Zu Soul Superfly

45 SET plays pretty loudly on my Def. 2's, no congestion at 'normal loud' levels. Can't play house parties.

My RWA 70.2s kick absolute tail on them, Class D ain't all the same. Their 50 watts or so into 6 ohms (which the Defs are) + active bass power from giant pro amps + bass EQ = girl with guitar all the way up to clean rave sound.

Zanon,

The thing is that "Class D" is just a general classification and in fact various "class D" amps have almost nothing in common. In the implementation, that is. In terms of sound, there is probably some general overlap. But to me a (say) Red Wine tripath amp sound quite a bit different from a gainclone or a Bel Canto ICE amp. I am no golden ear and think these differences are pretty easily audible.

Paulfolbrecht:

It is certainly possible I will hear a class-d that does not sound like another class-d. I hope it sounds better.

I am merely stating fact that tri-path sounded as good (or bad) as $1000 Rotel.

I am not one of those people who thinks just because it costs more it is good.

PHIL: Non-audiophile people who don't notice and don't care are probably better served by $500 polks or $100 speakers available at any garage sale than $2000 Souls. Anyone who cares enough about sound to spend for the Souls really should care enough for at least modest placement.

I shake my head that you recommend tiny triode monoblock for Soul. Whomever follows up this advise is setting themselves up for disappointment. Unless of course they seek a congested midrange, and again, I point them to $500 polks (actually, $200 polk monitor so you can truly enjoy that choked sound). Well whatever. Maybe Curious_george is from the "plop them down" school of thought and does not care whether left is louder than right. That is his business of course.

Miklorsmith: 45W is OK. 5 or 8 is just not.

Having as much experience with Zu products and probably more than anybody posting here, it is unrealistic for any Zu speaker to perform optimally with a flea power SET/PSET amp be it 45, 50, PX-25, or 2A3.

Every Zu speaker, including models with a self contained subwoofer system, requires at least 15WPC; some need more.

No question they can be driven with single digit power but nowhere near their full capability.

IMO
YMMV
Dealer disclaimer

Amplifier question:

I was recently reading reviews on the Red Wine Audio 30.2 and it sounds as if it might be an absolutely perfect match for the Zu Soul Superflys. But at its price it was only a fantasy at the moment as I'm pretty effin' tapped out money wise.

Then yesterday I came across a post on Audiogon for a Tim Rawson-esqe clone of the amplifier (Wineclone). I don't speak technical, but it is affordable (albeit ugly) and I'm wondering if someone with both Zu experience and a more technical understanding of class d amps can tell me if they think this would be a good route.

If it were used I'd buy it and experiment for myself, but I don't want to take a depreciation hit if it doesn't work out.

I'd probably have it built with the available upgrades and minus volume control to use with my Minimax Preamp and two sources.