Phil,
You caught my attention with your excellent description of the smallish but potentially significant differences between Druid and Essence which articulated my views on them better than I ever could. I would be happy to buy Essence but my inclination has always been toward Druid. I have always been especially taken by the presence of the Druid. The sense that a horn player is in the room and standing thus high and really moving air at you.
Bearing that in mind the Soul seems on paper to be right up my street. I need to hear a pair, likely to be mid June in the UK, but at the price I'm almost tempted to just plunge in there. My reservations are that, whilst the loss of a foot of height plays well with Mrs. H, how does the speaker perform in terms of image height especially as the frd is now below the tweeter? Does it still give that great sense of presence, which was the loss in the Essence for me? Does it still have the lovely mud band if the Druid?
Essentially I guess I'm asking if it really is Druid plus or is it just a variation on Essence or Presence?
Cheers,
Mike