Zu Soul Supreme Recap -- Owners, what are your preferred system pairings with them?


I'll save a long backstory, but in short I've got the Zu Soul Supremes and I absolutely love them for what they do, at least in my relatively small (13x15x9) listening room.  I've had them a couple years as a follow-on to previous Zu speakers (Unions and Cubes, which I still own).  Those followed some vintage Altec horns (16 ohm Valencias and 19s)--which I love, but love the Zus more for daily listening.  Sean recommended the Supremes over the Druids at the time for the size of my listening room, although I suspect the Druids would have been as good or better regardless.

My interest is to hear from other Zu Soul Supreme owners...not may posts in this forum from owners that I can find.  I'd prefer to focus this discussion on the Soul Supremes, as there is a lot of great info already on the Druids and Definitions (which I assume are more prevalent in the wild), even though I'm sure have a ton of overlap in system synergy.

So...

What system components are you finding to be great/phenomenal matches to the Soul Supremes, what have you compared them to, and what hasn't worked as well?   Anyone running them with what you consider to be really high-end gear?  I'm super curious to see how far these speakers can go before a speaker upgrade makes way more sense.

Jay
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I'll try to answer why I kept the Soul Supremes over the Druid 6's (not 5's, as stated in the question--I never owned the 5s, but heard them a couple times)...but my answer will be unashamedly subjective in nature.  As scientific as I tried to make my personal comparisons, a bunch of things changed (including my rooms, and my exposure to field coil drivers) and I ultimately relied on emotion.  And by the way, the Soul Supremes are for the moment in a 3rd system I own, and are going to be moved to a 5th system.  So while I kept them, they have moved into a specialized spot for me personally....they continued to get trickled down to lesser-used systems.  But I still love them...I think.  But let me be clear--for the $, they remain a phenomenal speaker, especially at used prices.

Before I go there, however, while I understand Sean's comments that Zu's love high-power (I'm quoting the post, I don't remember specifically reading that, but I don't doubt he said it), that by itself probably explains where I feel like some of the design choices made at Zu might differ from goals of my own.

I'll just state my own bias...building a speaker that is by nature quite high (very high?) in efficiency (98-101db or whatever range they end up) and then having the feeling that they really need "high-power" seems like something was ultimately traded off that does not match my own personal design goals for a high-efficiency speaker.  I am not suggesting that everyone should end with flea watt SET amps, but I certainly do not personally feel that moving to "high-power" amps is an end-game answer for any high-efficiency, full range driver'd speaker.  The trade offs in capabilities as you move into the 50 wpc or higher amp designs are, by nature, trade offs that are easy to hear in transparent high-efficiency speakers.  Heck, even 18 wpc on 845 SET amps or a solid state SIT3 is easy to hear the trade-offs over something like 300B or PX4 and then again over 45 or 71a (when those amps have top designs and top parts).  You lose some micro detail and nuance, minimally, even if there is a gain on slam and dynamics.  Once you've heard a particular set of traits in those ranges, for a near-end-game emotional level, you'll find you need it all, not a trade-off one way or the other.  I have owned (and still own) a very large number of amps in many topologies, solid state and tubed, and have spent countless hours with each in many combos.  I'm not saying I know better than everyone--but I'm saying I have owned (and still own) about 10 different sets of high-efficiency speakers of different brands and eras, and about 30 amps to pair them all with.  And yes, much of this is trial and error and subjective preference, so if this paragraph has offended anyone, please don't be.  You may love "high power amps matched with Zus" and I won't challenge that for your personal situation.  It's just not what I found in the end (and ultimately moved on from the Zu design, in spite of still respecting it).

The Druid 6 is a much more capable speaker than the Soul Supreme...don't misread my action of keeping one and selling the other as a comparison in that respect.  Both are great speakers that have sweet spots for their usage and price ranges.  The Druid 6 took a larger step away from the Soul Supreme vs. the Druid 5 did, which given the 5's parts similarity to the Supremes, the Druid 5 may sit closer to the Supreme than the 6.  The 6 retrieved more detail, gave slightly better imaging, seemed to go a little lower, seemed to go a little higher, seemed to have slightly more black backgrounds, and more slam over the Supremes, all else "equal."  None of that should surprise people.  It was in my opinion more "high performance."  Zu probably feels like they accomplished what they had hoped to do with the 6...make a new speaker that was largely based on their experience to date but with everything just a little refined, better, newer, tighter.  It was "better" by the subjective (and probably objective) measuring posts.  However, I can't prove my next comments, but I also think they were more difficult to nail in terms of positioning and gear to get the most out of them.  They relied on a higher level of associated equipment (they could sound spectacularly average with the wrong gear and wrong room).  If you didn't have the right room or the ability to pull them out into the room, they sunk a bit in terms of soundstage.  I could say the same exact things about the Soul Supremes, but the range of their performance was tighter in those scenarios...it didn't get as crazy good so it also didn't have as far to drop when positioned incorrectly or paired with gear that was not as good as a match.

However, as good of a level as the 6s reached, I sold the 6s because they were not ever going to be end-game for me.  That was a very personal and subjective decision and not a knock on Zu or anyone who finds them to be "end game."  They are great speakers, and an improvement, but as you move into $10K and above speakers, the goal posts change for how amazing they need to be.

I kept the Soul Supremes because I love the look of them, they are capable of producing some very emotional and musical sound and seem to be a nice middle-ground from Zu between superb entry-level high-efficiency speakers that can be easy dropped into an environment and produce "fun" and what I suspect they intended to be more an "audiophile" speaker that tries to compete with the best.  The Supremes retrieve enough detail to make your ears perk up and go "wow" enough of the time when paired with great amps and source, but they don't try to compete with $20K or higher speakers.  For that reason I will probably continue to try to make a system around them to listen to on occasion.  They could certainly be the cornerstone of a very top end system, and if you got them for $2K you stole them at that price...well done.


Thanks for the insight @parsons

Maybe I'm not old enough to think "end game" yet. Even though I've had my previous main speakers for 20 years, I never for a moment thought of them as my last. I also can't quite bring myself to get rid of them yet either. I guess a little sentimentality is to be expected sometimes. It feels strange to even think about trading in the Omen DW after having them for less than a year, but everything I've read about the Soul Supreme tells me there is another level of Zu I need to experience, even if it's only the next step. Though if I keep averaging 10 years per step I may run out of time before I get much further.
I mentioned that term in my case to explain why I made some of the "investment" decisions I made in my system.  You are thinking about the decisions correctly in your case in my opinion.  If you lived with a set of speakers for 20 years, well done--that means you really made a wise choice and got significant enjoyment from them, I presume.

I have a buddy with the DWs and he has them in a large room and they are quite good, but i think a slightly different sound than the Soul Supremes.  His room is a little boomy (2 story) and he plays them loud and that's what he was going for in that room I think.  The heart of the Zu sound will be similar between the two speakers, but I feel like the Soul Supremes, while they still rock, were intended to give a little more refined sound in a slightly more controlled environment (ie. smaller room, but not necessarily a "small" room).  I predict they are simply a little more capable.

As another comparison, I started my Zu trip with Unions, which I only sold recently to my cousin who loves them, and the Soul Supremes were a nice step up for me in the medium-sized room I had at the time.  I suspect the Unions to perform at similar levels to DWs.  I feel like the Soul Supremes enjoy a little side reflection to sound larger and more magical ...they feel a little smaller in the room I have them in now which doesn't have the side reflections.  Again, I think the Soul Supremes may need really strong placement to get their real performance, but when you do, it should be a good level or two above some of Zu's lower models.

Again, this is all my opinion, but in the right room conditions, the Soul Supremes are a VERY capable speaker that it would take a LOT of investment to make the weak link in a phenomenal system.  I feel that they are a sincere sweet spot in the very strong Zu lineup.
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Can someone explain why the Supremes are says to mate wuth solid state or valves but the Superfly only with valves?