Corey,
1. You are right about the importance of the room.
2. I disagree about the Decware iron. Are you confining your "limited bass" to the SET  line up?
3. Both of the Torii's with the Imperials will produce chest thumping, clear as as a bell low end bully.
4. I agree with Dave, you're coming of as a marketing pitch.

Tim

change_out wrote on 09/12/07 at 20:15:12:


I agree totally with this statement, Tim, except both of the Torii's go against what's being discussed, in fact they almost prove Corey correct.  That, and the Imperials are hardly a fair speaker to use as a bass reference comparison.

4. I agree with Dave, you're coming of as a marketing pitch.

Marketing pitch or reality check?  Corey has spent enough $$ to know what works at what doesn't, therefore his opinion is justified.




Jason

Jason wrote on 09/12/07 at 21:05:49:



Lets get to the point then and be brutally honest... I have not heard any SE amp that was up to task in the bass department. I mean bass so tight, so real that nausea is an issue. I have 'big iron' and the bass response is better than smaller iron. But the fact is that it still is not enough... even with the imperial. I end up using SS for the lowest octave. I wish I could truely run single driver full range. But I am caught in the enigma of how a small OPT can sound sweeter, more detailed, and even more holographic than larger iron. But Corey is completely right that for bass bigger iron is better. Here is something to think about... I find cheap Hammond 125CSE OPT to sound very sweet at the top, maybe even better than my Electraprint iron.

Perhaps Steve realizes true magic is in the midrange and top... and is not willing to give that up. It is not that he can't make big iron, it is that he is not willing to compromise what makes his amps special.

So we really are all in the same boat... we wish one amp could do it all, but guess what... one amp can't. How you address that issue is your own compromise.

buzz

As has been mentioned several times in this thread ..... personal taste is the real issue.

Having said that, I am not a "bass freak" by any means.  The music that is my standard fare leans more toward the acoustic side with the lowest notes being produced by an acoustic bass or piano.  I am not much into electronically produced bass.  A Decware Select and CSP2 driving a pair of speakers with the capability to reproduce the bass notes produced by acoustic instruments is extremely realistic and satisfying.  It has been my experience that a good number of folks have been conditioned by the over-emphasized bass that dominates popular music.

I attend events on a regular basis where live piano and acoustic bass are played (unamplified) and I have no complaints about the bass I am hearing from my home system .....  8-)

Steve has stated often that the CSP2 "completes" the sound of the Zen amps and takes the sound to the next level.  The enhanced bass is a big part of that package.  Don't make the mistake of thinking that the Select is bass shy (with suitable speakers) until you have heard it with the CSP2.

Randy

Randy in Caintuck wrote on 09/12/07 at 22:09:32:


Very true, Randy.  My audio systems have always had fairly flat frequency responses.  The bass is there, but not overpowering.  You miss it if it's rolled off, but its never the dominant feature.   Besides, there's not much below 40hz unless it's artificially introduced.

Jason

"The central research theme of Dr. Vladimir Gavreau was the development of remote controlled automatons and robotic devices. To this end he assembled a group of scientists in 1957."

"Housed in a large concrete building, the entire group periodically experienced a disconcerting nausea which flooded the research facility."

"The source was finally traced by building engineers to an improperly installed motor-driven ventilator."

"It was found that a low intensity pitch of a fundamental 7 cycles per second was being produced.  It became obvious that the slow vibrating motor was activating an infrasonic resonant mode in the large concrete duct. Operating as the vibrating "tongue" of an immense "organ pipe", the rattling motor produced nauseating infrasound."

-- Quotes taken from http://www.borderlands.com/archives/arch/gavreaus.htm

That's bass that makes you puke!

Jason

SE84ZSM
120/240 volt Zen Triode Monoblocks (pr)
$2095.00


It seems my mouse is going into autopilot towards the master catalog page........help help......I can't stop......

C Evans