Sean Casey of Zu Audio brought out some new toys to play with. While the back end of his show room system retained some of the components from previous events (including a very unique choice with the Rupert Neve Design 5060 mixing console) the front end he is responsible for carried a whole new thunder all its own to the presentation.
Sean runs his space more like a DJ set on the 1s and 2s than your typical hifi showroom, I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a copy of Diana Krall or Nils Lofgren in the bowling-alley-colored record crates they haul from show to show. Its relaxed, and the master at the helm has a vision, both for the vibe in his room and the intended sound for his newest creation – the Druid, now in its 6th iteration.
What’s different this time around? According to Sean the only thing the same is “about 4 screws”. The 10″ full range driver remains a paper core, but with an all new membrane surface for increased performance. The housing cabinet interface is “radically different”, and the tweeter assembly also received a complete overhaul. At the start it follows a similar path as some of Zu’s other speakers with a partnership with OC-based Radian, but the final execution ends up pretty far from an off-the-shelf driver integration. All the new updates do come at a cost however, with the 6 starting at around $10k for standard finishes. The Druid mk. 5 ($6,750) should run in parallel production for a while, so those who have been eyeballing the previous version of the mid-tier Zu will still have an opportunity to pick one up. Sean goes into even more detail in the embed below.
Pushing the Druids was amplification from a First Watt F7. The two aforementioned tables for the analog only rig where a Luxman 444 and a Rega RP6. TheRupert Neve Design 5060 mixing console acted a pre amp for the setup, with Zu’s own cables providing the wire necessary for the job.
The new Druid 6 is currently taking pre orders with a projected ship date of late July/early August. Interested parties can contact Zu directly via phone or email to reserve a pair.