System i built over the years on a budget. Love the sound that comes from the Zu druid. All the interconnects are DYI made from VH audio recipes. Haven't upgraded in a while since i haven't seen a need to. The only thing i find annoying is not having a remote for the integrated amp. 18 watts from the Dared amp is plenty enough to drive the Zu speakers to high volume without any compression. I use to have high powered solid state amps with low efficiency speakers. Those have moved down to my home theater room consisting of Nohr Marble 9 speakers matched with Emotiva Amp and preamp.
Nice system!! Did you update your system yet? You got the Uno's right? You asked me about the polarity on them? So if you want to reverse polarity - on the jumpers, put the positive side from the tweeter to the negative side on the sub and vice versa. You should be able to hear a difference. Let me know how it goes!
Mjcmt i live in Denver the humidity is never a problem here. The tank is a 20 gallon so it doesn't pose a threat, if it did the system would be nowhere near the tank.
runmeshaw, Thanks for the insightful amplifier impressions. Your rankings make sense as your priority is realism and natural sound.The music and sound must be very involving with lots of emotion.
These are the amps i have heard in my system with the druids from best to worse.
Yamamoto A08S: Vocals are excellent, has a lit up nature that suits the druids very well. Can go loud but not concert level loud. Bass isn't as deep compared to other amps. Very good with jazz, ambient, vocal pop.
Dared 845: Can get very loud, vocals are good with almost any type of music. Has probably the best bass out of all the amps i used.
Primaluna prologue one: Good all around integrated amp. Vocals have presence, noticed that if your source is good then it makes this amp even better
Emotiva ss amp: Wouldn't recommend this amp at all on the druids. Volume can go loud but the sound is sterile compared to the other amps.
Im a big believer in system synergy. An amp that sounds good in one system might sound bad in another. Its a balancing act when trying to mate amps with speakers. If your speakers are efficient 99db/w then watt matter most is the quality of the watts instead of the quantity. I never thought that my yamamoto 2 watter could sound so much better then the Dared 845 amp but it does. This is in the highs and mids, the Dared definitely beats it in the bass department. So its a matter of what type of sound your looking for and how you want to achieve it.
Sorry for the late response, this new audiogon system has alot of bugs thought my system was deleted until i did a search for it.
Lew and Charles as long as you don't need concert volume levels the 2 watts from the yamamoto is more than enough. The sound is lovely, more intimate and organic. There is something about the Yamamoto 45 that makes vocals sound so real. A lot of tube amps have an overly warm tone that causes the music to sound a little sterile. It may be pleasing to the ears but loses some of its dynamics. With the Yamamoto you can still tell its a tube based amp but it has a lit up nature that matches the dynamics the Zu's are known for. If you have a large room or like to play music super loud than i would go with something with at least 6 watts, if your speakers have the high efficiency like the druids.
Im in the process of combining my 2 channel with my home theatre. I want a system that is excellent at 2 channel and good at surround. What i do know is im gonna keep my Yamamoto and build around that. As you can tell i love the amp.
Runmeshaw, You`ve gone from SS amp to an 845 tube amp and now currently a 45 tube(2 watt) amp. Each move has been to progressively lower power amps, what has been the motivation and sonic benifit with these changes?
You say that the ZU sensitivity more than made up for the loss of power going from 845 to 45 ??? Im using a Cary 805 and Omega 6" hemp which is already pretty sensitive. Wondering what a 300b would do?
System edited: Just added a Yamamoto A08S amplifier after the Dared 845 needed repair. Only has 2.5 watts per channel but man are they glorious watts. This upgrade has taken the system to another level. I need to get a preamp now since the Dared was an integrated. I connect directly to my Shanling CD player since it has volume controls and wow!! Can't wait to get a decent preamp to mate with this one of a kind amplifier.
Mdegeorgis i totally see where your coming from, hopefully no disasters happen with the reef tank. Love listening to music while looking at the tank, very soothing. I love the zu druids my Dared VP845 int amp just broke found out it was the transformer and a new one would cost $500 to replace so decided to sell the amp for someone else to fix. Just purchased a used primaluna one, hopefully it isn't too much of a downgrade. I loved VP845 amp with the druids, in 4 years never felt the need to upgrade and in this hobby that is hard to do. But the upgrade bug is finally hitting me i just saw a Zu Omen Def speakers for sale here on audiogon for 1.75k makes me want to try those out.
nice job on the reef, be careful, i had a 265gal reef in my stereo room the whole thing was great a little dark side of moon with a wall full of water. but after about 10 years it messed up some nice audio gear, but it looks nice how do you like the Zu's,
Your system is beautiful in it's simplicity. The look of your reef tank between those speakers and surrounding decor is 'perfect'. I too 'was' a fellow reefer. I just sold my 210 gallon 'AGA' reef tank along with a 34 gallon 'Solana' anemone/clownfish tank. They had to go to make room for my plunge into the audiophile world. As you know, reefing is a very addicting and expensive hobby. For me it had to be one or the other. Also it was way too much water and humidity to have in the same room as my soon to be audio room. Here's a few words of wisdom. Water spills and splashes are inevitable. Make sure your speakers are elevated and when doing water changes, keep them fully covered. Murphys law dictates this. I had the same light fixture on my Solana. The PAR is so much stronger in the middle than the sides...kind of like a spotlight. Something to consider as you place your coral. Sorry to hijack your thread. Guess I'm just going thru reefing withdrawals. I'm trying to learn all i can from these forums/virtual systems before i buy my audiodio gear. I'll soon be looking for Revel Ultima Salon 2's. My wife fell in love with them so case closed for my speaker selection. I'm considering Emotiva mono amps (500w into 8) to drive the bottom half of those speakers and maybe an Ayon Triton to drive the top half. I know...sounds like overkill but hey...what do you expect from an X-reefer? That's going to be a whole thread in itself.
Thanks for the nice response guys!! The saltwater tank hobby is just as addictive as buying stereo equipment. I have some damsels and anthias for fish in the tank. I was planning just to do a coral only tank but decided to get some fish. I have florida ricordeas and chalice corals in the tank now. Very soothing to listen to music with the tank glowing in the background.
As far as the stereo goes I've noticed after going to the low power tube equipment music sounds more natural. I noticed a huge difference in how the speaker/amp combo make the human voice sound so real. If you listen to music with a lot of vocals then these speakers and amp sound really nice. I still like my SS gear but for strictly music i will always stick with tube amps. Don't get me wrong i have heard some really good SS gear but they were super expensive also. For me right now im satisfied!!
Hi, I really like your system approach. Simple and straight forward. What`s do you find better/different compared to the previous higher powered SS apprach? The 845 tube amp with the Zu speakers must sound very good.
