Bonesetter,
First, I'm glad my prior posts helped you with a buying decision, and you ended up happy. Next, if you found my prior notes on Druids and Zu actionable, then know that if you love Druids you will love Presence. It is the Druid voicing and tone density with the equivalent of stereo subwoofers, without the integration problems. The treble contour on the supertweeter is just a slight bit more lively, owing to the fact that the FRD, relieved of trying for deep bass, has higher resolution and warrants a touch more heat on the tweet.
Don't think too harshly of the more mainstream aim of Essence. First, its sound lubricates its market acceptance which helps Zu invest in their product line, and second, it is a first iteration of a Zu FRD + Ribbon combination. It will be further developed. Like an excitable child, it will be pulled back into line in 2nd gen refinement. I think it's OK for their line to have a centerpoint tipped a bit to mainstream notions of high-fidelity. It will be a revelation to plenty, and those of us who were originating customers can continue to buy around that centerpoint. A Druid 4-08 owner can be patient.
Presence certainly does have as its main difference the powered sub-bass array and it also offers bass/room tuning possibilities through bi-amping and bass EQ that are absent in a Druid alone. I've heard Presence and it is better than Druid in more than bass and dynamic authority, though the real upgrade to aim and save for is Definition.
Of course there is another upgrade path: the rest of the system. Again, understand that my Druids system is my secondary system. But liking the specific qualities of Druid and finding it a worthy presenter of gear above its grade, the preamp and monoblock amps on that system are worth, retail-for-retail, about 6X the speakers. Now that will seem peculiar to some. One of the consequences of Zu speakers is that the fulcrum of fidelity for your system moves to the power amplification. That's the pivot point that determines the character and quality reach of your system once the Zu FRD is introduced. By traditional measures, you'd expect that Druids warrant no more than a good integrated amp. No. Just as some owners used to run extravagent amplification into a pair of LS3/5a because their midrange quality warranted the expense, Druid is an exception to the traditional norms for distribution of funds within a given system. It punches far above its weight.
I'm serious. If you accept the idea of a speaker being worthy of much greater expense invested upstream, in Zu's case an exceptional $15,000 source mated to a $5,000 amplifier will not sound as good as a good $3,000 source mated to $17,000 of the right amplification. Truly good amps are still scarce. Lots of "hi-fi," not so much realism. But a VPI Classic + Zu103 or similar is only $3,000 and it's a great analog source. The same amount or much less buys many great options in digital players or a DAC for PC audio. It's good amps that are hard to find. No doubt you'd have to consider just taking that kind of cash and buying Definitions plus appropriate amplification. But not every room can handle Defs, whereas Druids are fine all the way down to a closet.
There have always been speakers with specific holistic sound attributes to make these aberrant spending distributions worthwhile. Quad ESL, Dynaco A25 and A50, Large Advent; LS3/5a, Dahlquist DQ10, Apogees, Audio Physic Virgo, Sonus Faber Cremona, Reference 3a L'Integrale and Veena, Zu Druid and Definition. If you love Druids, you have lots of headroom to upgrade.
Phil
