Zu Soul Supreme Recap -- Owners, what are your preferred system pairings with them?


I'll save a long backstory, but in short I've got the Zu Soul Supremes and I absolutely love them for what they do, at least in my relatively small (13x15x9) listening room.  I've had them a couple years as a follow-on to previous Zu speakers (Unions and Cubes, which I still own).  Those followed some vintage Altec horns (16 ohm Valencias and 19s)--which I love, but love the Zus more for daily listening.  Sean recommended the Supremes over the Druids at the time for the size of my listening room, although I suspect the Druids would have been as good or better regardless.

My interest is to hear from other Zu Soul Supreme owners...not may posts in this forum from owners that I can find.  I'd prefer to focus this discussion on the Soul Supremes, as there is a lot of great info already on the Druids and Definitions (which I assume are more prevalent in the wild), even though I'm sure have a ton of overlap in system synergy.

So...

What system components are you finding to be great/phenomenal matches to the Soul Supremes, what have you compared them to, and what hasn't worked as well?   Anyone running them with what you consider to be really high-end gear?  I'm super curious to see how far these speakers can go before a speaker upgrade makes way more sense.

Jay
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Great question--one I actually thought of myself after I posted the update.

It's very, very solid directly from the Schiit Yggy (latest version).  If I'm honest, it's not giving much up, if anything.  Perhaps a tiny bit of breadth and depth in the sound stage--maybe just a little bit more flat in this regard, but not much, and certainly not "flat"--still massive.  It's dropped just the slightest bit of sparkle on cymbals.  I think the midrange is tending to fall just the slightest bit more centrally in the soundstage, which may be the same point I'm making from the first soundstage comments.  Decay is just the slightest bit reduced, which is lowering the live sound a tiny bit perhaps.

But I'm being very, very nitpicky here.  It still sounds phenomenal.  I can say I don't prefer it to having the MP-1 pre-amp in the mix, but I will say this...if I had access to some of my not-as-excellent preamps to put in to try, I suspect I would only prefer a pre-amp in the mix with the absolute best of them.  It's extremely solid as an integrated.  I would still probably say it's better than the Audions in my system, which is saying a TON.  YMMV.

Two additional data points...I have only heard the Audions and the Taboo III side-by-side with my Druid 6s, and I haven't yet heard the Taboo III with the Soul Supremes.  I won't get to for several more weeks as I'm in process of a long move to a new house.  So I'm only assuming it will have the same synergy with those speakers.

Also, the Taboo III did NOT blow my socks off with my 16 ohn Altec Valencias.  It was good, maybe even great, but not the level of synergy the Taboo seems to have with the Druid 6s.  In fact, I think I can say I still prefer the Melody 845 with the Valencias.
I have the Zu Audio "Soul" speakers not the supremes but I can say they pair very well with the three Decware Amps I have...Zen signature monoblocks at 2.3 wpc, Rachael at about 6 wpc, and the Torii MK IV at 20 wpc.  I like using a CSP3 preamp and more recently have added a ZROCK II to the mix...all Decware products.  Mark. 
I'm digging in on the Decware stuff.  I haven't read too many Zu owners with Decware that weren't very, very satisfied.  From the Decware side, it seems like Steve's design philosophy should align perfectly with Zus, so maybe it shouldn't be a surprise.
Big thumbs up for Nat Audio tube gear from Serbia, on my Zu Definitions 4 spkrs.
70W SE2SE 211s have replaced 35W Audion Black Shadow 845s, plus the Utopia tube pre.
Have never looked back.
Great read - thanks for your feedback on the various amps and combinations.  Nice to read the LTA plays in that league - although reported QC issues prevented me from ordering one.

Did you roll the tubes on the Melody? Pretty important as the stock ones stink.

Fyi- Definitions have a higher power requirement than Druids...