Zu Soul Superfly

I auditioned Abbys (with and without the supertweeter) before I bought Druids back in 2005, and have heard them occasionally since. In fact, at the time it was my intent to buy Abbys for one of my systems, until I got in front of a pair of Druids. There's certainly no less coherence from the Zu FRD, and the latest updates to the Zu FRD as implemented in Soul only further improve its performance in this respect. The Fostex driver options in the Abby do not meet or exceed the Zu FRD performance in any way, though the Abby is a very good speaker, with remarkable tonal and transient coherence. However, its intrinsic single-driver coherence, where it is closest to being competitive with Zu, does not overcome comparative lack of drive, range, dynamic aliveness, and combination of power handling with high efficiency. I considered Zu Druids prior to the 4-08 upgrade clearly superior to Abbys, and the 4-08 upgrade to Druids rocketed their lead, then the further advance of Soul Superfly over Druids puts quite a lot of distance between Soul and Abby.

Phil

Thanks for sharing your findings, Phil. I'm not a person that holds onto gear that doesn't do it for me, and I've had my Abbys for more than five years now... I'm very excited and anxious to see for myself what these Superflys are all about.

Have they begun shipping yet or is it just a few of their local friends who were lucky enough to get their hands on them prior to June.

Gopher - A friend of mine got the first pair of Soul Superfly on an advance special order for a custom finish. Zu's first regular production Superfly speakers should begin shipping in the next week or ten days, so perhaps there will be some Audiogoners among the recipients.

Phil

Phil, I have Druids mk4/08 with further upgraded tweeter network Mundorf silver oil cap etc same as zu Def2 and superfly. I also have 2 x mini methods.

In your opinion what improvements would I notice if I swapped with the superfly.

I love the Druids presentation, as close to live a I've had. The 2 mini methods add a huge amount of bass....... I can only imagine what the Def2 sound like in this department. I feel Druids excel in guitar and voice driven music, but they also sound great with electronic dance stuff.

So I guess I'm asking about the FRD and how much better is it in the superfy?

Naggots,

If you have Druid 4-08 with Mundorf silver oil in the network, you're quite close to Soul Superfly, and of course stereo Mini-Methods will outperform Superfly on bass - albeit at expense of space and complication.

The FRD in Soul has wider horizontal dispersion and more vivid, punchier dynamic behavior than what you get from Druid 4-08. It's a refinement of the Zu FRD, so essential character isn't changed. But it's clearly an evolution that makes the FRD better, and not in any way worse. The tone density is similar between the two, but the newer FRD is burstier and sounds faster on transient attack. The motor is stronger, the cone a little lighter than older versions, and the phase plug is not only cylindrical but the detail on the face of the cylinder is essential to its role. The last trace of darkness in the Druid's sound -- much removed by the 4-08 upgrade -- is now gone. In many rooms, given the trouble most rooms pose in the deep bass region, Soul's 30Hz lower flat limit will be both easier to manage and more truthful than the deeper subs, but if you have that sorted, OK. But sans subs, bass from the Soul is in all ways better than what's possible from the Druid form factor.

I plan on replacing my Druids with Superfly Soul, though I don't use subwoofers. The price is right and the improvement is of sufficient increment to be worthwhile to me, for the system I use Druids in. But it is an evolutionary upgrade from your speakers, not a dramatic one.

Phil