Zu Soul Superfly

F1audio: I ran Druids with host of class-d amps, lost patience, and switch to peachtree nova (SS).

I also compare nova with HK3490 -- it is poor man Nova.

I do not know if it is Sabre Dac vs Burr Brown, or pre-amp stage, or MOSFET vs whatever op amp HK use, but Nova kick pants off HK. It is a good combination absolutely, and a great choice for money. For beginner/person with budget/veteran who is tired of nonsense i would recommend it.

I have tried low power tubes and do not like them on Druid. Highly overrated in my opinion. Also, I do not think push pull tube are that much better than A/B SS. So that leaves you with ~50WPC SET. At this point, I think good implementation of that difficult configuration is more important that tube vs SS.

So, did zu sell a single soul for $1800?

They have new CEO. I wonder if he create this problem or will fix it

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.