DW 6

Order-to-ship schedule [updated 4/23]

Satin Black - 3 weeks
Cosmic Carbon - 4 weeks
Black Starlight - 4 weeks
White Starlight - 4 weeks
Mercury - 5 weeks
Rustic Hickory - 2 weeks
Black Hickory - 2 weeks
Ruby Red Hickory - 2 weeks
Electric Blue Hickory - 2 weeks
Blue-Teal Hickory - 3 weeks
American Walnut - 2 weeks
Other finishes - 5 weeks+
Superfly +2 week, Supreme +3 weeks

Included: simple and effective press-fit protective driver cover, cleaning cloth, and oval-ended stainless steel set-screw footers (installed). Installed stud-style footers make effective adjustable footers for most flooring. Packaging is designed for easy unpacking/repacking and tough enough to survive rough freight handling and reuse.

Price is for a matched pair. Singles are simply half the shown price. If you need a single please email us and we’ll send you quote with payment link.

Dirty Weekend Six is a medium format floor-standing loudspeaker. DW 6 are designed to sound great with a very wide variety of amplifiers, systems and all music. They are also designed for easy, non-fussy setup within your home.

There are two performance upgrade packages available for DW 6, Superfly and Supreme, differences outlined below.

Besides cabinet finish options, you can select black or silver aluminum full-range driver ring and tweeter lens. Black or silver trim can be selected without surcharge, just select your preference at the end of checkout process.

DW 6 is a slice of the fidelity and precision of Union Six, drenched in warm, wet and full tones—designed from the ground up to satisfy, with exceptional resolution of transients and tone, bass through treble, with deep bass extension. DW 6 is handsome, efficient, broad-bandwidth, has smooth off-axis transition, serves up huge stereo, is rugged… a loudspeaker that responds to your music with agility, precise timing and rich tone. Hear deeply into your music without ruthlessly exposing those poor quality recordings or that amp you own that is not quite as amazing as these Zu speakers.

DW 6 reviews

(We have only sent review samples of DW 6 to Steve Guttenberg and Tone Audio. Tone Audio review is in process.)

Steve Guttenberg, Audiophilia full video review

Golden Era - DW6 vs Klipsch Forte II w/ mods review

Every time I listened to [DW-6] I was just digging the sound, they stopped me from being a critical reviewer, I just wanted to listen for musical pleasure… I’m just digging the sound.” - Steve Guttenberg, Audiophiliac

DW 6 compared to Omen Dirty Weekend Mk.II

DW 6 is a complete platform revamp over the discontinued Omen Dirty Weekend (ODW)—the size and famous good looks remain. All new cabinet, cable harness options, connectors and connections, tweeter network changes, matching of drivers, and even finish quality have changed for the better.  DW 6 taps the work done for our Series Six loudspeakers, completely leveraging the Union Six’s more functional and innovative cabinet and internal acoustic design which really improves the performance over what was done with Omen Dirty Weekend. For more about what is going on with the cabinet we refer you to the Union Six details, but know that in this design the slightly fiddly floor gap tuning is gone as we are able to put the exit interface out the back—and yet you can place DW 6 as close as two inches from the wall behind it. Implementation of this new cabinet complex dovetails nicely with our warm and rich-toned Zu260-ND 10” [26.2 cm] full-range driver. DW 6 produces deeper bass, with more detail thanks impart to this all new cabinet. It has improved midrange clarity due to a healthy reduction of external and internal noise. Treble transparency is also improved. All these improvements scale depending on the upgrade package selected [read on].

One part that did not change was the mentioned 260 full-range driver (FRD), with its less intense, undercut/dynamically damped magnetics giving it that characteristic detailed, smooth and expressive sound. Acoustic cross over point between FRD and tweeter remains at 12k Hz—having the vast majority of the sound field (90%) emanating from the FRD makes for a very cohesive and unified wavefront, one of the qualities really appreciated by previous ODW owners.

We have also stepped up the finish level over ODW. Walnut and hickory are done to a finer/flatter surface finish, with interstage fine sanding between top coats, producing a deeper, more crafted looking wood finish. Painted finishes are also cut to a flatter surface and also feature interstage sanding between coats—results resemble monolithic fine-honed stone. Rear-exit port is lined in felt, and the bottom is finished in a durable black epoxy composite.

Living with DW 6 compared to ODW Mk.II

• Deeper and more articulate bass

• Raised resolution and transparency across the board, yet retains that great sexy-wet voice

• Nonplussed with respect to room placement and associated gear

• Eliminates the traditional Zu setup task of finding the right floor-to-speaker gap for your room

• Easy service and future upgrade swap with metal-to-metal fastening

• Extending the performance ladder with two clear performance packages built at time of order, or easily user installed down the road

DW 6 compared to Union 6

• Full rich warm tones even when the amp or receiver powering the DW 6 is thin and lackluster on other loudspeakers—Union 6 needs better amps to make it, and you, happy

• Less vivid and resolving of overtones and texture than Union 6, but DW 6 is supercharged with amazing and easy to reach tone

• Sensational starting price with clear, user swappable upgrade packages, though Union 6 also stands on an amazing price to performance ratio

Two Upgrade Packages Available - Superfly & Supreme

All Zu DW loudspeakers are on the high-efficiency end of the spectrum, are precision-matched in stereo pairs and able to recreate compellingly real sound in dynamics and in stereophony. That said, we encourage the upgrade if funds are handy.

Factory Burn-In
100 hours for DW 6
200 hours for DW 6 Superfly
300 hours for DW 6 Supreme
Factory burn-in consists of 50% moderate intensity and 50% extreme intensity full-bandwidth hard hitting music. Final QC is always post burn-in.

Superfly details

Superfly performance additions are engineered to give the DW 6 Superfly noticeably improved resolution and smoothness without altering its forgiving nature and great tone. Superfly upgrade also increases connection options and functionality with the inclusion of ZuB3.

• Superfly-grade [tighter tolerance than standard] full-range driver matching

• Superfly-grade tweeter driver matching

• Mission Mk.II internal cable harness upgrade

• ClarityCap MR capacitor upgrade

• Extra 100 hours of factory burn-in

• ZuB3 connection addition

• Machined aluminum connection/nameplate

• Machined and hand finished Zu logo

DW 6 Superfly-Grade Drivers - DW 6 Superfly features tighter tolerance matching on the full-range and tweeter drivers. These are driver pairs that match to a very tight tolerance, both in deviation in magnitude and in impulse response—the tighter the left/right matching the more natural and satisfying the sound-field, creating stereo best described as realistic.

Internal Cable - Mission Mk.II cable harness for the DW 6 Superfly Instead of standard Mission hookup wire for internal connections. Yes, DW 6 Superfly is built with the full Mission Mk.II loudspeaker cable. This triples the conducting area reducing resistance and reactive ratios improving dynamics and resolution while also improving tone. The improved sound imparted by the Mission Mk.II internal cable complements the ClarityCap MR capacitors, also part of the package.

ClarityCap MR capacitors - ClarityCap MR capacitors are featured in the tweeter high-pass network for DW 6 Superfly. These capacitors have a very natural and resolving character, improving the “at ease” quality and yet reveal more detail and nuance. They are, like everything, pair matched.

Expanded Connector Option - ZuB3 connection addition, which is absent in the standard model. Use of the Mission Mk.II loudspeaker cable in DW 6 Superfly imparts the utility of the ZuB3 connection, which is connected in parallel with five-way binding posts. This connection is via the silver plated Neutrik speakON NL8 circular-type locking connector. This connection lets you get the most from the improved internal cable, reduces contact resistance over binding posts, and gives the best electrical pass-through matchup when using Zu loudspeaker cable to connect DW 6 Superfly to your amp. The connection also safeguards against you getting the hot/cold out of phase, short-circuiting your amp and having the connection work loose or corrode.

Extra Burn-In - An extra 100 hours of club-level factory burn-in for the DW 6 Superfly.

Supreme details

DW 6 Supreme builds on the upgrade package of DW 6 Superfly, so you still get the Superfly machined from billet precision and bling and the ZuB3 connection addition. DW 6 Supreme is wholly a performance related upgrade focused on maximum fidelity within the DW platform—engineered to lift your DW 6 to a stunning level of fidelity, yet staying true to the loudspeakers forgiving nature and amazing tone. DW 6 Supreme additions improve areas of nuance and resolution all while increasing smoothness and neutrality. The proof of these claims we think you’ll find in album after album marathon listening where you find yourself totally lost in the music. There are no drawbacks save three quick points: (1) the price to this upgrade (2) the extra burn-in time required, and (3) the increased resolution into your amplifier—DW 6 Supreme does not stand out with good-enough amp.

• Supreme-grade full-range driver matching

• Supreme-grade tweeter driver matching

• Event Mk.II internal cable harness upgrade

• Jupiter Copper capacitor upgrade

• Extra 200 hours of factory burn-in

• ZuB3 connection addition

• Machined aluminum connection/nameplate

• Machined and hand finished Zu logo

Drivers - Supreme-grade full-range drivers and tweeters. These are driver pairs that match to the highest/tightest deviation tolerance levels, both in magnitude and impulse response—the tighter the left/right matching the more natural and satisfying the sound-field.

Internal Cable - DW 6 Supreme gets cabled with Event Mk.II cable inside. Event Mk.II improves resolution over Mission Mk.II cable with its FEP insulation, broad and uniform characteristic impedance and silver based circuits. Conductance is on par with Mission Mk.II but the propagation velocity is higher and the noise floor is noticeably lower. Event Mk.II cable increases the resolution of the loudspeaker system to a point where Jupiter Copper capacitors combine in mesmeric ways—DW 6 Supreme features these caps.

Jupiter Copper Caps - Jupiter Copper Foil & Paper and pure silver leadout capacitors are utilized in the tweeter high-pass network of DW 6 Supreme. These capacitors matchup so well with the Event Mk.II cable, the combination imparts a sense of grace and sexy magic to the whole of the sound, and once experienced it's hard to live without. Pair matched to 0.2% or better.

Extra Burn-In - An extra 200 hours of industrial-level factory burn-in for the DW 6 Supreme.

Specifications

Shared DW-6 specifications [Std, Superfly, Supreme]

Bandwidth: 30 - 22k Hz [in-room average]
Sensitivity: 95 dB-SPL @ 2.8V, 39” [1.0m] from FRD face to mic [2π - 4π transition @ 200 Hz]
Impedance: 12 ohm nominal full spectrum Z-weighted, 8 ohm minimum
Wavefront: virtual point source from 12k Hz and down
Near Field Transition: 20” [50cm] (driver face to your nose on axis)
Max Input Power: 200 W program C-weighted
Max SPL: 118 dB-Z (slow)

Amplifier power output guidance

5 - 20 watts for low to moderate sound pressure levels
20 - 100 watts for moderate to very loud SPLs
100 - 500 watts for very loud to ear damagingly loud SPLs

Shared build specifications

FRD: Zu260FRD-ND (10” FRD paper/CNT cone, neutral-hung 2” coil on paper/Kapton former
Tweeter: Eminence ASD-1001 with custom machined from billet lens
High-Pass Network: single element mono-pole 18k Hz bezel, 12k Hz realized
Crossover: none, and no filter components on FRD
Cabinet: North American made composite wood, skinned with real wood veneer or epoxy
Bottom Insert Threads: 3/8–16 (9/16” [14mm] hex nut wrench)

Factory burn-In

100 hours for DWX
200 hours for DWX Superfly
300 hours for DWX Supreme
Factory burn-in runs 24/7 cycling every 12 hours—moderate levels by day and soak levels by night. Program is full-bandwidth hard hitting music. Final QC is always post burn-in process.

Dimensions

12 x 12 x 36 inches [30.5 x 30.5 x 91.5 cm]
12 x 12 inches [30.5 x 30.5 cm] footprint
FRD protrudes 5/8” [16mm] from the face of the cabinet
Binding posts protrude 1-1/8” [29mm] from the back of cabinet
DW-6: 65 lbs [29.5 kg]
DW-6 Packaged: 76 lbs [34.5 kg] 17 x 18 x 41 inches [43 x 46 x 104 cm]
DW-6 Superfly & Supreme: 67 lbs [30.5 kg]
DW-6 Superfly & Supreme Packaged: 78 lbs [35.5 kg] 17 x 18 x 41 inches [43 x 46 x 104 cm]

Other Detail
DW-6 is made In Ogden, Utah
Country of Origin: USA (>95%)
Life Expectancy: 100 years, indoor use (fatigue profiles factored on normal listening levels @ 1000 hours a year)
DW-6 entered production July 2022.
DW-6 supersedes Omen and ODW Mk.I and II (in product 2010 ~ 2022)

Warranty

Like everything we make, DWX is built to last a lifetime—cabinet materials, adhesives, driver assemblies... every component is a quality part engineered and built to create a loudspeaker system that will continually satisfy and amaze decade after decade, backing up that claim is our liberal five year limited warranty to materials and workmanship. Warranty does not cover misuse, abuse, components upstream from the loudspeaker system, modifications or non-factory overseen service. Details here.

Q & A

Dirty Weekend Six or Union Six — which is right for me?

Union Six is a very high resolution loudspeaker that assumes you’re willing to rethink/changeup amplification and other aspects of your system. Union Six may require a bit of work to really get singing, and when it comes together… damn, pretty close to world-class and without spending a fortune. The higher efficiency of Union gives more shove and expression regardless of the amp; but all the efficiency also lets you explore low power single-ended triode amplification and esoteric transistor amps without much if any compromise to your desired playback volume.

DW 6 on the other hand is designed so you can hang most any good-enough receiver or amp on it and get great sound. DW 6 has that deeply satisfying, able to cast huge shades of dense tone, put a smile on your face sound baked in. Yes, the baked in tone does give up a bit of transient detail resolution. DW 6 is inherently a full, rich and warm toned loudspeaker, though less vivid and resolving than Union Six.

What about the DW 6 upgrades? DW 6 Superfly does improve resolution without hindering tone. If you want more res and your budget doesn’t mind the push, go DW 6 Superfly. If your budget still has some padding, and you want the warm tone of DW 6 just with max detail, push to the Supreme package.

If you are already stretching to get in the standard DW 6, know that user swappable upgrade packages will be released this summer. Union Six will not have user swappable upgrades as there are cabinet differences between the standard and Supreme versions (there is no Superfly version of Union).

Can I trade my Omen Dirty Weekend for DW 6?
We offer an upgrade program to accommodate your improving system. Trade-in values for Zu loudspeakers purchased directly from us follow this schedule:

• 45-60 Days - 100%

• 2-3 Months - 90%

• 3-4 Months - 80%

• 4-5 Months - 70%

• 5-6 Months - 60%

• 6 Months - ∞ - 50%

Will the DW 6 upgrades work in my Omen Dirty Weekend cabinets?

No. The cabinets are only similar in size, the internals and how the design works with the drivers is quite different, and the connections and the plates that house them will not fit on Omen Dirty Weekend. Even if you’re handy with a router and tools, the juice would not be worth the squeeze. The path of least effort and cost for you to upgrade is to sell your ODW for nearly what you paid, maybe more, and simply buy a new set of DW 6.

How Dirty Weekend get its name, plus the birth of DW 6

It was  2010, Adam Decaria and Sean Casey had been working for years on a specific pet project—a loudspeaker that would give the non-technical, a person that wanted big and life-like sound but might not know it yet, a clear reason to own great loudspeakers. Adam and Sean wanted to help clear that trail. Back then the target price was $1,000 for a matched pair, complete with ambitious performance and production targets. It needed to be made by Zu in Ogden, by the people that care most, with hard-to-live-without fidelity, and looks and quality of build equaling the performance of sound. The path getting there was proving long, steep and gnarly. Meanwhile, back in the storage area of the shop Zu had amassed a racks full of used full-range drivers, trade-ins from customers that had upgraded to the new second generation units. Not able to reach their targets with new drivers it was decided to repurpose the trade-ins and put them back in service. At that moment the die was cast and Dirty Weekend born. Sound was killer, looks and build quality equally great and the first name to float was the name that stuck—an honest reflection that embraced its dirty beginnings. The preloved drivers were refurbished, tested, matched and then loaded into new Omen cabinets, it was a massive hit and Zu could not keep up, quickly selling through all of the preloved drivers. But, finding new and innovative ways to reduce production costs, combined with the massively expanded economies of scale (building in production sizes of hundreds is radically different than building by the handful) Zu was able to make improvements and offer the Mark Two version of Omen Dirty Weekend with all new parts. Things were humming along nicely, then the pandemic, and supply of many of the parts stopped. Omen Dirty Weekend was dead. But the dream it was built on was not, and this time more trail clearing tools were required. Dirty Weekend Six was a gnarly and stressful path, but the performance and quality gains totally worth it. We hope you think so.