Zu Soul Superfly

My speculation is that the price raise of the Soul Superfly is indeed correct. I suspect the Soul will come out at $800 or so less as planned putting it in the mid $2000s. If that is so then the Omen will be a meaningful inclusion at the $1500 mark, essentially becoming what the Soul was intended to be.

Seems like they are diluting their line a bit, but if it brings new satisfied owners to the table then more power to them.

From what I can see from the people who've actually talked to Zu about this, the Omen is at 1K now, will be at $1,500 eventually. That makes sense. The Superfly will be at $2,600, which also makes more sense than raising the price so drastically from $1800 initial orders to $3,500 for everyone else.

Now, my hunch is there's no need for the regular Soul, and that's why it's no longer mentioned on the website. The Superfly isn't described as a hot-rotted version of anything anymore - it does still say the Superfly is "an under the hood performance package", but it's not in comparison to a regular version. It's no longer an option, its a feature.

As a former owner of Druids and Essence speakers I wish them well. While ZU's are not the best speakers I have heard, I consider them a very good value in the high efficient, SET friendly market segment. That said, the business side of things at ZU seems a bit disjointed. I thought the move to a dealer model was kind of strange and they quickly back peddaled on that. The price changes so soon after product launch also seems like a head scratcher. Hope they get their issues worked out.

Got a reply from Zu regarding the line up. Soul is NOT a dead idea.

There was some info they haven't released in their email to me so I will cut out only whats pertinent to the line up.

"The Soul is still coming out and I'm happy to explain some of the rational behind the Omen. The Soul and Soul Superfly are difficult to produce in bulk due to the paint and shape of the cabinet. Here at Zu, we've long been looking for a way to produce a "Zu Quality" speaker at a price that anyone can afford, our target is a speaker below $1,000. The Omen has the same driver/tweeter combo as the Soul, however is in a cabinet that's much easier for us to produce."

Another VERY interesting tidbit:

"The Omen doesn't have the same shape, however does employ the same Greiew loading.

Please don't hesitate to ask questions especially if something looks funny on the boards."