Zu Druids upgraded Vs Essence

213Cobra: That's very cool. The tapered cabinet is interesting as it seems they have given up volume (and bass extension) for the taper. Personally, I did not like how Druids sounded at 60Hz, but I was surprised at how much port loading impacted the sound. So I am intrigued by these new cabinet design (although I still have reservations about the Essence woofer) and would be very interesting to see if it has better bass extension that the druid because it looks like it has less volume.

Gopher: I think if you use F1 for your druids and find them acceptable, then you should be OK with the souls. Personally, in my space I find I need more like 50W to get Druids to play properly. It isn't level, it is ease. I do not think Zu does themselves any favors by claiming they are good matches with flea amplification.

The soul is really tempting. I was never sure the transiency of ribbon and FRD are perfect fit. This is what I'd like, a FRD w/ horn tweet. I'd like to see more reviews. Anyone??

Zanon: Soul gets *more* bass extension from the smaller cabinet than Druid, because of the Griewe model working inside a tapered cabinet. They've also eliminated, in a different way from Essence, the Druid's ultra-sensitivity to the floor-to-base gap when dialing in bass balance. You just set Soul down and roll some signal into them.

As for flea amplification on Zu: It does work. A 2w 45 amp will sound beautiful and be as or more dynamically suitable as any number of other HE Fostex or Lowther-based designs. But 2w are 2w. So the second watt gets you to 104db/w/m -- that doesn't mean you're getting ease and dynamic integrity. A solid 20-25w 845 amp will drive them fine in nearly any practical application, but not all 25w amps have the same apparent drive. A 25w PSET 300B amp will be dynamically less compelling but possibly tonally richer still. In a push-pull amp you might not be happy with less than 40w, but a pair os 15w Quad Classic II sound sublime and alive. Generally in solid state, you'll want more oomph unless the amp has an oversize power supply and lots of headroom for transient clarity. Yet despite the efficiency, a pair of McIntosh MC501s would not be out of place with any Zu speaker. It just depends on the actual behavior relationship between a given power amp and the Zu FRD. Just keep in mind in this case, the Soul's impedance is higher than prior Zu speakers. Up from the Druid's 12 ohms to 16.

Phil

213cobra: I am very excited to hear them, and astonished that the smaller cabinet produces more low end extension as you say. They put measurements of the Soul on the website, and it is really flat (almost too flat) -- a stark contrast to the ragged Essence in Stereophile and the poorly measured Druid in something I forgets.

The plots look so good that I cannot beleive they are the real deal!

(Also, the very flat HF make me nervous because those tend not to sound good. but what can i say, if I was graph guy I would never try Druids which I do like).

As for amps, if I get PushPull frankly I might as well stick with solid state. The magic I hear is in SET, whether it is transistor or tube (which is why I like Nelson Pass -- they are interesting) but, although level is fine, I hear strain at 30W.

I had not realized impedence was even higher--wow!

>> if I get PushPull frankly I might as well stick with solid state. The magic I hear is in SET<<

There's plenty of magic in a well-executed push-pull tube amp that is elusive in p-p solid state. The two devices are dynamically quite different, and tonally dissimilar - except when they're not. While I agree on the preference for SET, and especially love the synergy between 845 SET and the Zu FRD, you can get excellent results from exceptional p-p tube amps like a used Jadis, Quad Classic II, Quad Two-Forty, vintage Mac MC225 or MC40, MC30 monoblocks, MC240, EAR, Wright Sound, Luxman, lots of others, will yield a sound so distinctly different from p-p solid state as to be essentially unavailable from silicon. If you like silicon better, fine. But p-p topology doesn't make the difference between solid state and vacuum tubes moot. In solid state, Pass-designed amps tend to sound very fine. The current Luxman Class A integrated is a great match; 47 Labs, LFD, Valvet's power amps.

Phil