One of the cooler companies out there, Zu Cable has released the new Tone bookshelf monitor. Remember, this is the company who, a few years ago, showed their full-range Druid (on which the Tone is based) with a Ferrari red finish and orange sublimated flames bursting from the driver. Definitely cool and, for a price, Zu will paint your Tone, Druid or Definition (their biggest, baddest speaker) whatever colors or graphics your little heart desires.
What makes all of Zu's speakers unique are their custom drivers, housing and cables. The driver (hidden in the picture by the grill) is a custom 10" high-efficiency, full-range labor of love. They didn't go to Fostex or Lowther for their drivers. No, they design, test and manufacture everything in-house. And that goes for the wicked little tweeter too. And the cabling (they are Zu Cable for a reason).
Keep reading for the specs and other Zu goodies.
Full-range, for those who don't know, means greater unity and clarity of the sound. By using only one driver for almost all of the frequency range, all the downsides of electronic crossovers and speaker blending are eliminated. As for the true sonic benefit, well, it depends on who you talk to and your own tastes. One fundamental truth all parties can agree on is that the Zus and other high-efficiency, full-range drivers are easy to power. At 101-dB, the Tones do fine with under 5 watts and can belt out some monster sound. At 50Hz-20KHz, the Tones are no slouch in the bass department either.
So July 18th is when you can pick up a pair (the first batch is already sold out). Prices start at $1795 for black, add $400 for a custom color or contact them for a quote on whatever graphics you'd like to pimp your speaker with. I bet we'll be seeing a lot more of these guys and, with their funky website and cool products, our guess is they'll begin to make serious headway into the younger generation looking to move up from their iPods and Bose systems to the real deal.
Zu Cable
