Does anyone here have experience with swapping the el84's shared cathode resistor for two separate resistors, one for each tube (=channel)? I'm mostly interested in the sonic difference; aka is the shared cathode resistor a magic trick or a cost-cutting measure? The only info I have been able to find is that shared cathode resistors make the soundstage wider; the obvious flaw would be worse channel separation...

Cheers,

Simon

You may be right. I don't have a zen but a homebuilt el84 amp with the same output stage, dual mono ps and e80cc driver. For now I have the shared cathode resistor and the imaging is exceptional; I'll have to do some soldering and listening myself to hear the sonic effects of the cathode resistor. I'll post my findings here for all the shared cathode Zen-owners.

Simon