Zu Soul Superfly

Gopher: Phil does not believe that room impacts sound, especially in bass.

Therefore, he says that what you put your Souls on does not matter. It is "floor height insensitive' because it say so on the box.

In reality, put different speaker on carpet, wood, stone, you hear difference in bass.

Also, height of speaker can have impact on what you hear because super tweeter is very directional, and that impact tonal balance.

This is not about controlling gap height (which happen in druid) but about placement and room interaction effecting tone.

Naggot: Can you tell us more about your room setup? How directional have you set Druid FRD?

I am very curious about how new Soul FRD work for someone who, for room reasons, has used Druid FRD very directional.

>>Phil does not believe that room impacts sound, especially in bass.<<

Uh...I haven't written or said this, ever. I said some people may not care enough to do anything about it, yet still find $2000 - $3000 speakers worthwhile.

>>he says that what you put your Souls on does not matter.<<

Nope, didn't say that, either. I said I don't recommend placing speakers on an MDF slab on top of carpet, and explained why.

>>It is "floor height insensitive' because it say so on the box.<

What I said is that Soul is gap height insensitive by design. And it is, above 1/4". At 1/4" or less, it isn't.

>>In reality, put different speaker on carpet, wood, stone, you hear difference in bass.<<

That's a different issue than the question raised, which was a query about the right gap height. But placing any speaker on different surfaces and hearing a bass difference is more a matter of anchorage, speaker-to-floor interface chosen, than specific material. You can manage different material interfaces to the same end.

>>Also, height of speaker can have impact on what you hear because super tweeter is very directional, and that impact tonal balance.<<

Which I stated, in different terms.

>>This is not about controlling gap height (which happen in druid) but about placement and room interaction effecting tone.<<

It is about controlling gap height if that's the variable by which he's hearing differences. As I also said, there are many other factors, room properties being merely a subset of influences. A given user may or may not care to mitigate them.

Phil

My room is large and L shaped, this is why I'm interested in the wider dispersion of the soul FRD. It measures 6m wide by 9m long with the foot of the L extending a further 6m. 6m is around 20ft.

Carpeted with soft furnishings. on One wall is a glass door measuring 2.7m high by 4m long.

I have the Druids around 2m from side walls and 2m apart. With toe in focussed to a point about 3.5m in front/center. The focal point is about 3 people wide.

I like to listen to blues, rock and dance style music. I have the mini methods filling in the bass. I find the bass levels increase and decrease as I walk around the room. I haven't treated for this. My floors are timber with carpet.

I found the mundorf caps made a difference and the ash digital make the treble far more open but not harsh...... Real sounding, the bass is incredible at times, tight fast no boom. The mid at the focal point is amazing, voices and guitars are in the room, you catch yourself lookig around for them such is the reality. I listen mainly standing up not sitting.

Off axis this dissapates, still sounds good but the image is gone. I hope the Soul FRD Improves this area

Due to kids the Druids are close to the back wall, I have the gap set at one cd case above the carpet with a vinyl floor tile on the carpet. The Druids are also held down with a bracket to prevent the children tipping them over.

I use zu libtec speaker cables, zu varial and zu ash ics. These replaced cardas golden cross and neutral refs and alphacore goertz mi2 speaker cables.

Naggots: It is interesting. You listen standing up, which unless you are very short places your ears much above top of speaker. In sitting position, ear is between center of FRD (tweeter) and supertweeter which seems more sensible to me for tonal accuracy.

Also, it is excellent you have dual mini methods. I wish I had two subs like this, but I just have one. I am curious as to why you are interested in having sound good in all positions, ie. have bass be smooth while walking around. I think this is very difficult to achieve and is certainly not sonic goal of mine. My bass sucks outside of listening position and is OK in listening position. But when I am in listening position I pay attention, and when I am walking around I am usually also doing something else.

My suspicion is that wide dispersion FRD will improve sound at all positions but make sound worse in listening position. Not interesting to me in and of itself, although I could do things to my room to limit this effect and other parts of it might be good depending on whether how much dispersed sound was, say very high upperbass/midrange and below vs. above.

I am very interested in how reported measured smoothness of FRD compare to Druid FRD which measures ragged (and I only between above upper bass but below HF where Greiwe loading and essence tweeter should not be issue). What problems do you hear in your current set-up that you are specificlly hoping new Soul FRD will help address. Looking forward to learning more!

Phil: You say one thing, then you say opposite thing. This zig and zag you do, it is like talking to serpent.