AMERICAN HI-FI REDUX
Based in Ogden, Utah, Zu Cable and Loudspeakers is reinvigorating high-end speaker design.

Zu is, above all, different. Yes, its all-American products are undeniably exotic, beautifully crafted, and gloriously proficient, but those attributes sum up the high-end’s raison d’être. No, it is Zu’s business and design philosophies that stray far from conventional paths. It is more than a little ironic that for the company’s first few years in the predawn of the 21st century, Zu’s customers were the adventurous audiophile cognoscenti in Hong Kong and China (where so many North American speakers are now manufactured). Zu’s rave reviews eventually filtered back here and while exports remain strong, U.S. sales are catching up.

Zu sells factory direct in America, attracting a younger and, well, hipper clientele than traditional audiophiles. That probably has a lot to do with the visceral experience Zu speakers deliver. Then again, when you stop and consider that this company’s owners and staffers range in age from early 20s to mid-30s, it is hardly a surprise they make the sort of speakers they do. My first encounter of the audiophile kind with Zu at a local audio show was so strong I could not stop thinking about the speakers and their amazing sound. I just had to get a pair of Zu Druid Mk4 speakers to review for Home Entertainment.

It is a large speaker—50 inches tall, 11 wide—but because it is just 6.3 inches deep, it does not seem all that imposing. While Zu always pictures the Druid with its 10-inch driver naked to the world, an optional cloth grille is available for those buyers who prefer a more modest presentation. I love the speaker’s monolithic clean lines and elegant proportions.

Black Satin and Silver Frost gray are the standard paint finishes, and for a modest upcharge you can get your Zu speakers decked out in any conceivable shade of metalflake, iridescent, pearl, gloss, or satin paint finishes. Custom wood veneers are also available on an extra cost basis. Zu will ship paint and veneer samples to prospective customers to ensure satisfaction. The Druid’s base/stand is made from medium-density fiberboard; bases made from machined aluminum or stainless steel are extra-cost options. The company’s artisanal approach is refreshingly accommodating—Zu is happy to work with installers and architects to provide custom-crafted center and on-wall surround speakers. In addition to the $2,800-per-pair Druid Mk4, Zu’s regular speaker line includes the $1,795-per-pair Tone bookshelf speakers, the $9,000-per-pair Definition floorstanders, and two subwoofers—the $2,500 Method and the $1,500 Mini Method. These prices are definitely at the low end for American and European high-end speakers, and I think they represent excellent values.

Zu speakers are finished in Utah, and almost all of the parts are made in the United States, including the Druid’s 10-inch woofer and tweeter (Zu assembles and tests the drivers in-house). The speaker’s internal silver alloy wiring is made by Zu, and instead of typical speaker wire binding posts, the Druid features a nifty copper clamping system to secure the speaker cables. While many speakers use a round port to augment their bass output, the Druid’s cabinet uses a unique bass tuning system—the entire bottom of the cabinet is open. The design relies on the space between the bottom of the speaker and the floor to provide the deepest bass frequencies.

Zu’s design methodology is more music-oriented and less measurement-oriented than most, which is not to say Zu’s engineering is completely seat-of-the-pants, just that the end result produces a sound that is, well, different from what I am used to. The rhythmic pulse of jazz, reggae, and all sorts of dance music is communicated with an energy that is rarely equaled in speakers of the Druid’s size and price class. And yet the speakers’ poise on classical music reveals a wonderful sense of refinement.

The Druid sounds like no other box speaker. Yes, all speakers play music and movies, but there tends to be a sameness to their sound—all share a hi-fi, speakerlike quality, but the Druid’s sound is far more musical and life-sized. Maybe the sound departs from the straight and accurate? Probably, but the Druid has no trouble highlighting differences in recording quality. My audiophile recordings’ naturalness is emphasized, and commercial pop music sounds more like the overprocessed junk it really is. Audiophile speakers tend to sound refined, very "polite," but not this one. The Druid makes a strong statement, very in-your-face, very rock and roll, and I love it.Voices emerge fully formed, more believably human: Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen’s body and soul materialize in my living room. Stereo imaging is another strong point. On disc after disc the Druid displays an uncanny ability to disappear as a source of sound. Depth and spaciousness are truly excellent. The Cars’ high-octane pop kicks the Druid into high gear, and man, oh man, the band’s grooves on "Just What I Needed" and "Good Times Roll" still sound fresh after all these years.

The Druid makes my Dynaudio Special Twenty-Five speakers, which are almost twice as expensive, seem rather small and less emotionally charged. The Dynaudio’s frequency balance is definitely more accurate, but the sound lacks the Druid’s magic. What can I say? The search for Truth and Beauty in speakers is fraught with dead-ends and U-turns, so I take my satisfactions where I can.

The Druid isn’t a perfect speaker by any stretch. On a small percentage of my CDs, the Druid’s bass quality and quantity seem inconsistent—on one disc it is lusciously rich and still quite defined, but play the next CD and the bass can sound lumpy or reticent. But the Druid scores a direct hit on at least 95 percent of the CDs and LPs I play. So the Druid is something of an audiophile conundrum: It digs deeper into the music than any speaker I can think of. I don’t want to send the Druids back.

PRICE: Zu Druid Mk4, $2,800 per pair
CONTACT: 800.516.8925, zuaudio.com

SAVOR THE SOUND
France’s Atoll Electronique is bringing high-end audio value back to Earth.

The very best audiophile gear is, like most of today’s luxury products, substantially sized, glamorous, and breathtakingly expensive. Lucky me, I live with a steady parade of the stuff, but maybe I need a breather, just as some restaurant critics enjoy the pleasures afforded by a simple meal prepared with just a few well-chosen ingredients. Enter Atoll Electronique. It is French, reasonably priced, and has definite audiophile street cred, so Atoll might be just the "palate cleanser" I am looking for. Calls are made, and Atoll’s importer sends three of the brand’s top-of-the-range designs: the CD200 CD player, the PR300 stereo preamplifier, and the AM200 stereo power amplifier.

Atoll was founded in 1997 by two brothers, Stéphane and Emmanuel Dubreuil, with the goal of making affordable high-end electronics. The best way to keep the lid on prices is to move production offshore; the brothers not only bucked the trend and based the company in Normandy, but also sourced most of the parts they do not manufacture in-house from French suppliers. The one cost-cutting concession is that all Atoll components—CD players, tuners, amplifiers, etc—use the same basic chassis, which measures a compact 3.75 inches high, 17.5 inches wide, and 12 inches deep. So all three of Atoll’s stereo preamplifiers, ranging in price from $1,000 to $2,000, look alike, but the higher-priced models’ internal designs are more sophisticated. The good stuff is on the inside.

Rather than settle for off-the-shelf electronics or rely on inexpensive chipsets, Atoll crafts its unique audio circuits from individual resistors, capacitors, and transistors. All of the parts are hand-inserted into circuit boards, which are then hand-soldered and individually tested. Daily production is small enough that Stéphane still has time to listen to every Atoll before it leaves his factory. That’s commitment.

The almost spartan presentation and simple ergonomics of the Atoll CD player, stereo preamplifier, and power amplifier make the owner’s manuals practically unnecessary—there is nothing about the designs that requires explanation. Atoll components are as close to plug-and-play as high-end audio ever gets. The review samples’ faceplates are beautifully finished natural aluminum, and black is also available.The PR300 stereo preamplifier is the control center for the system. It has volume up and down buttons, left/right balance adjustment buttons, and selector buttons for each source, such as CD, tuner, etc. A cat’s eye-shaped display offers visual conformation of the unit’s status. The remote not only operates all of the preamplifier’s controls, it doubles as a remote for Atoll’s CD players and FM tuner.

Connectivity is adequate for modest stereo systems. The PR300 accepts four inputs, including an optional phono input for use with turntables, plus provisions for a CD or tape recorder. Kudos go out to Atoll for including something rarely included on high-end stereo preamplifiers: a headphone jack. The CD200 CD player’s back panel has just a set of stereo outputs and a coaxial digital output. The AM200 stereo power amplifier is similarly utilitarian, with two sets of stereo inputs and nicely finished gold-plated speaker wire connectors.

The 120-watt-per-channel AM200 stereo amplifier is the most powerful single-chassis Atoll amp, but it never gets much warmer than room temperature, even after many hours of use. The amplifier can be bridged to double its output to 240 watts (a second AM200 would be required for stereo operation). My three-piece review system retails for a modest-by-high-end-standards price of just $6,000, but you can assemble a complete Atoll system with the CD50 CD player and IN50 integrated stereo amplifier for just $2,000. In addition to Atoll’s extensive stereo component line, a surround processor, the $2,500 PR5.1, and a five-channel amplifier, the $1,500 AV100 are offered for audiophile-oriented home theater fans.

Since Atoll is not interested in chasing the latest design fads or competing with features-oriented marketing campaigns, it does not need to revamp the line every year. It is worth noting that all of Atoll’s original models are still in production and enjoy healthy sales year after year. Rest assured, the Atoll you buy this year will not be "obsolete" next year.

The Atolls’ sound is so relaxing I listen for hours on end without noticing the passage of time. That said, I don’t want to give the impression the sound is in any way lacking in the clarity or detail that makes high-end audio so compelling. In fact, the Atolls instantly reveal my poorly mastered Jefferson Airplane CDs from the mid-1980s to be the murky-sounding atrocities they are. Ah, but spin a gorgeous-sounding CD like Lyle Lovett’s Joshua Judges Ruth, and the Atolls’ contributions seem to melt away, so I can focus on the music. It is just that the Atoll components reveal the good, bad, and ugly about the sound embedded in the discs’ zeros and ones. Acoustic guitars sound, well, beguilingly acoustic; voices seem more naturally human, and all of the recordings’ sounds are in balance. Lovett’s gospel-infused tune "Church" is rousing enough to make an Atoll believer out of me. Electric guitars sound fat, with rich harmonics I find irresistible. Treble details like the shimmer of a cymbal or the "air" surrounding the highest notes of Jon Faddis’ trumpet sound exquisitely delicate, blessedly free of even a hint of harshness. That is a big part of the Atoll’s innate musicality.

The Atolls will seduce sophisticated music lovers, folks who yearn for a sound beyond what they are experiencing over their cell phones and iPods. Methinks the adorable French components are the perfect antidote to the plummeting audio standards of today’s short attention span market. Atoll’s raison d’être is disarmingly direct: Simply render the unadulterated sound of music. When you hear it, you might even put down that book you are reading and savor the sound.

PRICE: AM200 amplifier $2,000, PR300 preamplifier $2,000, CD200 CD player $2,000
CONTACT: 203.877.7776, musicalsounds.usGREAT EXPECTATIONS
Ayre’s MX-R amplifier sounds even better than it looks.

Before I tell you all about this fantastic new amplifier from Ayre Acoustics, I’d like to fawn over its sculptural good looks. I love the Ayre MX-R’s sleek stance, and the way the light catches details of the chassis’ metalwork. Early in the morning as the sun streams into my Brooklyn apartment, an amber glow appears just below the diamond-cut swirls on the surface of the metal. The broad expanses of polished aluminum are balanced by deep cooling slots. And if you think all high-end amplifiers are outrageously huge, you will love the Ayre MX-R’s trim physique—it’s just 3.75 inches high, 11 inches wide, and 18.75 inches deep. For an all-out assault on the state of amplifier design, it is a downright compact affair, though its size can be deceptive at first: It weighs a solid 52 pounds. What about the sound? The MX-R is already drawing raves from the usual hotbeds of aficionados in the United States, Europe, and Asia. It’s hot!

Too many audio components either highlight the sonic distortions in my rock, jazz, and classical recordings, or hide them under a softly mushy sound. Charles Hansen, Ayre’s founder and chief designer, seems aware of this embarrassing truth; he set out to make an amplifier that would make all recordings sound better. The MX-5 is a mono, single-channel amplifier, so you need two for stereo and five or more for a home theater installation. Power output is specified as 300 watts for 8-ohm speakers and doubles to 600 watts for 4-ohm speakers. This is a seriously powerful amplifier.

The MX-R is crafted in Boulder, Colorado at the Ayre factory, while the metal chassis parts come from a supplier about 100 miles away in Colorado Springs. My review samples are finished in dazzling natural aluminum, but a "wet look" gloss black is also available for a small upcharge. A matching stereo preamplifier is in the works, as well as all sorts of other products that may or may not come to fruition. Ayre is the kind of company that keeps exploring new ideas, but I never get the impression Hansen is in the business just to make money or grow Ayre into a much larger or more mainstream electronics company. He just wants to make the best products he can.

Pardon me for a second while I get tweaky and gush over the MX-R’s zero-feedback, and fully balanced circuitry. High-end engineers invest vast amounts of time fussing over the tinniest circuit details, listening obsessively to eke out a sound that gets them ever closer to perfection. That’s how Charles Hansen learned that off-the-shelf parts would not meet his quality standards. So he collaborated with a company in Iowa to produce ultra-high-quality resistors just for Ayre, and some of the MX-R’s capacitors are built to his specifications. Other technical innovations include the new ThermalTrak transistors from ON Semiconductor. Again, Hansen is working with his supplier to get exactly what he needs. With more conventional transistors, he would have to take steps to monitor the devices’ operating temperatures; the ThermalTrak transistor more accurately monitors its own temperature and other data to maintain the lowest possible distortion. Which reminds me, that gorgeous, thick aluminum chassis with the intriguing grooved pattern on top and sides also provides the required heat dissipation, so there is no need to resort to potentially noisy cooling fans. For a 300-watt design, the MX-R runs surprisingly cool.

The back panel of the amplifier houses a pair of AyreLink communication ports for use with other Ayre components. The MX-R has just one signal input connector, an XLR, but RCA-terminated cables can be used with an adapter. Instead of commonplace speaker wire binding posts, you get an elegant clamping system that accommodates wires tipped with U-shaped spade lugs.

Enough already with the background, what does the MX-R sound like? I use Ayre’s K-3 stereo preamplifier, C-5xe stereo universal player, and V-6xe multichannel power amplifier in my reference system, so I am intimately familiar with Ayre’s sound, and not at all sure what to expect when I replace the V-6xe with the MX-R monophonic amplifiers. Probably the same basic sound, only better, whatever that means. The first thing I notice is the expansive stereo imaging, liberated from the actual locations of my Dynaudio Special Twenty-Five loudspeakers. The V-6xe still sounds fantastic, but I immediately hear the MX-R is releasing more of the music, so it breathes, it sounds more alive. Frankly, it’s the magnitude of the change that floors me. Not only are the music’s soft-to-loud dynamic swings bigger, but I am so much more aware of even the most subtle details, like the quietest concert hall reverberations. The MX-R gets you closer to the sound of a piano—the player’s touch, the way he or she hits the keys is communicated with a newfound realism. The astonishingly detailed sound is balanced by its sweet, utterly natural character, even with a less-than-perfect-sounding recording like Solomon Burke’s Nashville CD. Solomon struts his stuff on soulful versions of classic country and country-tinged songs, and duets with the likes of Patty Griffin, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, and Patty Loveless. Hot damn! You can hear the years in his voice, so all the technology that stood between the original performance and my living room melts away, and all I hear is the singer and the song. As is always the case, some recordings sound better than others, but the MX-R has the magical ability to reveal more of what is great about the music.

The way I see it, perfectionist audio is all about design excellence and indulging in the very best sound. As Hansen puts it: "Great music should put your mind in a different space, alter your awareness, and make you feel better." Matched to well-chosen partnering components and speakers, the Ayre MX-R will do just that.

PRICE: $16,500/pair
CONTACT: 303.442.7300, ayre.com