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Past and present. Personal appreciation of Zuist renovations in driver and enclosure tech relied on matching up Druid V and my older Essence. Because the sonic combo was exceptionally happy, Bakoon's AMP-11R fronted by a premium valve preamp remained in the driver's seat. Naturally I couldn't break down relative contributions of a quieter box vs. tweaked-out main driver. No crossover on the latter means that whatever linearization compensation was desired had to be addressed mechanically. My instinct was that aside from a superior tweeter the Druid V's primary advances remained concealed behind its smooth lacquer skins. Despite its edgy exterior, the actual box had gotten rather more sophisticated. Even as primitive an assessment as the old knuckle rap could sort this out.


The twice-the-volume Essence box made for some extra cycles of low-frequency reach but no victory. The Druid V had noticeably greater dynamic gradation and grippier steeper attacks even in its bass registers. The Essence felt comparatively veiled, restrained and dry. One foot rode the microdynamic brake whilst the other hand had dimmed some stage lights. Heightened resolution for the Druid was active across the board and manifested as a stiff injection of audible space. This aforementioned ambient wetness which speakers from Gallo and Aries Cerat admittedly do better still already had the Druid V show the Essence a clean set of red-soled Prada heels. Anna-Marie Jopek and Pat Metheny demonstrated this with exuberance on their delightful and well-recorded Upojenie collaboration. The Polish singer's voice clearly exhibited far more 3D markers and the many tiny percussive noise makers had higher presence too. The uncanny family resemblance between these speakers was image density. It's the overriding quality Zu has pursued from the very beginning under the catch-all tone moniker.

Where the Druid V pulled decisively ahead was eliminating from this shared very meaty density obvious remnants of a gelatinous quality which mixes in blur, fuzz and opaqueness. This is quite similar to comparing a premium single-ended transistor amp to an equivalent valve amp. It nearly inevitably exposes the latter's comfy warmth as sacrificing immediacy, directness, separation and speed.

Orchestra Baobab and Baloji, Barbican
In the presence of realistic image density, these 'transistory' qualities need not add to lean starkness. While to my ears and in this context the Druid V remains a tube amp, the Essence in that scheme would be a lesser pentode push/pull design. The Druid becomes a premium single-ended with Emission Labs 300Bs from the likes of Ancient Audio (not a 45 or 50 variant whose illumination of space exceeds that of a 300B). Think of the Druid V as sporting a built-in valve emulator. This gets you closer at the truth than most such generalizations. Intuitively it also covers why the Druid V likes power. Particularly its lower band gets peppier and wirier when fronted by what for its claimed 101dB spec reads like excess wattage. This was true not just for my ModWright KWA-100SE but also a €3.500 70wpc push/pull Mosfet integrated from Greek newcomer Konstaninos Papachristou of Black Pearls brand. When it comes to power and thirst, Zu's hard-hung 10.3 incher rewrites the rule book of ultra-light Lowther types. Before you think low power, try between 50-100 watts too—with transistors you'll only see half of that—just to check how the other half lives and where you and your tunes might be happiest. Without a subwoofer, Power Rock for example could benefit nicely.
Left to right, bottom then top: Yamamoto A-014, FirstWatt SIT1, Black Pearls Birth, Clones Audio 25i
That said, Funjoe's $529 gainclone integrated from Hong Kong with its 25 high-gain watts was wildly more than short-term stop-gap measure. Its slightly fresh feisty lit-up attitude made for a good counterpoint to the Druid's darker '300B traits' whilst its micro sticker meant that one might perhaps entertain one of the costlier high-pass filter options. On the more sophisticated side of the same equation lives the €5.000 Bakoon which also sports a passive pot to eliminate a preamp and then adds those amazingly turned-on upper registers which uncover detail most others overlook. The FirstWatt SIT-1 were my ultimate amps but at €10.000/pr somewhat prohibitive if one still aimed at adding the Submission (or half-priced Undertone).
Submission/Definition IV down-firing woofer/plinth assembly