vacation was a BLAST! Denver was awesome as always! Moab was way radical! Definitely will be going back there. My first adventure rock-crawling/jeep'n was eventful....we broke 2 out of the 4 rigs we took. It was fun. Hopefully my friends dont keep tempting me to build a rock rig, because I swear I'll do it....then I wont have any $$$ for audio gear....somebody save me....
POINT OF POST:
My drive home today took me through the salt lake valley, where I stopped for a scheduled visit at the Wilson Audio factory. I met with Daryl Wilson, who gave me a tour of the facility, which is nothing short of amazing. I met briefly with Dave Wilson himself. Wonderful people, they all are. I walked away with even more respect and admiration of the company, its products, and the people behind Wilson Audio.
I had an insightful demo of 3 identically matched WATT modules built with different materials, and listened to the differences between them....which were very apparent. I also took part in an A/B comparison between the WP8 and a competitor's speaker, and again, the Wilsons won hands down. :rocker:
All-in-all, I enjoyed my visit! I will own Wilsons one day....mark my words.
My second stop turned out to be an entire afternoon spent with one of the co-founders of Zu Audio. I tagged along with him as he ran some errands, one of which took us to the Kimber Kable factory/headquarters where I had an opportunity to briefly sit with Ray Kimber himself and have a short demo if the famous IsoMike, 8 x Soundlab ProStat/Pass Labs etc. system...you know which rig Im talking about...
I then got the grand tour of the Zu facility, which is undergoing a lot of work, but was still impressive nonetheless. After the tour, I was invited to Sean's home for what turned out to be well over an hour of listening. And let me tell you, the Druid MKIV is one awesome speaker! I was VERY impressed with its sound on all kinds of music. A full tube setup was on tap, as was a vinyl rig....and it made the music sing. I am seriously considering getting a pair of the Druids...in some custom finish that is one-off...
For around $3000, I havent heard anything better...Zu has something unique and special in their speaker lineup....and their subs look mighty impressive too, though I didnt get to listen to one...the Druid does well enough for most music that you could likely do without one, depending on your tastes....I like to have that extra help in that lowest octave myself.CONCLUSION:
Wilson and Zu. They are contrasting companies, in their product mix, business model, and in their overall character. Yet both get an equal amount of respect from me. If I had everything my way, I would have a ML room (
), a Wilson room and a Zu room in my house. It was a fun day and if by some chance anyone mentioned above reads this, THANK YOU.
Last edited:
