Zu Druid vs Tannoy Prestige or Classic.. need your help

Mike,

Do you have updates to share since you have lived with the Tannoys for a while?

I have been considering Tannoys but haven’t had the pleasure of hearing them.  
I would live to hear if you have enjoyed them or if you have moved on.  

Well guys, it taken me awhile to resond to this as I needed to collect my thoughts.  Here's what happened, the Tannoy DC-10's showed up and althought beautiful where WAY too big for my room.  The specs on the website were listed incorrectly and they were much bigger than I expected.  The biggest problem was they were too tall and when I was in the listening position they were shooting over my head!
Now they are nice speakers, well made, beautifully finished, easy to drive, and they sounded very nice.  The main things I was looking for was to get rid of the discontiousness of multi driver speaker, CHECK!  The big sound of a larger mid range driver, more natural sound than I was getting from my multi driver smaller mid range driver speaker, CHECK!
I was a little disappointed by the lack of bass, but I did not fill the compartments with any ballist, cuz its too much work and I knew, because of the size they were being returned. I'm sure filling them would have helped the bass. There are a beautiful sounding speaker, I should have stayed with my first choice of the Turnberry, as the size issue would not have been a non-issue.  
Now how things ended up, I returned the Tannoy Dc-10 and decided before I would buy the Turnberry, that I would take Zu up on their 60 day return policy and try the Zu Soul Supreme (or as they refer to them the Druid V)
  Now I need to give credit where credit is due 213Cobra was a huge help in navigating this speaker journey. I truly appeciated his help, he is very knowledgable!
I had been discussing with 213 Cobra my discuss of multi driver, 4ohm 87db speakers that need an amp the size of a Buick to drive them, and the discontinousness of Multi driver speakers.  We discuss the Tannoys and he suggested the the ZU's.  Single driver, NO crossover, easy to drive speaker, yes they have a tweeter, but no crossover.
So I got the the new ZU Soul Supreme's with the upgraded oil caps and I have not looked back!!  They are even easier to drive than the Tannoys, the bass in the Zu's is tremendous, and I get the big midrange I wanted, no squawking from a small driver. The highs are sweet (oil caps) and no discontinousness from the mulit driver.
I have read where someone on Agon felt that Zu played music in Techno color, I never totally understood that analogy, but the music is very lively, direct and sounds like music.  I know what real instruments sound like and thats what I hear.  I have no need for a sub, I'm very happy with the Zu's.
Now if I could to compare the Tannoy Turnberrys to the Zu, it would be fun, but the Zu's are way less expensive and American made, so I feel really good about owning the Zu's!!
Hope that helps!
Mike

My dealer had DC10A on the floor for a while. They never jived with me. Way too much energy up top in treble, not enough energy down low, even with some 20 lbs of lead shot loaded into each cabinet. I’m not sure if there was just something peculiar about that particular unit.

I expected MUCH better bass performance with the modern cabinet and reflex port. The Yorkminster SE was reflex ported and had easily the BEST bass of its Prestige series (save maybe the Westminster, which I haven’t heard).

The Kensington definitely sounds different than the 10A despite the common driver; I like it WAY better.

Funny my dealer also had a Definition DC10T and that had the opposite problems of the 10A - way too warm / wooly, almost muddy sound. With Tannoy it’s probably wise to either stick with the classic models or get your ears on a model before buying. The Kensington and Canterbury models are stellar. I haven't heard the Turnberrys but they seem to be very well liked. 

Good on you, Mike. I've run Zus since 2008, first Defs 2, and then Defs 4 from 2013, upgrading Duelunds in high- and low-pass filters, and Lundahls to sub bass amps, in 2015, and most recently adding Arya Audio Revopods to replace stock spikes, and Townshend supertweeters.
I've really got to know the Zu sound for over a decade, have nailed down room acoustics, system gear and optimising, which has paid off in spades as my Zus keep revealing more and more.
What's fascinating about them is that they absolutely impress on tone density (esp lower mids), dynamic pop and shove, meaning they're so compelling across genres, but reveal their more delicate side, tonal shading, timbral accuracy, microdynamics, tonal differentiation from album to album, by careful attention to system, room, positioning etc, that they impress on the most demanding of music, classical and jazz, genres traditionally not associated w Zu.
For me, the journey getting them to be as impressive on the delicacy of music has been as much fun, and as rewarding, as the reason they're so compelling to make you buy them on day one.
I've heard some amazing ribbons and horns in the last 7 years. None of them are as fully compelling across the broadest range of music as the Zus are.

Mike,

Thanks for the update.  I've yet to her Soul Supreme's but I after hearing other Zu offerings the Soul Supreme seem like the sweet spot in their lineup for me.

I'm glad you are enjoying them!