The height of the strings above the frets is always a compromise between ease of play and avoiding fret buzz.  The farther away from the frets that the strings are, the harder the fingers have to press to get the string down to touch the fret.  However, the closer the strings are to the frets, the more likely that the string will buzz on other frets as it vibrates, which at best reduces volume and hurts tone, and at worst makes a horrible buzzing sound.  "Setting up" a guitar means adjusting the nut slots, the saddle height, the neck angle, and the truss rod to place the strings at the height that is the best compromise between ease of play and lack of buzz, for the specific guitar player's preferences and style of play.

All guitar manufacturers design and build their guitars to avoid string buzz no matter what.  They have learned that nobody buys a guitar that is buzzing when they play it in the guitar store, but people will buy a guitar with a difficult action.  They have also learned that few people ask for warranty work for a difficult action but most customers do ask for warranty work for a guitar that starts buzzing.  So when deciding on the compromise between ease of play and avoiding buzzing, all manufacturers, including the high end ones, (and sadly, even including Zager!), err on the side of making sure there will be no buzz.  So they always set up their guitars from the factory so that no matter what happens with humidity, temperature, string gauges, and playing the guitar very loudly, it will NEVER buzz.  Then they add a little extra height to account for manufacturing tolerances.

The result is that all new guitars are fine for flat pickers with big strong hands that play loudly, but lousy for people who are beginners, or who are old or young, or female, or who have small fingers, or who mostly play finger style, or who don't play extremely loudly with a pick, or who have any kind of disability involving wrists or fingers that makes it difficult or painful to play a guitar that has a high action.

The solution is to take your guitar to a qualified luthier and have them set up your guitar specifically for you.  Before you do so, you have to know what you want, so you can communicate that to the luthier.  So here's what you need to decide in advance:

1. Decide what is your most important thing: ease of play, or no buzzing no matter how loudly you play.

2. Decide what is your style of music: do you like to play extremely loudly, or do you prefer to play softly and medium with occasional louds that are still not super loud?

3. Decide what gauge, brand, and model of strings you want to use (LINK HERE for a discussion of string varieties.)

4. THEN take your guitar to the luthier, together with a brand new set of the strings you have decided to use (in the package, not already installed), and communicate what you want.

It you don't specify what you want, most luthiers will do the same thing the manufacturers do, and err on the side of no string buzz.  There will be an improvement in the ease of play, but they won't go to the extreme easy play settings.  I have seen setups on students' guitars that were done by luthiers I trust, that were still too high for the student's needs.  Those same luthiers have done a good job of a low action for me on my guitars.  This is because I am very clear on what I want: the lowest action I can get!!!

The luthier will adjust the bridge saddle height and/or the neck angle, which mostly affects string height on the high frets.  Then the luthier will file down the string slots in the nut, which mostly affects string height on the first few frets.  (This is by far the most important thing for ease of play for beginners!!!)  Then the luthier will adjust the truss rod, which mostly affects the string height in the middle area of the fretboard.  (LINK HERE for instructions on adjusting the truss rod, which is something you can and should be able to do occasionally yourself, without professional help.)