Cain & cain abbey vs Zu Druid

Just a comment. With all that has been said recently regarding Zu speakers -6 Moons review etc. I would have thought there would have been more comments here. Compare and contrast impressions between these speakers would be interesting.

Good Luck

I've owned the Druids (now sold and waiting for Definitions). I've not heard the Abbys. The particular comparison request is, well, particular.

I do own some homebuilt Fostex 206E BR boxes. From what I've read, heard and surmised about these, I would expect the following:

The Abbys will be insanely fast with tuneful bass, though not particularly extended or hard-hitting. The small, light, efficient driver will provide exceptional life at lower volumes and with acoustic music. Agressive music and loud volumes will tax the small driver. Treble should be good, though rolled off somewhere audible. Single-driver cohesiveness is tough to beat.

The Druids will not be the last word in "liquid lightning" transient speed, though still excellent. The larger drivers are designed to "rock" when called upon, yet they are excellent with lower volumes and with simpler music. Bass extension and drive are very good and should easily trump the Abbys. The supertweeters ensure great top-end extension.

The thing that impressed me the most about the Druids was their blend of the things multi-ways do well (even and extended FR) with the cohesion and life of an excellent single-driver speaker. They fear no music or volume. There are very few of the breed that will do Metallica at 100 db without a sweat.

That's my half-baked comparirson. Anybody knowing the Abbys firsthand should chime in to pop my bubble if needed.

Abbeys were finalists on my short list of speakers for the room in which I subsequently chose Druids. I bought the Druids blindly after hearing the Abbeys on equipment I don't own and concluding that the whole Fostex approach just doesn't have enough latitude to be convincing to a music omnivore like me. I consider the two speakers competitive only on the superficials: similar footprint, high efficiency, full-range drivers, tall stance. On sound, the Zu matches the Abby on speed, trounces it on frequency extension, projects superior acoustic power into a room, sounds tonally more natural (and accurate) to me, and is altogether more convincing. Perhaps on small-scale very personal music, the Abby has an edge on palpable intimacy, but that's a bone to the Abby. The Cain & Cain sounded enticing, intriguing and oozes retro cool. But it has a way of just sounding old, which is not the same as better, when something inspired by forgotten research and updated with contemporary thinking and materials enters the stage, as the Druid Mk IV has. I wanted to prefer the Abby over Druid, and it costs less, but I judged it just not in the same class as a holistic projector of music fidelity in normal rooms.

Phil