Zu Soul Superfly

Mahughes,

I strongly suggest that you not bother to try to entice Bill Feil into a rational argument. He's completely incapable of it. Why? Because he views his opinions as fact (regardless of disclaimer), and anyone who disagrees is automatically an audio idiot. I offer as evidence a recent 'discussion' with him, in which he claimed that my system 'sucks' (in spite of his never having heard the speakers, nor am I sure about what else he's not auditioned). Feil has opinions on everything, even on gear that he has never experienced.

There is no question in my mind that certain gear provides a greater 'jump factor', which I believe is largely due to dynamic capability i.e. the ability to swing from pp to ff quickly - just as live music does. Whether you call it PRAT - or Joe or Bob or Bill - is immaterial. The effect is there, and I believe that it's part and parcel of a better audio illusion.

Dspringham - I highly recommend Atmasphere with Zu. You can happily use S30 with the Superfly, and any other Zu 'speakers because the high impedance makes a perfect match for OTL. Unless you need the extra power of the M60 monoblocks, stick with S30 and go for an Atmasphere preamp first - I believe it outperforms any passive, but I AM biased because we represent Atmasphere in the UK and I absolutely love the combination.

DISCLAIMER - we represent Zu and Atmasphere in the UK. Hopefully I've not offended anyone by posting.

>>One of the things I haven't seen here is how people might define the Superfly in relation to the Presence.<<

I've had a pair of Presence in my own system for more than a day during a Zu Los Angeles tour. Presence was not a "Griewe" model speaker but it was sort of a "Druid with Sub" in that it had a single FRD and supertweet, ala Druid, with a half-Definition sub-bass array. It was the least jumpy Zu speaker but had near-Definition levels of deep bass performance.

Presence sounded very smooth, still retaining the overall euphonic "darkness" of the Druid sound, but never sounded quite as light on its feet as Druid. Overall, if amplified well, Presence scales and is quite complete in the music it can represent well. But being fairly flat down to about 30 Hz, Superfly's bass has none of the trace disconnect between main driver and integrated subs, and has plenty of bass energy for most domestic rooms. Superfly will sound faster, jumpier, more vivid and immediate than Presence. Presence will sound more relaxed and stately and more euphonically shaded in its tone.

Presence is larger and more difficult to accommodate in many rooms. It's $8,000 vs. $2,600. I do much prefer Presence to Essence but also prefer Superfly to Essence. Presence was more Def Jr. than Super Druid, so a lot of its advantage is in laying the solid foundation of truly deep bass if your room can make use of it, while the main band had all the great tone and focus attributes of Druid. The X factor here is, how would Presence sound with the Superfly FRD and appropriate revision to its supertweeter and associated filter? Presence upgraded in Superfly fashion should be formidable in its own right and clearly better than Superfly alone, including for reasons of the broad, smooth front baffle.

Phil

Sam7,

I'm keeping my eyes open for a used s-30 at a good price. It seems like some people have really loved it with Zu speakers in the past. How much heat do they realistically put off?

I'm experimenting now with a Virtue Audio TWO.2 amplifier with Sonicaps and battery power. I was told it had 50-60 hours on it previously and I've put another 24 on. I don't want to criticize it just yet as there may be some additional burn in necessary, but I'm thinking twice about class d for the Souls. The sound is detailed but really lacking in dynamics, drive and delicacy. My F1 has 1/5th the power and exhibits far better control over the drivers.

The tables may change with burn in, but I greatly prefer my First Watt F1's presentation thus far. I'll be out of town for the weekend, so I'll log some major hours on them and actually leave my Zu's cranked for once (wife is home on maternity leave during days so my burn in has been mostly 'real time) and see how it sounds come Monday.

I purchased a Dynaco ST-70 on Gerrit's advice and Phil's el34 endorsement. I am hoping to see that by the middle of next week and will comment on the pairing shortly.

Gopher, I've been an Atma-Sphere S30 owner for many years and just recently had them upgraded to 3.1 status.
Regarding how hot they run, it's my understanding that they run slightly hotter, around 5-10%, than class A solid state amps of equivalent wattage. With the S30's 30 watts/ch it is a nonissue.
I am currently using the S30 with coincident total victory's with great results. I've never heard the superfly's but on paper it's a match made in heaven. With the superfly's 16 ohm impedance the S30 would be coasting putting out appox. 40 watts/ch.
Enjoy the st70 for now and when funds/availability allows you can upgrade.