Zu Soul Superfly

I am just curious why did they already abandon the Ribbon Tweet from the essence after one new speaker with it and go back?

Wow... I hate to say it but you can paint a nice car for that much scratch... Seems that is one sticking factor for Zu since day one is the finishing process and costs, I mean thats as much as the speaker itself.

Then again I see speakers and gear as "Utilitarian" devices and no need for anything fancy unless its under the hood.. Pure performance, if it has to be raw concrete and it sounds best thats the key to me.

Mostly I love to see the birds eye finishes, and piano black, but for the cost I can deal with flat black that goes with anything and can hide in a room for the most part anyway, it is a speaker and most people accept that. Few hundred extra I can see it, but few thousand and we are getting too far out on the line in this hobby for a "finish" especially in systems with speakers that mostly are under the 10,000 dollar cost spectrum. Listen to the music don't try to look at it!

Venicelake, I completely agree... Also the simpler the better in many cases. For sure I can say that Zu with S.E.T. is plenty of big sound. I never heard Gallos so I can't give any advice, cool enclosure with the orb' style setup though.

Venicelake
I would suggest getting an in home demo of a Zu pair and explain your concern directly... If they work out in a standard or even plain MDF finish prototype for you, and you can agree to a small shipping fee difference then you can assure they are for you or not and then maybe get a discount on a new gloss custom color as they will see you do want them permanently. Maybe they will even decide to ship you the custom ones up front and take them back for another sale if you reject them for a small fee.

I know Zu normally would accomidate something like this if necessary. These are not that big and heavy, I know something like this thru the 48 states U.S. was in the 75 to 100 per pair range a couple years ago with their Fed ex discount. But I think they can understand at this upgrade cost it is worth it to them to try and make it work for you. This is their business and they deal in it everyday, so its not that outside the fence.

Kenp88,
I would just pull the tweeter on that myself, normally Zu hot glues the single capacitor to the back of the supertweet with the resistor, mills normally, you can remove it, and replace with a much better cap to get the highs more extended and silky. I believe their current cap in most models is the Kimber cap on the standard setup, its not bad, but I don't like them, to hard and flat sounding in my opinion. They use to use the Solen fastcaps 10 years ago and then started using Mundorf Silver/oils for the higher end models and special editions.

This model obviously comes in the "Superfly" with a Mundorf cap I believe. I would just do this yourself if you want for much less money, a pair is not too bad for these caps, but pricey.

I found the better caps for the money are the Clarity MR's and the Jantzen superior Z's. You can do a pair of Jantzens for about 20 bucks! Most of the Zu super tweets have a single resistor and a 1uF cap or 2uF cap and thats it. Easy to find out calling them or pulling it yourself by just removing the 4 screws. One caution however is that the Big time Mundorf, Clarity caps etc... Are PHYSICALLY as large as the tweeter, and when mounted to the back they take up the entire size and just fit thru the tweeters mounting hole. This is just he same if Zu does it for you, I have modified several in the past.

By the way Zu also favors a "Battery" of caps on their tweeters in many models, meaning if they are using a 2.0 uF total value they use Dual 1uF caps strapped together, this can down the size slightly as well vs. one large cap, if you use mundorf Silver/oils this gets very expensive and is why they offer the upgrade at a much higher cost I assume, as in the Definition II. Essentially mundorf caps are Dual caps inside of one already, so this would mean a 2.ouF value is actually 4 caps filtering the tweet...

Sorry just realized you have the Superfly I guess which is with the tweeter upgrade, never mind! The 1800 price threw me, it was a promotional.

Gopher,
"I'm really confused as to why Zu speakers have been so controversial over the years."

Because they were :

A- New to the Game

B- Mixed with many early 21st century Chinese copy gear, and or companies plagued with tech issues and name smearing early in the internet game. Most "Audiophiles" never saw a web page until early 2000's... Stereophile magazine, and too good to be true were the run of the mill advertising of the time.

C- And possibly the most controversial they heavily marketed direct, and with single driver wide band, no crossover voodoo. Which is like Tubes or vinyl to the mass marketed even upper scale boutique customers.

D- Entering a highly saturated audio market virtually at the peak of internet sales, Forums, and the revival of Vinyl... Who knows!