Zu Druids upgraded Vs Essence

Isn't the new Druid a totally different design than previously? Thought it was similar to the Essence in size and cabinet...the Druids they have now are bookshelf monitors. Anyways, it seems like many people have a lot of positive things to say about the Druids, while the Essence is more hit or miss per the individual listener. I've been looking at Zu speakers for a bit now....may try their 60 day in home audition and see what goes down.

The new Zu Soul has the 10" below the tweeter, which allows it to be a "shorter" design, @ 36" tall vs. 48". It has a 12" square bottom, and all sides have a slight angle as it goes up, so it has a trapazoid appearance.

They sound sweet, and have a little better (deeper extension) bottom end than the original Druids.

They are still in prototype stage, and price is rumored to be sub $2K.

I think to sell 'speakers, Zu needed to come up with something quite different from the what had gone before when they moved away from direct selling to using dealer networks. The newer Zu 'speakers (Presence, Essence) have a more conventional 'Hi-Fi' (as opposed to musical) sound. Thing is who would buy from a dealer when there are lots of cheaper used ones about?

I think alot of it comes down to the ribbon tweeter in the Essence. The tweeter has been described as dead and 'Hi-Fi' sounding in many other 'speakers.

I hope the new Soul sees a return to form

Ton, do you know what tweeter is in the new Soul?

I think Ron is bringing the Soul with him to my place. Should be interesting.

Shakey