22/09/2013
A review of ZR Prestige Line.
Review of ZR Speaker Lab products (GZ Reference line) in the German magazine Car&HiFi.
Editorial
The bad word with "H"
There is a word used way to often in our business - it's used that often, that I don't want to use it any more... On top of that this
First page of the original article in Germanword is used for cheap and low end products too many times. Several manufacturers are using this word in combination with their products telling that this is the best, but ignoring the basics of sound quality while developing these products... By writing this issue my mind changed... products like the GZ Reference speakers prove, that it is still possible to produce "HIGH-END"... Such components won't be liked by everyone, but they're outstanding and fascinating... that's what it's all about!
The test
For a while GZ is already coming up with more and more SQ products... The new speaker line GZ Plutonium Reference is made for SQ without any compromise... Plutonium Reference has nothing to do with the well known Plutonium compo using subwoofer voice coils in a 6.5" midwoofer... the Plutonium Reference is using hand made voice coils, wooden materials and secret ingredients... The idea to develop these speakers, came up, when GZ was searching for very High-End home audio speakers for testing their amplifiers... The Slovenian GZ distributor connected GZ with a small speaker manufacturer ZR speaker lab (owned by Zvone Raspor) in the south of Europe... because Mr. Raspor's speakers are very High-End, hand made and matched by pair, the idea to modify these speakers for car audio use was born quickly...
Midwooffer
Due to the fact that almost all parts are hand made by Mr. Raspor, these speakers are unusual in many ways...
Second page of the original article in GermanBeside the fact, that the midwoofer is using several different materials the engineers paid special attention to the cone and the motor-structure... The cone has nearly no resonance, so the speaker can be used even without any crossover - it has a perfect frequency response The hybrid magnet system with a copper cap is very unusual, and many old school High-End freaks will think of old tweeters or underhang voice coils, but this 180mm midrange is using a "normal" overhang voice coil... this combination of the ferrite and neo magnets leads to a very low distortion and a high BL.
Tweeter and crossover
The tweeter looks pretty normal compared to the midrange, but even here we find an individual design and performance. The adapted volume has two chambers which works like a "Helmholtz Resonator". That's why this tweeter is used from 3000Hz on. The crossover is made from very high quality Mundorf parts and offers several different options... you can switch off several parts, so that only a minimum of parts needed is in between the speaker and the amp.
Sound
The music almost "jumps at you" when playing these speakers... It is unbelievable how natural it sounds...
Third page of the original article in Germanif you open your eyes you're disappointed, because you can not see the singer you think standing in front of you when listening to his voice... You can easily imagine how big or small the room has been, where the music has been recorded... it's all clear and perfect, so you have a "picture" in your head... It takes a while to get used to the sound of this speaker system and due to the pretty low Qts of the midrange (Qts 0.29) some will miss a little of the very low bass, but you get the most precise kick bass ever... High-End listeners will smile when listening to these speakers...
Sum total
If someone is going ask me in ten years from now which speaker has been the most unusual speaker you've ever seen and tested, I'll for sure answer the GZ Plutonium Reference!!! If it's the most High-End, you've to decide on your own, but one thing is for sure - the fascination of music is in this system...!!!
