>>The only thing Phil hasn't come back on is the type of music he listened to. It would be really good, if you can tear yourself away, to hear about what you're listening to and what they're doing to it.<<
Music selection has been omnivorous. Specifically, listening to Soul Superfly, variety of full symphony, Pink Floyd, Natalie Merchant's masterfully-produced "Leave Your Sleep," variety of chamber music and opera, harpsichord, M. Ward, Andrew Bird, Jimi Hendrix, Sinatra, Ray Charles, The Jayhawks, The Band, Blu-ray movie chapters. Of course my total Zu listening ranges far beyond this but if your question is about Soul specifically, they're not mine, so my access is more limited. I heard them again just yesterday, now further broken in.
Blu-ray really opens a window on these speakers in a way that CD can't quite equal. Watch the opening scene of "The Watchmen" on Blu-ray, right through the title sequence/opening credits that follows. Crank it for full theater effect. Just 2ch Blu-ray is all you need. HT2.0 is done right with Soul.
What are the speakers doing to the music? Exactly what they should. In general, ZU FRD-based speakers are egalitarian about extending their benefits to music genres. It's not a rock speaker, nor a solo singer speaker nor a classical music spaker. Soul is a loudspeaker with remarkable tone density, octave-to-octave accuracy and frequency extension that lends its jump factor and rich tonal realism to music in equal measure, regardless of the genre. If your amp scales for full symphony, so will Soul, in normal living spaces. If you want holographic presentation of a solo performer, whether singer or instrementalist, Soul will deliver the spatial and tonal focus to make the fully-dimensioned presence of the performer believable within the limits of the recording. Listen to Frank, or Ray LaMontainge, Natalie Merchant, Julie London or Nora Jones if you want confidence that the human factor in music is intimate and organic. Zu's FRD is a fantastic transmitter of electric guitar tone, and if your amps have the energy, when a full amp stack comes down on your head, Soul is up to it.
There's really nothing limiting to say about Soul with respect to one form of music or another. What makes the Zu FRD remarkable on full tonal projection of a solo voice works same for an instrument, and its ability to stay sorted as complexity comes into the mix makes it omni-applicable to your full range of music interests. Dynamic life with retained definition, holistic sonic projection with convincing and involving tonal density, and excellent frequency accuracy benefit everything, aggregated.
The real key is your amplification. I've said before that with Zu speakers in the mix, amplification will determine the character of your system, more than anything. Even more than sources. There are CDs, like Natalie Merchant's newest, or a 1969 field recording of bluesman Joe Callicot, that played on a $100 CD player can sound mediocre on mediocre amps, or stellar on the right watts.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more synergistic with a Zu speaker than a muscular 845 SET amp. 25/25w of incandescent sonic glory, right in the 25w sweet spot for Zu efficiency makes just about any amp using that tube a great match. 300B PSET amps work well too. In push-pull tube, 25 - 60w is the sweet range. Push-pull amps will give you more bass grip, but the midrange sound is a comparative remoteness to it relative to well-executed SET. An exception is the excellent Quad II Classic monoblock. Still a toneful circuit decades since debut, these are the most SET-like push-pull amps around. Even though they're only 15w each, they're high on my list of tube amps for Soul Superfly, for tube newbies in particular or anyone who wants a trouble-free amp to live with a long time. The Quad Two-Forty is also excellent.
But truth is there is a huge range of amps for this speaker. Its 16 ohms load will make lots of affordable integrated amps, from the Peachtrees and King Rexes and up sound their best. Exotica like LFD, YBA, Lavardin as well as McIntosh autoformer amps are options for high-end simplicity. The entire single-ended triode universe is open to you as well as mainstream brute-strength solid state and new gen tech like NAD's M2. Pick your bias for sound or topology or both, but put some resources into good amplification. Soul Superfly can leverage the best, even that which is disproportionate to the cost of the speakers.
The reason I have Zu speakers in three systems is that on four decades of spending money on hi-fi, they are the only speakers I've ever listened to that will play the full range of my music collection with equal satisfaction. That's been true of Definition 1.5 and 2.0, and Druid since v4-08. And it's true of Soul Superfly. From Houndog Taylor's intentionally cheap and nasty electric guitar tone to the full glory of the Boston Symphony *with* The Tanglewood Chorus to the quiet tone of Wes Montgomery's Gibson L5 to the screaming scale of Procol Harum's "Conquistador" with the LSO; from Jeff Beck to Peggy Lee, Charlie Christian to Warren Zevon, the full wail of "Highwy 61 Revisited" and DSOTM to Sharon Isben's nylon strings, Zooey Deschanel to Janis Joplin, Marshall Tucker to John Hartford, Jimmy Bryant Link Wray, Vaughan Williams to Dean Martin, Hank III and Justin Townes Earle to Patsy Cline, there's just no favoritism in what kind of music a Zu speaker can effectively convey.
Phil
