I’m just staring my audiophile journey in a house. I’ve had high end car audio systems (Macintosh, Image Dynamic Compression Drivers, 2x 36 Band EQs, Cross Over and Dyn Audio Mid Bass Drivers) which I miss! I’m a huge fan already of Decware and this gentleman’s products. I think I’m going to skip ahead to the greatest hits and buy the Open Baffles and the UFO. I was look at La Scalas but just have a feeling Decware works best with Decware. Seems to me this Gentleman has a serious talent and passion which is a wicked combination. Im so excited Im literally watching videos like this while I save up.
With high power that is typically true. However our SET amps don't have enough power to blow themselves up or your speakers because we oversize the transformers.
I am not using tubes and if I would, it will be a Decware. I am using an old conditioned STR151A putting out 7.5w per channel driving a Coral 12TX-50 speakers. My technician oversized my power transformers, he did a good job and I am still enjoying playing records using ceramic cartridges. I am watching because I am thinking of using a MM in another turntable setup. Nice video 👍🎶👌!!!
I have heard one should handle tubes/valves with gloves to prevent unequal heating of the envelope. Any thoughts? Thanks for a great video and a great product!
This is a common mistake because halogen or quarts light bulbs require gloves to handle because finger oil will insulate the glass and cause it to run hot in spots and shorten it's life. Not true for audio tubes. That said, fingerprints aren't all that attractive, so we just wipe the tube with alcohol when we're done.
On this phono stage the THD is too low to hear, and that is also the case with solid state. The bigger reason SET amps sound great is actually the lack of negative feedback due to the superior linearity of the triode. In this unit, we also use passive RIAA so there is no feedback of any kind in the circuit. This becomes especially important in a dedicated listening room with acoustic treatments because negative feedback limits sound stage depth.
Would it be possible to have too much tube goodness in a signal chain, such as a ZP3 into a TORII JR, when the music is distorted guitar rock, or electronic synth pop, both with vocal harmonies, big drum & deep bass sounds? Will so many tubes smear the sound, or do they just make the overall sound dimensionally bigger?
The answer depends on the transparency of the components. With our gear it's hard to get too much to the point where it begins to make things worse and not better. A signal chain like the ZP3 into a TORII JR is about as good as it gets, lacking a preamp you couldn't get any simpler really.
I would love to put this up against my Hagerman Cornet 2. I would like to see under the hood and it cost about the same as mine even though I do have top of the line parts like Mundorf Caps along with z foil resistors.
The biggest secret to this unit is that the OA3 Vacuum Regulation is in series with the entire B+ load acting as a filter instead of a shunt. You don't need to regulate a power supply when it's oversized by 500%, plus shunt regulation creates noise. However when placed in series all of the harmonics and noise that creep into the power supply is blocked in the gap between the cathode and anode, so that only clean almost battery like DC comes through. This is how you get that crazy liquidity. Also we don't do solid state current sources because we feel even though it improves performance on paper it also creates some artifacts that contribute to a more clinical sound. The sound of the Zen is Transparent Liquidity without any thickness or darkness or brightness.
@@decwareproducts I think you mean some engineers trust science over cognitive dissonance. Small amounts of audio component manufacturers, that's what, because if you asked Agilent, Tektronix, R&S, etc. they would laugh at someone who thought tube rectification was better than solid state. But let's not do that, if you want to use your eyes then look at at McIntosh and Luxman with some of the top engineers in the world who have been designing some of the most coveted tube amps for decades with solid state front ends. Even the highly rated Fisher 500C from the 60's uses solid state rectification, what those engineers were and are all deaf? What's the science? I can give you lots of science for solid state front ends and why they are better. Think you can hear the difference between DC from a tube and DC from SS? That's rhetorical, you can't and you can't see it on a scope, an FFT or a bode plot and I can prove that with instruments that measure far beyond human hearing. It's called science, you can buy test instruments that measure picoamps and gigahertz , are they using tube rectification? They'd fire someone who put a 5U4 in a scope or bench meter. Audio equipment is electronics and it follows the same rules. The nonsense people who know nothing about science believe is embarrassing.
@@mosfet500 give me a hybrid amplifier as a Bass guitar player then give me a straight up tube amplifier for my guitar but for music, that is my personal music listening, then it is always a subjective opinion. Some people like coffee and some people like tea.
@@BicycleJoeTomasello Rectification converts AC to DC. You can't hear DC regardless whether it's a tube, silicon diode or a battery. It doesn't matter if it's a guitar amp, a preamp or a power amp. With solid state rectification you can control parameters better so tubes last longer. You could have similar control with tubes but the cost, complexity and failure rate would be much higher. Manufacturers put tube rectification in because buyers have no idea what electronics is. Decware arguing that it makes a difference and their engineers can hear it is an embarrassing lack of understanding of basic electronics. Toroidal transformers are in the same bag by the way. Hum in transformers is not inductive, it's capacitive. Toroidal transformers, because of the way they are wound, have greater hum than, say, a double bobbin type transformer. I have no issues with Decware or any other manufacturer, this is just electronic engineering. The dynamic range of this amp is limited simply by its output power. High efficient speakers in small rooms it's probably fine. The problem is that the price is getting into the territory of more versatile amps. I suggest listening to a good class D with a tube preamp. The sound comes from the preamp, that's the best place to contour it, not so much in the power stage.
@@mosfet500 Are you here on behalf of Amir? I thought his followers spent all their free time circle-jerking whenever he reviews a product with a headless panther. It's quite clear you've spent a few weeks on his forum gobbling up all the drivel and for whatever reason feel the need to spout off on RU-vid and try to damage a manufacturer's reputation.
