Soliloquy 6.2i vs VS vr4jr , Zu Druid & Usher 6371

I have received Druids from Zu but did not send them back although the physical task of packing and returning them does not seem at all daunting........other than the pain of separation.
I haven't heard the speakers you're considering against the Druids so I can't provide any comparison commentary for you. Apparently you've already heard positives about them and that's why they are on your list.
The thing to understand is that Zu is not an ordinary speaker. The design they apply is not a slight variation on established designs but a ground up rewrite of nearly everything. The cabinet, wiring, drivers are all original.
The Zu Druid represents a shift in speaker design that will influence the entire industry.

In the past ten years I have used as my primary speakers:
Goldmund Dialogues
NHT 2.9
Avalon Eclipse
Aerial Acoustics 10T
Vandertseen 3
Vision Acoustics Soloist
All of the above are very good speakers and those of you who are familiar with these names can see that I wandered.
The reason that the Zu Druid has my attention and allegiance at this point has to do with its personality and presentation.
The Druid is very efficient due to its lack of a power usurping crossover network and it is faultlessly coherent for the same reason. These two points conjoined with the advantages provided by its price/performance ratio provide you with an opportunity to incresae the performance level of your amplification.
I have gotten stunning results from the Onix SP-3 driving my Druids.
The new design of the Druid allows you to listen to your music from 35 hz to 12 khz without the splicing between drivers that a crossover necessitates. You see, when the network divides and assigns highs to tweeters and mids to mids, etc. it is breaking the music into segments to be reproduced by specialized drivers. The result is that of several drivers reproducing their parts as cohesively as the designer can bring them together. His problem lies in trying to provide a seamless overlap that doesn't create excessive energy at overlapping frequencies and concurrently trying to cause all drivers to reproduce in phase with each other. When you use only one driver, all of these problems are completely avoided. The presentation of the Zu Druid is as cohesive and coherent as that of the original QUAD 57. It too is a single full range driver. What the Druid provides beyond that QUAD is the ability to play at 130 db without breaking up and to reach both lower and higher and to provide dynamics that may not be available from anything but a horn. These speakers are absolutely amazing.
After a 3 year search for a pair of the aforementioned Goldmund speakers, I found a pair and proceeded to build my final system around them. I posted that they were the speakers to keep for life. Then a friend told me about the Zu reviews on 6moons.com and I began reading. My interest was piqued and I drove to Ogden, Utah to see for myself and bought a pair on the spot. When I came home I put the Goldmunds up for sale and luckily was able to trade them for granite countertops with undermount basins in both my bathrooms plus some cash. They're pretty good speakers, after all.
It is difficult for me to distinguish myself from the multitude of other experts on this forum who all hold opinions and I can think of no reason why you should believe me over them but the answer lies near at hand. Call Zu and have them send you a pair. If after 60 days you aren't sure, Zu will extend the evaluation period for you. I'm betting it won't take 10 minutes for you to "get it" even though break in is a fairly protracted process. The worst that can happen is you rent them for 90 days for the price of round trip shipping. Certainly you've lost more than that on previous audio gambles. I know I have.

Did I answer your questions adequately?

Aktchi -
I know nothing about Druids that the Zu boys do not, but I know a great deal more about them than you do. The poster asked a question of me directly and I answered it to the best of my ability. I believe Mike answered your questions in his post with the exception of the one about new models.
Zu is always experimenting and trying ways to improve upon what has been accomplished so far. This includes their products and those of everyone else. The Druid I own is the Mark IV. That is because there were other Druids that preceeded it. There may very well be a Mark V someday but this post is not about comparing one Zu speaker to another.
Saki70 wanted to know about the Druid compared to other speakers he might consider purchasing.
A couple of hours ago FedEx showed up at my door with the new Zu Mini Method subwoofer. I have only just hooked it up but I found immediately that it is a lethal device. It was turned up to about Noon or One O'clock and it almost brought the house down on me. I backed it down to about Ten O'clock and was able to blend it with the Druids almost immediately. For anyone interested I will include more info later. For now I will just say that it employs two of the ten inch woofers from the Def Pro's and that they are powered and fire forward. I called Sean about it and he said that they use one in their 4000 sq. ft. warehouse and it is more than enough. Looks like the stakes just got a lot higher around here in the area of resonance control.

Aktchi,

You wrote:
"If a designer continues to feel he can improve his product in a few months, then at least I am not inspired to buy it just yet. This is a subjective call, and others may well feel differently, but this is how I feel."

Do you feel that way about authors too? "I don't want to read The DaVinci Code because Dan Brown might write another book and it might be better".
Do you wait until musicians have died so that you can be sure they won't record anything that improves upon the recording you are considering? Do you see how silly that sounds?

I can't understand why you have chosen to appoint yourself the anti-Zu but it is not appreciated by those of us who are Zu-ish.

jeffreyds,

Very nice review. You captured the Zu experience nicely. A couple of things to add are that the Druids provide an unusually full sound at low volume levels. They don't need to be turned up to some point where they come alive. That's probably not something you would have a chance to learn at a show. And secondly, I tried using my Druids with an ASL Orchid. It's a 3.2 watt SET integrated and it sounded positively wonderful but just didn't boogie. I suspect that if you hooked your Cary amps up to the Druids you would be much more impressed. Sean Casey has told me that the Druid starts to really get up and dance with 30 or more watts of amplifier stroking it.
6moons.com did some comparison work between the Gallos and the Druids. If you read that and measure it against your show experience, it might give you valuable perspective on how to read his review of the Druid.
When all is said and done, however, you are left with the fact that Zu is all about fun and they will not make it difficult to return your Druids should the unthinkable occur. Go ahead and bring a pair to your house. Then you can speak to the many who are perplexed about this Zu talk.

For anyone out there who wishes to move beyond speculation,rumor and innuendo, I will gladly provide a demonstration of the Zu Druids in my home. Just email me to make arrangements at your convenience.

Jsc80:
Did you choose the Definitions by yourself or did you have a listening panel? What magazines do you subscribe to? Have you ever been to Utah before? Do you use tube amplification? Did you just like the Definitions enough to buy them because they were plainly superior to the pair with which you were already intimately familiar?
That's what I did. I had my Goldmund speakers for three years before I listened to the Druids and I knew in a couple of minutes that a change was due. I also traveled to Ogden and met with the designers. They were friendly and helpful and very knowledgable, not only about their own products but also about amplification and system design. I left there with a speaker order (I had them shipped to me) and some new friends. I too would recommend that anyone who has any reservations about the products, the company, or the people of Zu should visit there and see what the rest of us are raving about. It was a very nice experience.