# Zuki Audio Eleets 4 and Spx17 pro review



## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

to preface this review i will say that i do not have golden ears. i have heard lots and lots and lots of setups in the past and i do know what sounds good to me. i can't compare the speaker to anything but what i have had previously in this car. which is a 2006 hyundai sonata. previously i was using the AVI BSM160 component set which is top of the line AVI if you don't know about them check out avisound.com. and the lightning audio storm x1.65 set. (dont laugh cause i can promise that they are bad arse!).

my doors are competely deadend with about 300$ of cascade products. i have 0 awg running from my stock battery to kicker distribution blocks and some crappy speaker wire and RCA's. (big ups to kicker for making the BEST power wire that i have ever used.) 

on to the SPX pro's. when i first installed them. (tweets in upper door and mids in a beefed up stock location) i noticed the tweeter immediately. (its a design very close to the scan speak revelator. this set was designed in the usa and denmark but it was made in china) the tweeter plays very LOW in this set. FS on the tweet is 780hz. it is very smooth and very detailed at the same time. to me it has the smoothness and laid back feeling of a large soft dome tweet like my avi's or dls ur1 but it also has a detail that reminds me of the QTD25. the tweets play LOUD with virtually no fatigue on your ears. i could listen for hours at high volumes and enjoy every minute. the mids had extemely snappy midbass and controlled but at first they did not play as low as the AVI's. midrange is phenomenal!!!!!!!!!! my imaging and stage width absolutely came to life with these speakers. my width went from inside the car and not so great to way out in front and beyond the width of the car so they also improved my stage depth. so as you can tell. my fist impressions are very good... they do get better. on to the ZUKI audio eleets amplifier...


the Zuki eleets has changed my view that power is power for the most part. i have always been a strong believer that the differences that we hear from amp to amp is the POWER and not magic SQ dust or amplifier sonics at play. WELL the eleets amp carrys a real power rating of 5x4 @ 4ohms. with gains at minimum. i hooked the amp up which is designed fantastic for installing it. it doesn't have any gay allen or hex screws that are different sized lol. you can use a phillips or flat head screw driver when installing the zuki amp which is just so nice! anyway. hooked the components up to the zuki as a 2 channel and left the gain at minimum. xover point is 70hz. words simply can not describe what i heard. 5x2 drives the alpines to levels that are unbearable in loudness with absolutely not a hint of anything. its open and airy and PERFECT! with the 70hz xover the mids now sound like little subs in my doors. the amplifier is beyond words. (i have used or worked with at one time or another almost everything since 1994.) EARGASM is the word!!! as for the 5x4 rating ... just think linear power with thier actual ratings. well since i was only running 2 of the channels and have a few subs to play with , i hooked a few up. first off was a 12w6v2 bridged at 8ohm to the rear channels of the amp. well it sounded fantastic. it drove the w6 with no issues. when i turned the gain up about 1/3 of the way the subwoofer didn't blend well in my stage so i turned it back all the way down and everything blended and sounded PERFECT ... sub? what sub!!!!!! so this got me thinking ... so i threw in my 16ov2 in 3 cubes tuned to 35hz bridged at 4ohm. holy mother of god!!! it drove this sub better then the PG MS2125 and diamond audio d5 600.2 i had previously on the sub (gains were still at minimum on the zuki and gains were set correctly on the other two amps) i turned the gain to about half since i didn't hear anything change with the sound and it still sounded PERFECT (just a bunch louder) with the gain at half the sub had my rear deck jumping and things shaking that never did before. it was fun but i turned the gain back down to nil. 

in conclusion. i am FREAKING STOLKED


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## 300Z (Mar 20, 2005)

Awesome, looking forward to hear it at the GTG. 

Leo


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## jj_diamond (Oct 3, 2007)

thanks pete36! can't wait to hook mine up  .


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## drake78 (May 27, 2007)

Welcome to the Zuki audio club.  The Zuki amp does everthing great or better in every aspect of SQ. I would say it's neutral and has a vanilla flavor. Wich can easily blend in satisfyingly with any type of speakers.


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

Is the 4x5watts the smaller of the two 4 channel amps? Does it have onboard xovers capable of running bandpass on the mids?


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## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

AzGrower said:


> Is the 4x5watts the smaller of the two 4 channel amps? Does it have onboard xovers capable of running bandpass on the mids?


yes its the smaller eleets 4 channel and does not have the ability to do an active 2 way setup


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## Boostedrex (Apr 4, 2007)

It really is great to here more glowing reviews for the Zuki amps. But it's bad at the same time. I just put an offer in on a house here in the Sacramento area, the last thing I need to do is buy more amps!! LOL Congrats to you Pete and I'm glad that you're liking your new components as well as your new amps.

Zach


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

pete36 said:


> yes its the smaller eleets 4 channel and does not have the ability to do an active 2 way setup


what are the physical dimensions of the amp?


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

I should be picking up the X Pros tomorrow. Glad to hear a solid review. BTW, where can I get more info on Zuki amps? Never heard of them before...


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

mikey7182 said:


> I should be picking up the X Pros tomorrow. Glad to hear a solid review. BTW, where can I get more info on Zuki amps? Never heard of them before...


www.zukiaudio.com
Also the owner is a member on here too!


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## bdubs767 (Apr 4, 2006)

good to see you around again pete  . I am really really really tempted to try those pros active.

Hit me up on aim later


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## drake78 (May 27, 2007)

AzGrower said:


> Is the 4x5watts the smaller of the two 4 channel amps? Does it have onboard xovers capable of running bandpass on the mids?


No band pass
low pass-30hz-500hz
high pass-15hz-200hz
bass eq-18db



Boostedrex said:


> It really is great to here more glowing reviews for the Zuki amps. But it's bad at the same time. I just put an offer in on a house here in the Sacramento area, the last thing I need to do is buy more amps!! LOL Congrats to you Pete and I'm glad that you're liking your new components as well as your new amps.
> 
> Zach


Ask for kickbacks $$$ from your agent or loan officer. Also the seller might be willing to help with closing cost.  




AzGrower said:


> what are the physical dimensions of the amp?


roughly 16.5'x9.25'x2.2'




mikey7182 said:


> I should be picking up the X Pros tomorrow. Glad to hear a solid review. BTW, where can I get more info on Zuki amps? Never heard of them before...


contact Patrick/owner directly


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Was the amp used in the review the one on their site for $405.00 or the one that is on backorder for $604.00? Also are there deals for forum members or are those the set prices?

Mike


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## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

mikey7182 said:


> Was the amp used in the review the one on their site for $405.00 or the one that is on backorder for $604.00? Also are there deals for forum members or are those the set prices?
> 
> Mike



its the smaller one that lists on the site. there is no forum discount , but email patrick and see what he can do for you. [email protected]


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Thanks a ton!

So how many watts does it REALLY put out? I mean, 5wx4 sounds like a tube amp to me, and this doesn't look at all like a tube. It is obviously in a different class than most mainstream stuff, like the Alpine MRV-F545 I have now, but I'm just curious what to compare it to power/SQ-wise.


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## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

mikey7182 said:


> Thanks a ton!
> 
> So how many watts does it REALLY put out? I mean, 5wx4 sounds like a tube amp to me, and this doesn't look at all like a tube. It is obviously in a different class than most mainstream stuff, like the Alpine MRV-F545 I have now, but I'm just curious what to compare it to power/SQ-wise.


Hard to really say.....Zuki can tell you the setup he used to come up with his numbers. The 5 watts is at 8 ohms running Apogee's with the gains at dead min. Welcome to the club Pete


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

What are they stable at? 4 ohms? 2 ohms? Stereo/mono?


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## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

mikey7182 said:


> What are they stable at? 4 ohms? 2 ohms? Stereo/mono?




i think 1ohm stereo but could be wrong since i never would run them that low


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

Man, these things have really caught my attention! My Alpine amps might be FS soon!  I'll have to email Zuki and see what we can work out and what he'd suggest based on my other components...


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

mikey7182 said:


> What are they stable at? 4 ohms? 2 ohms? Stereo/mono?


I suggest you search for threads pertaining to his amplifiers then email him specific questions that havent been addressed or need more clarification. Emphasis is directed towards how the amp sounds, not measured rating. I doubt you will be getting sold numbers but more examples of situations and how they perform. I think i will be getting one soon


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## mikey7182 (Jan 16, 2008)

azngotskills said:


> I suggest you search for threads pertaining to his amplifiers then email him specific questions that havent been addressed or need more clarification. Emphasis is directed towards how the amp sounds, not measured rating. I doubt you will be getting sold numbers but more examples of situations and how they perform. I think i will be getting one soon


That's more what I'm looking for... I couldn't care less what he rates them at, with reviews like this one. It is obvious they are either underrated or superbly clean. I love it loud, but clean and detailed is equally, if not more important. The sub bridged off the rear 2 channels has me curious... not sure I want to drop $2k on a sub amp that will never see its full potential...


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## azngotskills (Feb 24, 2006)

he has a "SPL" amp that is significant less than 2K


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## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

mikey7182 said:


> What are they stable at? 4 ohms? 2 ohms? Stereo/mono?




My bad...the apogee's were 6 ohm.

The mono is stable into one ohm, the eleets down to two. They are rated at 5 X 4 at 4 ohms, 10 X 2 at 2 ohms. Now caution must be taken as there is not much protecting these guys and if they start to fail from heat...there is not much there to stop a thermal runaway and there goes the magic smoke  b That means they (the eleets) sound fine at 1 ohm...but weren't built for it and you probably won't have them very long at that low of impedance.


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

The Eleets are the flagship model correct?
And its the lower line (for lack of a better word), the SPL amps that feature the bandpass? Am I seeing this correct?



zukiaudio said:


> i am giong to redesign this amplifier to be more stable into lower impedance bridged configurations
> and add the bandpass crossover since so many have inquired about that. so i need at least another month to get these modifications completed, and then tested before i will have a guesstimate on a final amplifier cost.


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## finebar4 (Aug 26, 2005)

AzGrower said:


> The Eleets are the flagship model correct?
> And its the lower line (for lack of a better word), the SPL amps that feature the bandpass? Am I seeing this correct?


Correct, the eleets are his "sq" design...the 5 channel has bandpass capabilities as well as the "spl" 4 channel.


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## unpredictableacts (Aug 16, 2006)

jj_diamond said:


> thanks pete36! can't wait to hook mine up  .


Didnt you have a DD S4?


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

.


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)




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## Pseudonym (Apr 17, 2006)

finebar4 said:


> ...the 5 channel...


any info on this gem would be greatly appreciated.


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## hc_TK (Jan 18, 2006)

can someone please post some gut pictures of the zuki`s?!


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## Oliver (Jun 25, 2007)

.


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## hc_TK (Jan 18, 2006)

Hic said:


> Right after I tell you where Jimmy Hoffa is and who shot JFK
> 
> There are to be No pics per Zuki's request !


That is just cruel!


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## jj_diamond (Oct 3, 2007)

unpredictableacts said:


> Didnt you have a DD S4?


yep. now i have a Monitor 1. soon i'll have an Eleets 4ch. 

i'm just waiting for CD's. besides the great reviews, what other audio mfr you know personally makes you CD's when you purchase their product?


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## JayBee (Oct 6, 2006)

hey Pete, are you using the big or smaller 4ch?


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## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

JayBee said:


> hey Pete, are you using the big or smaller 4ch?



the smaller one


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## JayBee (Oct 6, 2006)

The smaller one? And it wanging the 16Ov2? I think i'm going to pick up a pair to run my 3way active front. It may be time for a new for sale thread from me


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## pete36 (Jan 5, 2008)

JayBee said:


> The smaller one? And it wanging the 16Ov2? I think i'm going to pick up a pair to run my 3way active front. It may be time for a new for sale thread from me



it had the ov2 wangin for sure. lol


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## AzGrower (May 30, 2005)

Yeah, I think this thread convinced me to try one out too.


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