Zu Soul Superfly

Sam7,

I'm keeping my eyes open for a used s-30 at a good price. It seems like some people have really loved it with Zu speakers in the past. How much heat do they realistically put off?

I'm experimenting now with a Virtue Audio TWO.2 amplifier with Sonicaps and battery power. I was told it had 50-60 hours on it previously and I've put another 24 on. I don't want to criticize it just yet as there may be some additional burn in necessary, but I'm thinking twice about class d for the Souls. The sound is detailed but really lacking in dynamics, drive and delicacy. My F1 has 1/5th the power and exhibits far better control over the drivers.

The tables may change with burn in, but I greatly prefer my First Watt F1's presentation thus far. I'll be out of town for the weekend, so I'll log some major hours on them and actually leave my Zu's cranked for once (wife is home on maternity leave during days so my burn in has been mostly 'real time) and see how it sounds come Monday.

I purchased a Dynaco ST-70 on Gerrit's advice and Phil's el34 endorsement. I am hoping to see that by the middle of next week and will comment on the pairing shortly.

Gopher, I've been an Atma-Sphere S30 owner for many years and just recently had them upgraded to 3.1 status.
Regarding how hot they run, it's my understanding that they run slightly hotter, around 5-10%, than class A solid state amps of equivalent wattage. With the S30's 30 watts/ch it is a nonissue.
I am currently using the S30 with coincident total victory's with great results. I've never heard the superfly's but on paper it's a match made in heaven. With the superfly's 16 ohm impedance the S30 would be coasting putting out appox. 40 watts/ch.
Enjoy the st70 for now and when funds/availability allows you can upgrade.

Gopher - I second Franks' response. Also, bear in mind that if you don't need all the power of the S30, you can run it effectively with some of the output tubes removed - we've run it very happily into Zu Essence with only three tubes per channel, instead of the full five. Simon

Phil,

Thanks very much for that. Having heard every Zu floorstander I entirely agree with your descriptions and am very much looking forward to my Superfly. I heard enough of Druids to have bought them were it not for the Fun Prevention Officer demanding a robust dishwasher at the time. I cursed Zu for ending production when they did :)

I do wonder in retrospect whether the Druids denoed endlessly by my dealer were 4.08 or earlier as, to me, they very much retained that euphonic darkness. I must check that out with them sometime. Heard the Presence there too and was equally mesmerised by it although the cost was even more prohibitive to me at the time.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing. It's been extremely reassuring in confirming that I may just have purchased a speaker for life. That was my plan for the Druid and that's my plan for Superfly all being well.

Mike

Hi Mike,

The Druids that the Audio Counsel were demming were the 4.08.

The weekend we did the Zu, back in 2008, was brilliant. The Presence and the Druid really stood out.
To me the more we listened to the Definitions I started to drift off thinking about the Druids or the Presence.
I think the charm of the Druid and my Essence, is that they are not imediately impressive, they sneak up on you with their charms and slowly win you over.

If I have not thanked Sean at Zu and Simon at Musicology for getting the Presence over for that day, many thanks, it was a great day.

In the UK, we have to thank Simon from Musicology for discovering the Zu speakers, and for Dave at the Audio Counsel in Manchester for stumbling across the Druids when he visited Simon in 2007.
For me I certainly would not have learnt about Zu loudspeakers if Audio Counsel had not come across them and brought them to my attention.
Even today, my dealer is more than happy to pop in to set up my system after a recent DIY spree, you can't buy that sort of customer service.

Sorry for taking the thread slightly off track.

James