Zu Soul Superfly

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

Thanks, given the expense of shipping speaker to Australia it's probably not worth it.... However I may see if Zu would swap the FRD only in the future.....

I've also been thinking about remaking the Druid cabinet using some bitumen laminated noise gaurd ply we use in other applications, very dense and resonant free in comparison to mdf.

Phil,

You make a compelling case for the Soul Superfly. May I ask how many hours listening time you had with them when you formed your judgement?

Mike