Zu Soul Superfly

Wow... I hate to say it but you can paint a nice car for that much scratch... Seems that is one sticking factor for Zu since day one is the finishing process and costs, I mean thats as much as the speaker itself.

Then again I see speakers and gear as "Utilitarian" devices and no need for anything fancy unless its under the hood.. Pure performance, if it has to be raw concrete and it sounds best thats the key to me.

Mostly I love to see the birds eye finishes, and piano black, but for the cost I can deal with flat black that goes with anything and can hide in a room for the most part anyway, it is a speaker and most people accept that. Few hundred extra I can see it, but few thousand and we are getting too far out on the line in this hobby for a "finish" especially in systems with speakers that mostly are under the 10,000 dollar cost spectrum. Listen to the music don't try to look at it!

As I said in a previous post, I looked at (and listened to) practically every speaker available in NYC. Most were very expensive, ill porportioned, ugly boxes that had really great finishes. All the dealers claimed that a large part of the costs were in the finish. Amazing amount of various "good" sound, but big and ugly. Wilsons? Anybody remember that song "Fat bottom girls"?
I decided to buy a Gallo strada/sub 7.1 system. Nice disappearing matte black finish and small footprint, huge sound...only problem not good for set, but since I was desirous of a bigger sound than my Devore/300b combo could produce I was ready to look for alternate amplification. Then I saw the ad for the Zu and realized I could easily alternate my Gallo 7.1 fronts and zu/300b in a very small footprint. After my search, I came to admire both Gallo and Zu for giving great engineering in small enclosures for a reasonable cost. It seems that basic matte finishes are part of the equation.
Any recommendations for 7.1 receiver or separates for the Gallos? I wish there was a 45w per side 300b set.

Venicelake, I completely agree... Also the simpler the better in many cases. For sure I can say that Zu with S.E.T. is plenty of big sound. I never heard Gallos so I can't give any advice, cool enclosure with the orb' style setup though.

I don't get that paint surcharge---on Essence its 1200 bucks. And Soul is smaller than Essence, correct?

Can we just clarify the maths as those figures don't tally with quotes I've had from Zu in the past for bringing into the UK. The costs quoted on their site don't appear to equate with that either. If I'm wrong then cosmic carbon it is :)

Mike