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Zu Soul Supreme Recap -- Owners, what are your preferred system pairings with them?

I'll save a long backstory, but in short I've got the Zu Soul Supremes and I absolutely love them for what they do, at least in my relatively small (13x15x9) listening room.  I've had them a couple years as a follow-on to previous Zu speakers (Unions and Cubes, which I still own).  Those followed some vintage Altec horns (16 ohm Valencias and 19s)--which I love, but love the Zus more for daily listening.  Sean recommended the Supremes over the Druids at the time for the size of my listening room, although I suspect the Druids would have been as good or better regardless.

My interest is to hear from other Zu Soul Supreme owners...not may posts in this forum from owners that I can find.  I'd prefer to focus this discussion on the Soul Supremes, as there is a lot of great info already on the Druids and Definitions (which I assume are more prevalent in the wild), even though I'm sure have a ton of overlap in system synergy.

So...

What system components are you finding to be great/phenomenal matches to the Soul Supremes, what have you compared them to, and what hasn't worked as well?   Anyone running them with what you consider to be really high-end gear?  I'm super curious to see how far these speakers can go before a speaker upgrade makes way more sense.

Jay
parsons
parsons's avatar
parsons OP
117 posts
 
Great stuff, thank you both.

I'm coincidentally considering trying an 845 set amp.  Quad II Classics are also a great suggestion...will read up more on those.

I really want to love the First Watt stuff...someone has suggested I need to pair it with a really really good tube preamp rather than SS.  I tried it with an ARC LS-28...the pre had 100 hours on it and I think(?) was broken in, but still didn't totally sing for me with any of the 3 amps I tried.  I know a ton of people love them.  

As for the Sansui--totally awesome.  My Zu Cubes are in a third system with a Marantz 2365 and there are times where I want to listen to that combo more than some of my other stuff.
dragon_vibe
430 posts
 
Atma-Sphere M60 would pair well.
keithr
950 posts
 
parsons - you might look at the Melody AN845 integrated. I forgot to list that one.


last_lemming
407 posts
 
I have the Omen Def mk2's with Radian upgrade. I use a Decware SET with a complement of Winged "C" tubes.  Very good tone, texture and bass. 
parsons's avatar
parsons OP
117 posts
 
I bought a pair of Thoress 845 SET monos...very, very nice.  Waiting on some NOS replacement driver tubes before I declare full victory and move it to my #1 (to date), but they sound totally awesome with the mismatched ones that came with it already, so pretty sure it's a shoe-in, despite my long love affair with the Prima Luna/KT150s.

Would still like to try/hear direct comparisons to:

Atma-Sphere Novacrons
Atma-Sphere M60s
Audion Black Shadows
Decware SET (last_lemming, good call, read great things)
Linear Tube Audio ZOTL40 MKII
Melody AN845 (and compare to my Thoresses!)

I would also like to try a 300B SET (like the Audion Golden Nights)...but from reading alone, with my love of the KT150 tube characteristics over less powerful ones in that line (down to the EL34), I expect I might not enjoy the 300B as much as the 845.  I know that's controversial to some.  (That's why I said I'd like to hear one.)


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