Bottlehead and Zu

While I'm waiting for the power switch (should arrive tomorrow), I guess I can mention the other half of this thread's title. I just dropped an order for a set of Soul Supremes in walnut. I hope that will work well with the Kaiju, and I'll be interested to see what happens first: the arrival of the speakers or the completion of the amp!
 
Heh. I just read Bottlehead's note about the replacement power switch. Something tells me, this is first test of our soldering skills for all the kits. I guess, if you can solder the power switch, you can solder anything!

If you’re reading this, you probably melted your power switch. It’s OK, we’ve all done it. Here’s the spot to get a fresh one, and while you’re waiting for the package, why not watch this video to figure out how to only do this one more time?
Power switch video
 
What are the folks at Zu talking about? They were constantly talking about how small the Souls are, and how I might need to lean them back to compensate for their lack of height.
Here is one of my Soul Supremes next to my old Boston Acoustics VR-1. Do you see anything small about this speaker?! It's frickin' tweeter is bigger than the Boston's woofers!

Speaker Comparison.jpg
 
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apholden said:
What are the folks at Zu talking about? They were constantly talking about how small the Souls are, and how I might need to lean them back to compensate for their lack of height.
Here is one of my Soul Supremes next to my old Boston Acoustics VR-1. Do you see anything small about this speaker?! It's frickin' tweeter is bigger than the Boston's woofers!

View attachment 35507
Click to expand...

wanna see my fortes
 
apholden said:
What are the folks at Zu talking about? They were constantly talking about how small the Souls are, and how I might need to lean them back to compensate for their lack of height.
Here is one of my Soul Supremes next to my old Boston Acoustics VR-1. Do you see anything small about this speaker?! It's frickin' tweeter is bigger than the Boston's woofers!

View attachment 35507
Click to expand...

My Souls are the “sporty shortys” in the Zu line. The Supremes are much taller. Yours are beautiful!
 
Somehow, I missed that the Supremes were bigger than the regular Souls. They have a good presence. They also sound pretty good on my HT. I can't wait to finish my Bottlehead now.
Oh, and @kvetcha, I accept that yours are bigger!
 
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apholden said:
Somehow, I missed that the Supremes were bigger than there regular Souls. They have a good presence. They also sound pretty good on my HT. I can't wait to finish my Bottlehead now.
Oh, and @kvetcha, I accept that yours are bigger!
Click to expand...

Yours are 16 ohms, right? If you don't have 16 ohm taps on your Bottlehead, you might want to get snubber resistors from Zu. @AnthonyI had to do that.
 
I double-checked, and Zu talks about the Soul Supreme still being short, even if it is a few inches taller than the Soul:
Soul Supreme has been designed to account for its shorter stature, the 2 ̊ rake on the obelisk shaped cabinet allows for an expanding soundfield that has the same 2 ̊ upward declination from level allowing the soundscape to appear larger and taller than you would think. Users can also adjust the feet in the Soul Supreme to tilt the face of the speaker back further tailoring the sound and loudspeakers integration with the room.
Click to expand...
I also noticed my observation about the tweeter wasn't hyperbole. Accoring to the specs, it accounts for more than ¼ of the speaker's total weight!
 
apholden said:
I double-checked, and Zu talks about the Soul Supreme still being short, even if it is a few inches taller than the Soul:

I also noticed my observation about the tweeter wasn't hyperbole. Accoring to the specs, it accounts for more than ¼ of the speaker's total weight!
Click to expand...
I would guess if you compare them to Druids, then sure, they're short. Otherwise, nahhhh.
 
The power switch was the main one. It scared me away for a while. Now that we all have nothing to do, I decided it was time to try again. A quick video about the right way to solder the power switch and the complete destruction of the old one, and I was ready to get back in.
I get a little nervous powering it up for high voltage measurements, but haven't hurt myself yet.
Aside from that, it's been smooth.
 
Waiting for caps to drain and tubes to cool after the power supply test. I managed to read 2 250V, 2 70V and 1 550V points without blowing myself up! I'm about halfway through the book now. Up next, the inputs.
Post Power Supply Test Cooldown.jpg
 
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