Zu Soul Superfly

>>Are there any particularly good inexpensive amps you've heard with Zus?<<

Yes. EL84 tube amps are a surefire success. If your room is small enough, the Almarro A205 is only 5/5w SEP, but sounds irrationally good. Sophia Baby. Glow amp. Lots of Chinese tube amps using EL84 and similar tubes in 5 - 25w SEP and push-pull.

The NAD C3XXBEEE series of integrated amps. A used NAD M3 is a great solid state alternative. Red Wine Audio does well. Cheap T amps are not my thing but they really clean up and get some tone on Zu speakers.

Prima Luna - whichever you can afford. Same for Melody. I'll make a special note for Jasmine Audio. This is a Chinese maker producing well-built, well-thought-out circuits. Their Jasmine LP2.0SE solid state phono stage is a genuine giant killer. Most of their electronics are tube circuits. Their various integrated and power amps are affordable and deeply musical. The designer is musically sophisticated and highly competent. cruzeFIRST Audio in Florida is a dealer online, but he doesn't always have inventory. You can buy direct from China. Prices are low and execution quality is beyond reproach. They make affordable but excellent EL34, 156 and KT88 integrated amps. Everything that company makes sounds beautiful. Look at www.jasmineaudio.net.

Stepping up, the full Sophia line. If you find *any* Audion amplifier, it's a golden synergistic match to Zu. Lots of options in McIntosh autoformer amps, and used or new Pass/First Watt. Dyna ST70 will be musical but if unmodified, bass will be euphonically flabby. Atmasphere OTL amps -- perfect for Druid and Soul. But in the hundreds, NAD, Almarro, Xindac, the occasional Dared and Jasmine are foolproof.

Phil

>>I'm curious about the flaws of this $1700 speaker.<<

No one has heard the base version yet. Only the Superfly upgrade, $2600, has been shipped so far. A limited number were sold at an intro price of $1800.

I haven't heard the perfect speaker at any price. The flaws of the Zu Soul will make themselves apparant relative to individual expectations that are difficult to anticipate. What do you expect for $2600 or $1800? Someone somewhere will think a speaker of that price should have usable output below 30Hz. OK, Soul doesn't have that. Someone somewhere might think a speaker at this price should have perfect semi-polar dispersion. Nope, not Soul. It's dispersive but compared to some speakers it's still a little directional. It pays to play with placement. Someone somewhere will say Soul isn't revealing to the nth degree of detail. It's not -- its design prioritizes tonal truth over scintilla.

But it's hard to fault a speaker under $3K with this level of balance, tone density, dynamic life, overall fidelty, unfussiness in placement, fit, finish, reliability and construction, as well as adaptability to such a huge range of amplification.

One does not have to be a sycophant to like this speaker. It's just plain convincing, accommodating, compact and well-executed. If I thought it is less than that, I'd say so. I thought Zu Essence was a mistake, for example. The speaker is shipping now, so let's see who shows up having heard it who doesn't like it, and why.

Phil

Biggest potential dissappointment with Zu Speakers is that it does not have HF extension, and so does not create hi-fi "air" "detail" "pin-point imaging" etc.

Personally, I find all of that stuff totally fake and do not like it. But it is to hi-fi taste, which is why we have all these terrible sounding piston speakers out there. Still, if you like that sound you will know it, and it was what Zu was chasing with the Essence.

With my druid setup in very large room, I think Zu needs more watts than Phil suggests. You will need to make your own call. Also, in my room, I have suckout at upper bass, which makes presentation dry. I have engaged various strategies to fix that with placement etc. I totally disagree with people who say speakers should be "unfussy about placement" simply because, at lower frequency, you will have room interaction and either it is working for you or working against you. Druids benefitted greatly from placement but did not need much treatment, soul are less directional so maybe they need more treatment but less placement help?

Finally, i find, contra phil, that on really massive orchestral work at high volume they overload poor single driver somewhat.

Still, scads better than most other speakers and a great price.