Zu Soul Superfly

Gopher: Have you considered sending in your S-30 to Atma-sphere for service?

Bjesien: Just looked on Zu's site. Latest price for Essence is $3600, which is consistent with their pricing after they got out of the more traditional dealer model.

Wilsynet,

My S-30 is on its way back from Atma-sphere via FEDex now after a servicing to bring it up to spec and a few updates.

I'll get to evaluate it healthy for the first time as I bought all new power tubes for it. I also have a pair of Shuguang Black Treasure CV-181s I'm going to throw in the first position followed by my Ratheons in the second two to see what this amp is REALLY capable of.

I have also been talking with 213cobra quite a bit behind the scenes and under his guidance I picked up a pair of 845 monoblocks which are doing VERY well as they burn in. They are the Shuguang S845 MK amps and I believe these are the fifth revision (early revision was plagued with a couple reliability issues). They came stock with Black Treasure CV-181s and 300Bs and with red label 845Bs and with a list of $2400 they're punching well over their price range. Without full burn in I like them better than the Alephs I've been using which I enjoyed quite a bit and found myself prefering to the S-30.

BUT--I suspect the S-30 was never healthy in the first place, so the real shoot out will be between my atma-sphere and the 845 amp over the winter holiday.

On a side note: I ended up with these two amplifiers after deciding NOT to go with exposed tubes for safety reasons with two cats and a soon to be mobile infant... lol. Well done, Fred.

I'd like to hear how you like them with your iDecco.

Took advantage of the black friday sale myself. Running mine with a Miniwatt N3 and HRT II+ DAC. So far so good, long way to go though as I have not had time to optimize set-up.

Bjesien:

I think soul is good value at the price, although I do not know if I would pay more for soul superfly.

As for essence, well, i hate ribbons and they cut down sensitivitiy to make it work together, so it depends on whether you like that toneless ribbon sound and hi fi sparkle in HF.

many people like this as you can see from plethora of ribbon fans.

From what I gather, it appears that the Essence (more than the other Zu's) should be paired with a tube amp. I can state from experience that this is some extra "sparkle" when partnered with solid-state gear. That said, with toe-in limited so that the tweeters' axis converge behind the listener lead to a much more balanced sound. The "cuppiness" that some experience or point goes away with Libtec cables and proper toe-in. It is definitely there without proper toe-in. Also, moving to Mission cables from Gede cables helps tame the ribbon.

Can't speak to the Soul or SoulSuperFly. I also suspect that the impedance interaction with a suitably powered SET amp will improve the integration of the ribbon.

I would love to hear other's comments on any of the new Zu' and partnering amps. I was going with Quad amps but have decided on Manley 300B SE/PP monoblocks instead.

PMB