Major changes: 1. $5999 starting price 2. Okoume standard finish instead of hickory 3. Bigger cabinet - up from 31.5" to 36" 4. 120 days to audition in home!
Zu claims Druid 6-type performance, deeper bass than mk.II, more amp friendly, horn-like impulse response. I am intrigued. Soul Supreme is a nice value at $4500 so Zu must really feel this a step up in performance to price it above that.
Srajan has an ongoing preview that will become a review over at 6moons. He's owned a few models and always stays in touch with Sean and the guys at Zu.
I almost went for these but didn't want to deal with the supply chain uncertainty. Based on this review I'm glad I passed for now. The thing I would add is that after listening to many products that Steve and other guys reviewed- the reviews tend to be an arrow aimed in a certain direction. Once you take into account the room, gear, tastes, personal abilities, language skills, breadth of knowledge, etc, things can change some. The Cornwall is fun. Not the best in clarity or depth of stage, but big and powerful with nice tone and less brightness than I expected. They had mids that I coud live with, unlike what he's saying about these 6's, but that's just me.
Steve Guttenberg aka the “Audiophiliac” has a new review out today on YouTube. Sort of surprising to me though I’ve never heard a Zu Speaker. Short version: it’s a mixed bag. Lively, great imaging, engaging, but he worked hard to get a tonal balance he could live with (not enough bass without some fussing).
I’ve actually been considering both the Zu Soul 6 and the Klipsch Cornwall iv so his comparison between the two is helpful. I’m interested to hear others’ reactions to this new bit of data.
Not getting to listen for 120 days, but to compare to what I have in new listening room.😷 Starts with M and ends with C, 9 letters. And that's Wheezer cones according to oldhvy...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If it takes more than,, say 30 minutes to figure a speakers voicing with your own test cds then he/she should not be buying any speaker.'As they are too green and need more time to develope speaker lsitening. What opened my world to hearing how a speaker should sound began with the Philips 475 High Fidelity next Seas Thor next highend WBers. All reference speakers
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 5 minutes or LESS I;'ll know if a speaker is for me,, If its a borderline case, then yeah 30 minutes. 1st you have to know how a neutral speaker sounds, aka Seas Thors, Then you have a reference point. Otherwise its like being lost in a desert.
Speaker not 15% off. Learn read and use proper paragraph before post even better write in notebook and keep on shelf. I have old essence in wood shed system use 3 watt line magnet amp sound nice. neighbor wife like when I split wood she always coming over offer refreshment and sometime like to strip down to use pool. Maybe I replace old speaker with these.
Most systems have too much total gain, and this is independent of amplifier power. If you have separate preamp and power amp, the input sensitivity of the power amp and the output voltage of the preamp have to be considered to get useful range out of the volume control. You could have a 2w amp with an input sensitivity of 0.5v paired to a preamp with 10v out and find the system very annoying to use. On the other hand, you could have a 200/200w power amp with an input sensitivity of 3.5v combined with a preamp with 2.5v out and find that the preamp runs out of drive before the power amp can be driven to full power.
You can also find 12ax7 preamp circuits that have relatively low total gain. Many high efficiency speakers have low or only modest power handling. Zu speakers combine high efficiency with high power handling so large amplifiers aren't a problem, but they aren't necessary either.
There are other ways to solve this problem. One is to use a TVC or AVC for the linestage, so that you maintain the drive in the system without adding gain, or only a little (+6db). If for other reasons of your own you choose to combine a high gain preamp with a high gain power amp, you can use high quality attenuators between the two. Or you can choose a modest-gain active preamp (~10db - 12db) with a moderate-gain power amp (~22db) and have a usable system regardless of power level.
The cone of the Zu Soul 6 main driver is wood pulp (paper) based treated with nano materials. As Zu explains it, "...The driver’s cone is a paper pulp substrate, processed with a liquid solid matrix utilizing several nanoengineered materials. Some key components and compounds include: nanosphere ceramics, synthetic epoxy, cristobalite, plus the use of amorphous fumed silica and aircraft dope. The nano materials and application process reduce weight and increase strength and propagation velocity without incurring any sacrifices in damping..."
The nano materials and the carrier evolve as Zu drivers evolve. Like all Zu main drivers, the new Soul 6 driver (including the whizzer) covers the range of 35 Hz - 12kHz, with the range above 12kHz handled by a supertweeter on a high pass filter. In the Soul 6, the supertweeter is mounted concentrically in the center structure of the full range driver.
This is not a simple paper cone driver. It retains the tone and texture of paper, with the lightness, strength, stiffness of synthetic and metal cone materials that otherwise don't sound as good. The concentric driver behaves as a point source, and the okoume ply cabinet is as critical to the vivid, lifelike sound of Soul 6 as the latest main driver is.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 15% off today,, I just cked the speaker looks and the db spec,, all it is , some sort of WBer /whizzzer, cone looks paper, I don't like paperpaper, Only bamboo paper/bamboo wood types. They dont say what the cone is made of,, I NEED to know. I only like treated bamboo fiber/pulps/wood ofrmashed banana pulp (Tang Band).
OK now we got that out the way..onto db sens wow a wopping 100db. Thats 6 db more than my limit, Yeah I know my DavidLouis VX8 is in fact 95db, thats 1 db more than my allowed max. 'WEll let me say 94/95db sens is ultimate limit. There is going to be serioes issues witha 95+ db sens WBer in my system. My amp boasts 100 watts. Rm is small, very near field listening. = 96+db not doable. Folks need to be aware when making speaker choices. You have to know certain things abouta speaker before hitting the BUY NOW button. The speaker may indeed be a steallar stunning voice. But again the db sens is 4db over my limit. WE need to open discussion about db sen s, how edach 1 db increment decides how a speaker will perform in certain amps/linestage. Most if not all linestage have a good bit of gain this higher amplification drives the gain factor in the amplifier this creating high gain in the speaker circuit. Thus making any db sens over 96db a serious issue in most home settings. The benifits of a 12AX7 gain in the linestage delivers superior dynamics and details. There are tradeoffs. Which is why i imagine some linestages employ a 12AT7 or 6SN7 type tubes. Lower amplificatio facots. I prefer the 12AX in drive tubes with AU's softening the initial gain. Both together work their magic. But you pay with higher gains. Trade off tradeoff tradeoffs. Everything in audio has some tradeoffs. Most of AER/Voxativ speakers also are disqualified from my interest due to high db sens. With any speaker at 96db+ I would need a 20x20x12 room to make the speaker work also a true flea watt SET/ 1-4 watts.
I should clarify my original post, it was taken from Zu's site on the day Soul 6 was released. Some corrections/additions:
Cabinet is the same size as Soul mk.II: 31.5 inches Entire cabinet structure is Okoume, not veneered fiberboard Bass extension down to 38 hz
I have to say of the 5 Zu models I have heard in my home, Soul mk.II was my least favorite. If Sean is able to get Druid type performance out of that cabinet, he truly is a genius.
John Darko currently has a pair of Soul 6 in his room, hopefully he will be posting a review soon.
I enjoyed my Soul Supremes except for the poor integration of the full range driver and the super tweeter. I'm curious if this coaxial design solves that issue.
I'm guessing no one has heard the new Zu Soul 6's on this forum yet? I got an email from them and they are saying delivery in 6 weeks. Hope that is true.
Zu has been slow getting them rolled out due to supply issues. There are a couple of people on the Zu owners facebook group who have them and say they are the real deal.
It has a supertweeter. The supertweeter is concentric in Soul 6, like in Cube. The largest advance is due to the completely redesigned cabinet. Okoume is both lighter and stiffer than the materials used in all prior Soul speakers. This allows an extensive revision to the internal bracing scheme, and a more complete implementation of the Griewe room acoustic impedance matching, for the Soul cabinet configuration. Okoume is also a primary driver on the cost difference over current Soul Supreme, including both the material and the increased labor to work it. Resonance control & energy management. in the entire system is better than Soul Supreme. I expect to like it.
I like Zu Audio speakers a lot, but have not heard these. A bit skeptical of the specs without the tweeter, but I only have very limited exposure, Omen Def and Soul Supreme.
I'd also be interested in hearing reviews.
The Soul 6 is more expensive than the Soul Supreme so it will be interesting how it sorts itself out. Zu prices lately have been going up and not slightly. Makes me wander if these increased prices to make up for so many Dirt Weekend Omens sold.
I wonder what the fate of the Soul Supreme will be. As in will they keep developing it or will the Soul line be rationalized to the Soul 6 alone. I had the Superflies and currently have the Supremes.
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