Hi Phil,
Apologies for the delayed response and thank you for your continued interest. I too have been away from here but for slightly different reasons. Had eye surgery on 9th of March and have had to let them settle at their own pace post-op. This week I am attempting computers for the first time in a month having mastered a certain amount of time on my iphone; a certain amount of reading and a certain amount of TV before the eyes protest. So, doing this on a PC with the VDU specs on. Zooming up a bit in Firefox but eyes still not 100% happy so bear with me on spelling and length etc. but this is a test for my eyes as well as my posting ability. Anyway......
Despite the reintroduction of normal UK Winter/Spring temperatures the Superflys have shown little inclination to bass or mids since the temperature drop thanks to the decorators. As they were burning in nicely (and I trust my decorator as both a friend and fellow audiophile/music fan) before the temperature drop, I continue to assume no technical problem with the speakers themselves. The bass WAS there. It was not spectacular but the original gap we started with was around the depth of 2 CD jewel cases and may have been responsible for that. On start up they were lacking some upper mids in the opinion of Avonessence and I could hear this after a while but the high frequencies were all there and clearly coming on song. What was also there from the start was a lack of the usual Zu mids to some degree but very much (although not entirely) initially compensated by some of the best dynamics I have ever heard. Both my dealer and I may have missed the bass and mids issue to begin with as initial setup was very basic and there was perhaps too much standing and not enough sitting at the listening position.
I had noticed some loss of output from the right channel before the decoration (which to remind other readers was in the rest of the house but not the listening room). I haven't measured it but my room is about 16' by 12.5' and fully carpeted. The carpet is neither expensive, new or lush. There is a plasma and fireplace between the speakers and a picture behind glass on the opposite wall. The right speakers is marginally further away from a sidewall than the left as the left has CD shelves on it. The speakers fire down the room toward a 2 seater sofa but there is also a sofa on the right wall and between this and the right Superfly is my stack of Hutter Racktime with all my Naim boxes on it. These go 7 shelves high. When I had Epos ES11s in place any attenuation of output because of either the sofa or the rack was not noticeable at all, especially with toe in. The Superflys wider dispersion has thrown the issue into stark relief though even with a toe in that allows me to see a sliver of the inside wall of the speakers.
Taking a methodical approach I first attempted to lower all 8 spikes to a depth of one CD jewel case. To my surprise I noted that the spikes provided by Zu do not actually allow for this in the sense that there's then no thread for the nut to be tightened on. I have yet to query this with them as I suspect they have bigger fish to fry at present.
A quick call from Avonessence provided a different set of spikes that did allow for this and the speakers have both been set at a height that allows you to slide a CD under, albeit that it's a tight fit.
An initial increase in bass occurred. On extended listening I wouldn't describe this as spectacular but it is certainly there and it is frequently enough. What I think is really missing here is the mids and, with that, much of the remaining bass.
Power is via a Musicline Powerigel with one Naim Powerline being used on the power amp after much experimentation back in the Epos era.
Both Avonessence and I are aware that Druids et al were happier with the removal of Naim power cables (and often power supplies) so the Powerline was removed. This produced a clear improvement in coherence (Mrs. H. making smiley faces at this point and indicating that she's finally convinced and they can stay) but at the expense of a much more compressed sound and the loss to my ears of the best dynamics I've ever had in my room.
Next task is to split the Hutter. A second base is on order via my dealer. That should do several things.
1) Balance up the speaker outputs and enable me to reset the pre-amp balance (a Naim 202) to centre again.
2) Reintroduce some dynamics lost when the Naim Powerline was removed. There must be some loss of dynamics when one speaker is not dispersing sound down the room as the other one is allowed to.
3) Assess the extent to which the sofa down the long wall may also be having any effect. However, it's not like there is anywhere else practical for this sofa to go!
There may also be some repositioning of speakers but my inclination at the moment is to leave them be and see how we do once these other variables have been addressed.
I may take the opportunity to rebuild the system with just the bare CD player, pre and power and then compare what happens as we add power supplies. Zu speakers work wonderfully with Naim gear (who was it who posted about the Superfly and their Supernait singing?) but drastically reduce the impact of separate power supplies as used by Naim. That isn't to say that there's no need for them but more that there's less sense of a true box upgrade and more of a sense of each box being a slight tweak. Different rather than better.
I am working on the basis that the best sound I have heard in recent years was Druids on the end of (not) my (actual) CD, pre and power with one Naim Powerline at my dealers. If I can get that then I am happy.
I'm hopeful that addressing practical issues methodically will get me there in the end (he says optimistically!!!). However, it may that although I have kept the UK side of Zu informed on this, I approach Sean et al for further advice.
That said, any advice you kind people can offer here will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike
PS: If Avonessence et al now come on here and mention valves you need to know that my fingers are in my ears (and no, that doesn't explain the lack of mids :))
