Zu Soul Superfly 8 ohm experiment


Have been Zu owner for many years starting with Tone progressing to Druid -then Essence and now Soul with nano tech drivers. Drive the speakers with Unison Research Preludio which is a 15 watt single ended class a amp which utilizes 6 ohm output taps. After reading a review of the speakers which suggested the speakers sounded best when paired with an amp that utilizes 16 ohm output taps i posed the question to Sean. he suggested i could experiment altering the impedance of the speakers by utilizing a 16 ohm resistor to lower the impedance to 8 ohms. I have generally been happy with the sound of my system except for a bit of hardness/glare in the higher frequencies that shows up on some recordings . i attributed this to the recording technique as ell as less than optimal listening environment (10x12 room ) also wondered if perhaps the preludio was not happy with the 16 ohm impedance. Decided to give Seans' suggestion a try and purchased a pair of 15 ohm Mills resistors from parts Express. Wrapped the leads around each of the speaker terminals -placed the spade lugs of the cables over the leads and tightened down the connector. have to admit I did not expect much, but was pleasantly surprised. Thought the speakers sounded cleaner - vocals clearer and a definite decrease in the high end glare/hardness . After changing speaker cables I had been bothered by what seemed to be an exaggeration of sibilance . but noticed that it now sounded much more natural and the hardness associated with it improved. wonder if any other Zu owners have had a similar experience ?
dcr

Showing 2 responses by gauchowino

I'm interested in this topic, but I have to admit, as a newbie it's a bit over my head. Phil, I looked at the anticable site, but it seemed like the autoformers were made for dividing the ohms to a smaller number...8 ohm tap on an amp to 4 ohm speakers...the issue with the super fly's is they are designed for 16 ohm taps and my amp has 8 ohm taps, in this scenario is the autoformer still an option? Sorry if I am totally misunderstanding the concept here...

Dcr...for the resister route, do they come with instructions or is there a resource that shows how to do it...sounds simple based on your description, but still would like to see how it's supposed to work...