Zu Soul Superfly

I'll be hanging mine on the end of Naim kit so that's good news indeed but we're having trouble sourcing Zu stuff in the UK at present and the delay is beginning to hurt. Mind you, have you ever seen a company launch so many new products and a new site all at once. There's certainly an increasing sense if purpose about Zu.

Gopher,

As you well know, I follow your Pass/FirstWatt experiences closely. Can you say more about the differences the Alephs are making? And which model are they a clone of? Any things that the F1 & F1J had that are missing with the Alephs?

As an aside, if anyone here was thinking about picking up the Soul/Superfly/ or Omen/Def/Bookshelf, the black friday sale appears to be up and running on their website.

Roscoeiii,

I do not have much information on these Aleph monoblock clones at all. I know it puts out roughly 60-70wpc but didn't inquire too much farther. I recently purchased an Atma-sphere S-30mkII which is a bit under the weather at the moment. It appears a resister may have gone and I am not a DIY guy so I've been trying to diagnose it/get help.

In the meantime I have a local friend who recognized my rig has been down for a couple of weeks and offered to loan me these unused monos.

I was liking a lot of what the S-30 did, especially after a tube change, but I'll tell you--in my system I think I actually prefer the Alephs. There is a similar level of transparency to the OTL amplifier with a significantly less analytical sound... 16 tubes in the Atma-sphere and the SS Aleph clones are a touch warmer with better tonal colors. They're offering really good control over the the drivers and are more engaging. I felt the staging of the Atma-sphere was a little flat, but its wider and deeper now.

I have my heart set on tubes at the moment as I'm hoping for that midrange lushness, staging and ultra emotional presentation that I've experienced a few times with tubes, but these things are damn satisfying and I like them better than... probably everything I've used with these Souls so far. FWIW I'm not sure my Atmas were healthy specimens for the comparison... Then again, I wasn't looking for a comparison--just wanted to hear music again and stumbled on a great pairing.

I'm believing more and more that these speakers do indeed come alive more with some extra juice.

I have been speaking with 213cobra quite a bit via email and his enthusiasm for the 845 tube and my faith in his ear from prior conversations and advice led me to purchase a pair of monoblocks to discover for myself. He believes the 845 SET to be the ultimate amplification for driving Zus and I'm excited t find out for myself!

Thanks for the detailed reply. And how would you compare the Alephs to the F1 or F1J you had in your system. I have had an F1 in my system so would be interested in that comparison. Slowly making my way around the First Watt stuff myself. And your comment put Aleph on my radar in a big way.