Soliloquy 6.2i vs VS vr4jr , Zu Druid & Usher 6371

Thorman ; Thank you . I had considered the Merlins very seriously and have talked to Bobby at length. I don't think that the Merlins are the speaker for my type of music .

Pardales ; I see that you have the jr's. Are you able to compare them to any of these in my list ?
I am holding their trial offer in the back of my mind, it is quite a hassle to do the return thing though . But you are certainly correct about the 'in home' audition being the only way to go ! Thanks.

Any more suggestions ?

My suggestion of a cheaper route to try (if you haven't already). CABLES. Quite frankly I've found with my Soliloquy 5.0's and my equipment, that I can vary the sound immensely with just a change of IC or speaker cables. Others may have other experience, and possibly I lucked into some excellent budget equipment, but I have no need/desire to upgrade anything because I can get the sound that I want with just cable changes.

I have received Druids from Zu but did not send them back although the physical task of packing and returning them does not seem at all daunting........other than the pain of separation.
I haven't heard the speakers you're considering against the Druids so I can't provide any comparison commentary for you. Apparently you've already heard positives about them and that's why they are on your list.
The thing to understand is that Zu is not an ordinary speaker. The design they apply is not a slight variation on established designs but a ground up rewrite of nearly everything. The cabinet, wiring, drivers are all original.
The Zu Druid represents a shift in speaker design that will influence the entire industry.

Ssglx ; Thanks for the insight. I have tried IC's and a PC for the CDP with good results . I have decent speaker cables and may try your suggestion for a change there . It is not that I am not happy with my current set up but more that I want to make everything better . I recently upgraded my CDP and received excellent results ! Now I am looking for that same result with a speaker upgrade ! How much better can it get ? Wow what a loaded question !!!

Macrojack ; If you have had a different pair of speakers prior to the Druids what would you say was the difference between them ? How has the Druids' 'new design' affected the final outcome of the music ?

Thank you.

In the past ten years I have used as my primary speakers:
Goldmund Dialogues
NHT 2.9
Avalon Eclipse
Aerial Acoustics 10T
Vandertseen 3
Vision Acoustics Soloist
All of the above are very good speakers and those of you who are familiar with these names can see that I wandered.
The reason that the Zu Druid has my attention and allegiance at this point has to do with its personality and presentation.
The Druid is very efficient due to its lack of a power usurping crossover network and it is faultlessly coherent for the same reason. These two points conjoined with the advantages provided by its price/performance ratio provide you with an opportunity to incresae the performance level of your amplification.
I have gotten stunning results from the Onix SP-3 driving my Druids.
The new design of the Druid allows you to listen to your music from 35 hz to 12 khz without the splicing between drivers that a crossover necessitates. You see, when the network divides and assigns highs to tweeters and mids to mids, etc. it is breaking the music into segments to be reproduced by specialized drivers. The result is that of several drivers reproducing their parts as cohesively as the designer can bring them together. His problem lies in trying to provide a seamless overlap that doesn't create excessive energy at overlapping frequencies and concurrently trying to cause all drivers to reproduce in phase with each other. When you use only one driver, all of these problems are completely avoided. The presentation of the Zu Druid is as cohesive and coherent as that of the original QUAD 57. It too is a single full range driver. What the Druid provides beyond that QUAD is the ability to play at 130 db without breaking up and to reach both lower and higher and to provide dynamics that may not be available from anything but a horn. These speakers are absolutely amazing.
After a 3 year search for a pair of the aforementioned Goldmund speakers, I found a pair and proceeded to build my final system around them. I posted that they were the speakers to keep for life. Then a friend told me about the Zu reviews on 6moons.com and I began reading. My interest was piqued and I drove to Ogden, Utah to see for myself and bought a pair on the spot. When I came home I put the Goldmunds up for sale and luckily was able to trade them for granite countertops with undermount basins in both my bathrooms plus some cash. They're pretty good speakers, after all.
It is difficult for me to distinguish myself from the multitude of other experts on this forum who all hold opinions and I can think of no reason why you should believe me over them but the answer lies near at hand. Call Zu and have them send you a pair. If after 60 days you aren't sure, Zu will extend the evaluation period for you. I'm betting it won't take 10 minutes for you to "get it" even though break in is a fairly protracted process. The worst that can happen is you rent them for 90 days for the price of round trip shipping. Certainly you've lost more than that on previous audio gambles. I know I have.

Did I answer your questions adequately?