Bump. Taken from Ca&E's review
Listening
My appreciation for the Zapcos increased more and more as I listened to them. They excelled at all of the music I threw at them. On Diana Krall's Love Scenes album, I really enjoyed their image stability, height, focus and size. I liked the fact that the speakeris location disappeared within the image and sound staging.
Vocal and instrument detail was exceptional. The slight vocal overload in the recording at 0:18 seconds was clearly audible. String noises from the upright bass were good. Although the deep body tones were a bit rolled off in level, they were still impressive for a 6 1/2" woofer. Interestingly, the electric guitar and piano sounded a touch dull on their overtones. This surprised me because the vocals were so good and natural sounding.
On Lenny Kravitz's "Believe in Me," the Zapcos did a great job on the opening percussion and drums. The high hats and kick drum in the first four bars shimmered and kicked. I emphasize that the male vocals were really, really good. As a matter of fact, the overall musical balance on the Zapcos was great. Even at high volume levels the Zapcos did not overload or stress out the listener as the song built intensity and thickness. They stayed clean and smooth. The highs had good shimmer and extension, and the acoustic guitar was nicely rounded and had full body acoustics.
To test for a sense of space and how the Zapcos handle acoustic instruments, I listened to Telarc's 20-bit recording of Schubert's Symphony No. 9 "The Great." The opening French horns sounded nice, very realistic and with an excellent sense of ambience. The cello plucks and note shifts were good, but a subwoofer would have filled this out and given a more complete representation.
The full string section was expansive and true sounding. The oboe was a touch subdued, but still with the reediness you want to hear from an oboe. The Zapcos were able to maintain the sense of space and ambience, even during the big crescendos. The brass section did not get harsh or overly brassy. The timpani drums were thin on body, but still had that nice "kettley" soundothese speakers are very impressive.
OK, from Bach to blast! Yeah, I know that last track was by Schubert, but who's keeping track of the old dead composers anyway? I dropped in Usher's Confessions album and listened to the "Intro" track and "Yeah!" On "Intro" the acoustic guitar was just beautiful. The shakers had good detail and the backing vocals had depth. Usheris vocals were just a touch nasally, but you could hear his breathing. The overall clarity was excellent. The bass line as pretty darn solid, but it was missing the fundamental note.
On "Yeah!" the Zapcos were a little bright, but nothing that would turn me away. Adding a subwoofer should be the perfect cure for this too. The Zapcos' 6 1/2" woofer gave a mighty effort to reproduce this driving bass line and it did one of the better jobs of all of the speakers I have tested for CA&E.
Conclusion
I was a little skeptical of these speakers when I heard that they were a first effort from an amplifier company. Even the fact that they were from Zapco did not assuage my doubt. But after listening to them and living with them, I am a believer. These are one of the best component systems I have listened to; I would put them within the top five. What is interesting is that they are the least expensive of my top five, too. While $1,159 is a lot of money (and Zapco is working to improve the owneris manual and the other things I whined about earlier), I have to say the Zapco CK-16.2's may just be a deal at this price. You need to go and listen to them. Take your favorite CDs and goo.. right now. Go....
