Beskrivelse

We have kept the great tone of the original Zu/DL-103 and have significantly improved transparency and resolution. Handling has also been considered and improved, with design elements to help safeguard the pickup from accidental damage—stylus guard being the most obvious feature.

The Zu doesn’t just slay giants: It rips their beating heart from their chests, shows it to them, finishes them off, then chases their souls and drags them down to hell. …the Zu DL-103 in particular was capable of sounding bigger, and had a better, more impactful way with uptempo music. In that respect, the Zu was more stirring—more involving—than all but my Miyabi 47. Really. In many instances, the Koetsu Black or the EMT JSD 5 had a prettier, even more realistic sound—a flute with a clearer timbral signature here, a more realistic guitar tone there—but for sheer fun, the Zu was usually the one I turned to. —Art Dudley, Stereophile

The Mk.II update is significant, both in performance and handling. The body is machined from 6061-T6 and hard anodized to aid in the matching of tonearm-mount properties and further reduce pickup stored/reflected energy. The shape of the housing has also been refined to reduce resonance and stress risers resulting in a much stronger design that better supports the motor assembly. We have also changed the epoxy matrix formulation that binds the assembly further reducing noise and increasing stability to the pickup system.

If your system needs a bit more treble energy consider the “R” version. If you are not looking to change the tonality of your system stick with the regular (non-R) version.

Each pickup is comprehensively tested and graded, the better the grade the better the stereophony, but even the standard is pretty damn fine.

Standard ≤ 2.5% | Grade 1 ≤ 1.0% | Grade 2 ≤ 0.5% | Grade 2 PRIME ≤ 0.1%

Grade indicates stereophony performance much more so than tone. Zu performs extensive final testing and then grades them. Tolerance is measured between left and right internal impedance, full bandwidth phase, time-domain, and full bandwidth output curves. Tolerance spec’ is not an average of measures but accounts for the lowest of any measurement, thus giving a true tolerance perspective. Final grade is referenced to serial number, marked on the tests and measures sheet, and box label.