Zu Soul Superfly

Venicelake
I would suggest getting an in home demo of a Zu pair and explain your concern directly... If they work out in a standard or even plain MDF finish prototype for you, and you can agree to a small shipping fee difference then you can assure they are for you or not and then maybe get a discount on a new gloss custom color as they will see you do want them permanently. Maybe they will even decide to ship you the custom ones up front and take them back for another sale if you reject them for a small fee.

I know Zu normally would accomidate something like this if necessary. These are not that big and heavy, I know something like this thru the 48 states U.S. was in the 75 to 100 per pair range a couple years ago with their Fed ex discount. But I think they can understand at this upgrade cost it is worth it to them to try and make it work for you. This is their business and they deal in it everyday, so its not that outside the fence.

"06-08-10: Mahughes
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"

I was quoted $2000 for the gloss black and approx $350 for the shipping on the Zu Soul Superfly.

My pair was scheduled to be delivered Tuesday, but the FedEx man came by today with my Superflys. They sound very good right out of the box driven by my First Watt, but I received them with hardwood floor footers rather than spikes for carpet.

I'm going to give Zu a call on Monday to get that and whatever literature was supposed to come with the speakers that may have been accidentally omitted.

Still even with the gap not being optimal, I think I'm going to enjoy these speakers. More more body and drive to the presentation--hopefully resolution sets in with burn in.

Yay, finally a second opinion :)

Look forward to regular updates Gopher.

Mike

My initial impressions are very positive. I'm hearing a much more complete sound than my Abbys could convey. I was not aware I was missing out on as much treble detail/extension as I was with my prior single driver, but the super tweeter is really great.

The mids are full and textured but I'm detecting a bit of hardness which I suspect will go away with break in, also I do find myself wanting a touch for more detail in this area.

The bass is obviously not optimal using floor mounts in carpet, but even still I can't really complain. It is fast and punchy.

This speaker does dynamics better than my Abbys which I felt were one of its strengths. Its an exciting presentation.

One surprise for me is that despite the significantly higher sensitivity (101 from 95) my noise floor is down. While my First Watt (which is working great in this system btw) is pretty silent in operation, my preamp is not usually as quite, but now I can't hear the low level of noise I could with my less efficient speakers.

Also, I seem to open the volume pot MORE now than before to get to similar levels. Not much more, but I worried going to this level of efficiency I wouldn't be able to fine tune volume levels as easily.

As far as looks go, the pictures on the site are pretty accurate, even at night under artificial light they look similar to the direct sun pictures. While they aren't as pretty as the Abby's, they are attractive in their own right, simple, clean and very well finished.

FWIW I have serial numbers 11 and 12, so I guess I have the sixth pair made.

Sigh... I guess its time to post the Abbys up for sale. Hate to do it, but based on my experience so far, Phil is probably right that I can move to these from my prior speakers without missing any aspect of the old sound.