Zu Soul Superfly

Gopher - I second Franks' response. Also, bear in mind that if you don't need all the power of the S30, you can run it effectively with some of the output tubes removed - we've run it very happily into Zu Essence with only three tubes per channel, instead of the full five. Simon

Phil,

Thanks very much for that. Having heard every Zu floorstander I entirely agree with your descriptions and am very much looking forward to my Superfly. I heard enough of Druids to have bought them were it not for the Fun Prevention Officer demanding a robust dishwasher at the time. I cursed Zu for ending production when they did :)

I do wonder in retrospect whether the Druids denoed endlessly by my dealer were 4.08 or earlier as, to me, they very much retained that euphonic darkness. I must check that out with them sometime. Heard the Presence there too and was equally mesmerised by it although the cost was even more prohibitive to me at the time.

Anyway, thank you very much for sharing. It's been extremely reassuring in confirming that I may just have purchased a speaker for life. That was my plan for the Druid and that's my plan for Superfly all being well.

Mike

Hi Mike,

The Druids that the Audio Counsel were demming were the 4.08.

The weekend we did the Zu, back in 2008, was brilliant. The Presence and the Druid really stood out.
To me the more we listened to the Definitions I started to drift off thinking about the Druids or the Presence.
I think the charm of the Druid and my Essence, is that they are not imediately impressive, they sneak up on you with their charms and slowly win you over.

If I have not thanked Sean at Zu and Simon at Musicology for getting the Presence over for that day, many thanks, it was a great day.

In the UK, we have to thank Simon from Musicology for discovering the Zu speakers, and for Dave at the Audio Counsel in Manchester for stumbling across the Druids when he visited Simon in 2007.
For me I certainly would not have learnt about Zu loudspeakers if Audio Counsel had not come across them and brought them to my attention.
Even today, my dealer is more than happy to pop in to set up my system after a recent DIY spree, you can't buy that sort of customer service.

Sorry for taking the thread slightly off track.

James

Yes, I must say that I can recall a bunch if cynical men of varying (but not that varying) ages listening to Hugh Masakela on the Presence. At the end there was just a silence and someone quietly commented that that was as good as they'd heard anywhere to hushed agreement. That was the only time I'd heard Presence and I was mightily impressed, however, the key I think was that I'd already heard rhe Druids and the Druids were slow as stated to reveal their charms. Indeed it was only when replaced by Sonus Faber as I recall that the penny dropped.

Interestingly, we also heard them when they were off ie not quite happy with their position or possibly being shunted around. Had I heard just that I would have fallen into the okay but nothing special camp. However, later in the day they settled and for me were nothing less than mesmerising.

Bring on the Superfly :)

mike

Brings back good memories of the day, I remember someone working out if he sold his power supplies, headphones, headphone amp and one of his kidneys, he could just afford the Zu Presence.

It was really strange with the Druids that day, they did not like being shunted about, and were mesmerising once they were sat in one place for a hour or so.

The Superfly are going to be very interesting based on Phil's reports so far.
It's going to be a very long few weeks...........