|
In the fall of 1998, Sean Casey, then general manager of Kimber Kable, was approached by a Salt Lake City based loudspeaker startup, Talon Audio. The venture appeared very well funded and things looked promising... but in less than a year Sean was out and Talon was being reorganized. Looking back, the move was a key component in the creation of Zu. Sean, Adam and Marty grew up together in Ogden, Utah and shared common passions in audio, music, motorcycles and a sick love of adventure. All three attended Weber State University—Marty graduating with a BS in technical sales; Adam, physics scholarship recipient (but taking some time out to build Zu); Sean also pursued physic but dropped out after a few years to take a chance on a motorcycle career. By the mid nineties, all three found their way into the hi-fi audio industry working for Kimber Kable. Sean fully enjoyed his time at Kimber, but when Mike Farnsworth (the money guy) and Tierry Budge (loudspeaker designer, former Wilson guy) approached him with an ownership offer, and a chance to get back into loudspeakers, Sean couldn’t pass it up.
Talon Audio proved not only a poor match for Sean, but Adam and Marty as well. And there they were, broke and unemployed, packing up all the Talon stuff from Sean’s garage, when in strolled former Kimber Select, Ovox, and Theta Digital salesman Scott Devenport. Scott pitches the idea of building a new cable company; to prideful to ask Ray Kimber for his old job back, and again tempted by ownership, Sean accepted Scott’s offer. So it was out with the Talon and in with the Wasatch. Scott in his house on the hill and the rest of the guys in Sean’s garage. Scott handled sales, Sean did cable design, Adam and Randy worked on machines and fixtures, Marty was slingin solder, and all of us pulled together on all aspects of building the company and making it work—none wanted go through another Talon. Personality and direction differences with Scott, and a lack of money, forced the design and production team to consider launching their own company. So in the fall of 1999 Sean Casey, Adam Decaria and Marty Petersen laid the foundation for products, processes, funding, and business model that lead to the incorporation of Zu.
Early product offerings were sparse but highly refined in performance and finish quality. These products were, WarMouth and OxyFuel interconnects, Birth power cable, and Julian loudspeaker cable. Since the guys were bootstrapping Zu, only a few ideas could be realized and launched at a time. Zu would continue to roll all available profit and resources generated from these initial offerings into production and R&D, including what was to shortly be known as Druid. By the end of 1999, the young, passionate team of audio engineers had been intimately involved with a fair number of companies in the audio industry. Zu’s founders made significant contributions to those enterprises, but were never able to fully realize the ideas and innovations in their heads. It was the end of a millennium, people were planning for the biggest parties of their life; or they were building bunkers in the desert because computers everywhere were going to simply stop working at the beginning of Y2K—except for these audio freaks in Ogden. Working long hard hours in Sean’s garage, three guys were busy creating the technical foundation for what was shortly to become Zu. "OUR CUSTOMERS 'GOT US' FIRST AND GENERATED THE BUZZ THAT LIFTED ZU TO MARKET PROMINENCE." Since incorporating in 2000, Zu has earned global critical acclaim, receiving top honors for phono pickup, loudspeaker, and cable designs from the most respected reviewers in audio. Praise however did not come early as most reviewers and audio insiders didn’t understand or were simply unaware of them. Zu believed getting product into the hands of music-loving customers was the critical thing, that once people lived with it they would enthusiastically spread the word. This “let the product sell itself” was about as punk rock as anything the post transistor hi-fi industry had seen, and bucking the attitude and order of things was not received well by most audio insiders. But this punk attitude worked for Zu and allowed them to grow and realize many original technologies and products. In their fourth year, and fourth place of business (counting Sean’s garage), Zu got a call from Srajan Ebean of 6moons.com. Srajan asking what their review policy was. “Simple,” Sean replied. ”You buy a pair of speakers or cables like everybody else, with the option to return them for full refund, and say whatever the hell you want.” Srajan quickly answered back “Sign me up.” That pair of Druid loudspeakers that Srajan purchased set the ball in motion for a flood of global press and reviewer honors. Srajan had not only ‘got it’ but reviewed it in such a way that opened the minds of many inside the audio world to what ‘it’ was Zu was doing. 2000 Zu incorporates and opens its (garage) doors for business.
2001 Zu begins work on several new models, including the Druid loudspeaker. The principles for what is marketed as B3 was discovered and modeled—a completely new architecture for the electrical transmission of power and signal. Many of the Zu names have interesting stories behind them, B3 for example. Hong Kong was quick on the draw with "getting" Zu, and we were dealing with an independent importer named Wilmer. In his emails he would always end long paragraphs with “bra bra bra” which is translated bla bla bla. Every time we read it we thought of The Christmas Story, and the Chinese restaurant / Christmas dinner segment... funny if you’ve seen the movie, and if you haven’t, watch it this Christmas! In addition to the Wax, which featured B3 cable geometery, Zu also introduced the WarMouth XLR and Crux balanced interconnects; Merv AES3 digital interconnect; FireMine S/Pdif interconnect; and Disco interconnect. Zu moved from Sean’s garage and into their first commercial space, Ogden’s Kiesel building.
2002 Zu expanded its B3 cable manufacturing capacity and launched several new B3 based cables; Varial and Varial XLR interconnects, Mother power cable, and Ibis loudspeaker cable. Zu also introduced Gauge, an entry level loudspeaker cable. Zu continued to research and engineer a line of loudspeakers. Druid Studio made it to market, a high performance loudspeaker for desk tops and effects channels, as did a stripped down, wood veneer, Druid-based floorstanding speaker named Rune. These products were shelved later that year as production capacity was lacking and profit margin could not support expansion. Zu also introduced a very large 15” sub named Retro. It was just way too big and was also shelved. 2002 witnessed all but the launch of a product that would shortly become known as Definition; a product that redefines just how much performance you can fit in a loudspeaker that only consumes one square foot of floor space. Zu outgrows its space in the Keisel Building and moves into a larger space next door.
2003 Definition loudspeaker is fully realized and launched. Expanding production was the focus for 2003. But as they have a tough time sitting still, Zu launched the Bok power cable, Gede and Gede XLR interconnects, Pivot cable, LibTec loudspeaker cable, Mobius Sennheiser headphone cable. Zu outgrew the Old Post Office and moved into a new building in the Ogden Commercial Industrial Park. Here Zu built its own in-house loudspeaker finishing paint room, a bad attempt at a paint booth, and started having all loudspeaker cabinets CNC milled in the local Ogden / Salt Lake City area.
2004 We continue to do whatever it is we do and keep our nose in our work... Mother Mk2 power cable, Varial and Varial XLR Mk3 interconnects, Saint Julian loudspeaker cable, and Mobius AKG headphone cable. Zu employed five full time guys at this point and life was good.
2005 Production capacity was again a big bottle neck. Zu also realized that marketing must be a part of their business model and hired Dallas Casey as Creative Director. Adam and Sean are spending nearly all day everyday in production trying to keep up with demand. 2006 Zu launched a new website with e-commerce and expanded content. Moved into a much larger building located right next door to its primary machine shop, and installed a modern high flow paint booth. Enthusiastic reviews continued. Added staff and management which afforded Sean and Adam to get back to R&D and engineering. Burn-in system finally went online for loudspeakers.
2007 Zu expanded its cable line and introduced the Druid Credenza and Druid EFX loudspeakers. Cable production and workspace is reengineered and reset for greater efficiency and improved worker health. Improvements included daylight simulated lighting, and eight IAC Industries work stations. Burn-in system is expanded to over 20,000 Watts, and the electric bill became a significant cost factor; as did kilo-Watt amps and repair. Employment hit ten full time guys. |
Your Cart is currently empty.
