Zu Soul Superfly

Shakey - I do not see (hear) it as a matter of "better than", but just different. I really like the sound of the Defs and Essence, though never liked the Druids. Heard the Soul and don't like that either. No surprise since its sound seems to me to be in line with the Druid. IMO, soundwise, the Druid/Soul do not compete at all with the Def/Essence because of such different sound. So if I lived in Zutown, I'd see no reason to bannish the Essence to red headed stepchild status. Just my two pesos.

Phil,

Thank you kindly for the response. Between the stuff on here and email responses from Sean Casey I think we're looking at a sale in due course. Looks like I got sale price too.

You can't imagine how annoyed I was when Druid discontinued. I could have gone for Presence but the grill was a deal breaker in our lounge. I like the Essence but mourned the loss of presence. I'll not be able to afford the Essence barring a miracle so Zu have rather made my month.

Mike

And of course I missed out the obvious question. Do you plan to replace your Druids?

Mike

Mike,

My Druids are Frankendruids, in some respects. I bought them used over five years ago, so they are one of the earlier cabinets in gloss red. First generation; and they had been upgraded to "Mk 2.5" status then. But they have the early B3 wiring and connector so with a pair of Ibis B3 cables I have Zu B3 cable geometry from the FRD all the way back to the amp outputs. This makes a clear difference. These speakers were upgraded to 4-08, with a further upgraded cap on the supertweeter, and the internal wiring is Ibis. So they sound better than standard Mk 4-08.

Even so, my friend who bought the first pair of production Soul Superfly has speakers that are now a bit better than my Druids, and they aren't even thoroughly broken in yet. You could order Druids to the same standard and get same sound except for the last stretch of bass extension, but the only reason to do so is if you prefer the Druid form factor as a visual statement. Druid costs more to make and is fussier to set up. Soul Superfly addresses the remaining anomalies of Druid by moving past the limits imposed by the now 10-years-old cabinet design. That iconic cabinet was not designed with the benefits of an eventual full Griewe model incorporation in mind. So you get sonic progress at a lower price, which can't be bad.

Phil

>>Do you plan to replace your Druids?<<

Yes. Although I may keep them for another use, for sentimental reasons.

Phil