Doug, thanks for sharing your first impressions—very intriguing.

Is this for your second system or do you plan to keep one pair of speakers at the end of the day?

Those crates are massive!

There are no plans for a second system, and there is not enough space to keep two large speaker systems.  Hopefully these ZF15Ls will perform at a level that competes with the PAP Quintets, as I would like to simplify my system.  Initially I thought bi-amping was the way to go, but I find myself longing for a simpler set-up.

The ZF15Ls now have 120 hours of garage burn-in, and will be moved into the listening room tomorrow or Wednesday. Based upon others' comments on how long it takes for the Fast 15 to come into its own, some degree of patience may be needed over the next few weeks.  Looking forward to really hearing them.

Here are a few observations on day 7 with the Lii Song ZF15Ls in the main system.

The hardwood veneer and high gloss finish is more beautiful than previously thought.

These speakers are quite heavy, weighing in at 165 pounds each.  PAP Quintets at 7 feet tall weigh only 148 pounds.

The Fast 15s are aptly named; they are so fast; we're talking Lowther speed.  Percussive attacks are probably the best I've ever heard.

As stated earlier, when I was breaking them in face down in their crates, these things are dynamically explosive.  Their ability to instantaneously go from soft to super loud, and vice versa, is as good as I've heard.  

The most surprising aspect of their performance is the treble and midrange detail.  I am hearing micro detail that I've not heard with my PAP Quintets.  Not sure how a 15 inch full range driver accomplishes this.

The ZF15Ls make most music sound more like live music than the Quintets do.  The Quintets are definitely more polite than the ZF15Ls.  The Lii Songs lean toward sounding a bit wild and raw, much like Lowthers.  

In my room the ZF15L's sound stage is significantly shorter than that presented by the Quintets.  It can be taller than the speakers themselves, but does not approach the realistic live music height of the Quintets.  Other than the height, the sound stage is wide and deep with great instrument and vocal separation.

The bass.  It's coming along.  With approximately 300 hours of break-in time, the bass is better than it was a week ago, but it seems that it is not what it can and will be.  

I could provide much additional detail, like how these speakers slay drums and cymbals, but it might be best to give them a few more weeks prior  to delving into further details.

I have a pair on order and was one of the first 5. Mine are on a ship somewhere between California and New York. Didn’t realize how heavy these were. Glad to hear they’re sounding great thus far Doug. Looking forward to hearing more of your impressions as they continue to develop. Also looking forward to receiving mine!

Hi Doug,
The speakers look great!
Is there any manufacturer ID on the mounting feet? I would like to buy something like those for my S-10 open baffles.
I'm a big Lii fan!
TX J

At 600 hours in I decided to re-insert the PAP Quintets and it became immediately obvious that they are the superior performers.  Here are a few random thoughts on the performance of the ZF15Ls and the Quintets.

I hear a wider, deeper, taller, more realistic soundstage with the Quintets. I also hear significantly better vocal and instrument imaging/placement on that soundstage.

Having listened to a dozen or so recordings since yesterday afternoon, from a variety of musical genres, I find the Quintets to be quite remarkable in that they capably handle all types of music at a very high performance level.  

To my ears, in my smallish room, the ZF15Ls are more akin to Klipschorns, Zu Definitions, and Azzolina Audio Gran Sferas (all of which I've owned); they sound fantastic with certain styles of music, but not quite as good with other music.  The Klipsch, Zu, and Azzolina Audio speaker do cost 8 to 12 times as much as the Lii Songs.

The Lii Songs are more dynamically capable than the Quintets with certain types of music, but the Quintets play louder denser music with far more clarity and control.  The ZF15Ls became a bit congested when playing  certain louder, more complex music passages.

One of my favorite genres of music is solo classical piano.  In my room, to my ears, the Quintets easily outperform the ZF15Ls.  The Lii Songs might have a very small edge in detail, but the Quintets are the easy winner when it comes to reproducing the bottom two octaves of a concert grand piano.  

A super fun recording is Bucky Pizzarelli's Nirvana album.  It has lots of hot closely miked solo drum work that shows off the ZF15L's speed, dynamics, and slam.  I haven't mentioned slam up to now, but let me tell you, these Lii Songs have real ability to hit you in the chest like no other speaker in their price range.  I queued up my favorite seventies rock demo disc, Dire Straits Brothers in Arms, and cranked it up to well over 100 decibels.  The ZF15Ls played Money for Nothing with clarity, great bass, nice vocals, and real slam.  

Here's an interesting difference in how the two speaker systems work in my system.  With my Quintets I seldom, if ever, turn my ZROCK2 control knob past the 1:30 mark, but with the ZF15Ls the ZROCK2 was always set between 2:00 and 3:30.  Fortunately, even though the ZR2 is cutting high frequencies at this setting it never reached a point where I felt I wasn't hearing enough high frequency information.  I'm guessing that's because the ZR2 is pretty much flattening out the tipped up mid and high frequency response of the Fast 15 drivers.  If you have a ZR2, these can be great rock and roll speakers.

Here's my final performance comparison today.  The Quintets are invisible on nearly all recordings.  Though the ZF15Ls disappeared on many recordings, their ability to vanish is not nearly as consistent as the PAPs.  It could be my smaller 18' x 13' room; it could be that I didn't work hard enough to find their best position, it could be my 8' ceiling; whatever it is, I could not dial in a consistent disappearing act.

I've done a ton of listening this past week and I'm ready to declare the Quintets my clear winner.  I have remained mindful, however, that the Quintets cost six times as much as the ZF15Ls.  Does that make the Quintets under-performers?  No!  I actually view them as huge over-performers at their price point.  So where does that leave the $2,000 per pair Lii Song ZF15Ls?  They are EXTREME over-performers.  I've owned a number of speakers in the $2,000 range over the decades, including my current family room speakers, and none of them comes even remotely close to realistically competing with the ZF15Ls.  The ZF15Ls are extraordinarily special!

I'm very glad to have satisfied my curiosity, but with the Quintets being the much preferred system, the Lii Songs will likely be going up for sale in the near future.  I simply don't have room for two large speaker systems. If I sell them, I'll list them here in the classifieds at a very low price point.  Happy listening to all!

Just for clarification, The Decware ZF15L do not come with the Fast15 drivers.  They come with the F15 drivers which are quite a bit better in my opinion.  Apparently Lii Song allowed you to choose the Fast 15 drivers in place of the F15 on the model you purchased from them.  The Fast15 require a network to flatten the response and even then, the bass while lower, lacks speed and punch by comparison.  This is all well documented on this forum, but for those just tuning in I think it is important to understand this review is not using the correct driver to be called a ZF15L.

Steve

I was just on the Lii Audio website, and these speakers are sold with the Fast-15, exclusively. The F-15 is mentioned in the description, but they state that the Fast-15 is an upgrade of the F-15, so that is how they sell the unit.

Looks like this is a pretty major mix up.

And John, great point on MDF instead of solid wood. That is huge. I know that the MDF allows them to sell them much cheaper, but the sound would be greatly affected.