Zu Soul Superfly

Gopher,
"I'm really confused as to why Zu speakers have been so controversial over the years."

Because they were :

A- New to the Game

B- Mixed with many early 21st century Chinese copy gear, and or companies plagued with tech issues and name smearing early in the internet game. Most "Audiophiles" never saw a web page until early 2000's... Stereophile magazine, and too good to be true were the run of the mill advertising of the time.

C- And possibly the most controversial they heavily marketed direct, and with single driver wide band, no crossover voodoo. Which is like Tubes or vinyl to the mass marketed even upper scale boutique customers.

D- Entering a highly saturated audio market virtually at the peak of internet sales, Forums, and the revival of Vinyl... Who knows!

Mahughes,

I'll try and get a few more snapped this weekend for you.

Undertow,

Interesting thoughts. Hopefully they'll be able to move past it once the Soul gets more exposure. It will be easier to hear it sound its best w/o the plinth gap and placement sensitivity (from what I've read, never heard druids).

Everyone else,

I think I've completely flip flopped on my preference of my F1 to my restored/slightly upgraded Dynaco ST-70. The Firstwatt, though more detailed, with better top to bottom extension and resolution just sounds a bit my mechanical than the Dynaco.

I half wish I hadn't bought the JFETs to update my F1 to an F1J, as I'm actually quite content with the Dynaco, but I may as well finish the project I suppose... I suspect Zu speakers just prefer tubes though.

Gopher,
"I'm really confused as to why Zu speakers have been so controversial over the years."

Because:

A- They do not have "hi-fi" top end. Hi-Fi sound has extreme resolution/exaggerated HF. This make "hi-fi" crowd not like them.

B- Measure badly, and Zu not post its own measurements. This make "engineering hi-fi" crowd not like them.

C- Setup poorly, so sounded bad (recess HF plus upperbass/MF suckout plus freakish midbass). And played with inappropriate flea-watt amplification. this make normal people not like them (although I think most speaker setup badly does not seem to hurt them all)

D- they are different.

I think D is biggest reason, C is smallest.

I can understand what you're saying, but there are just so many accounts out there of people pationately disliking these speakers and I can't understand it.

I understand not every piece is for everyone, but I feel like this brand is far more polarizing than it should be. I mean, I've owned and heard a lot of things that don't do it for me and that I wouldn't recommend, but I'll readily acknowledge that every single high end speaker I've heard has had at least some redeeming values. These values seem to get overlooked by Zu naysayers.

I kind of expected them to sound very different and unique in signature to be so polarizing (like the Koetsu cartridge I used to own) but its presentation is very natural sounding to me...

People become passionate about this stuff. is OK, is part of hobby.

I think HF extension is biggest difference, Zu does not have it (which I think is much more natural than the artificial hi fi extension). They do sound different because of that.

and I don't want to open this discussion again but i think they sound lousy with flea amp. You need 40-50W minimum.