Lon,

I've been following your comments for awhile now, and feel obligated to suggest some tube rolling.  The signature you describe is the tube, the player can easily go from dry to warm and of course sound stage varies widely (get it) from tube to tube.  Not that what you have is bad, but likely you can find a similar signature with a touch less dryness and a better sound stage with some work.

Steve

Despite the fact that there is a good amount of debate concerning the benefits (or not) of an "upgrade" power cord, the captive cord may (or may not) be responsible for some of the results Lon is getting.

When Parker Audio Dave visited my abode the other night, one of his remarks was that it seemed the guitar player on one of the CDs went into the adjoining room to get himself a cold one .....  ;)

So ..... soundstage width is not an issue for me.  At the time, the ZCD was getting AC through one of Dave's power cords.

I also would not use the term "dry" to describe the sound I am hearing .... maybe "precise" for lack of a better term.  The sound is very clear and focused.  On some CDs this is desirable, on others not so much.

Tube rolling produced some very interesting results.  The Amperex Bugle Boy gave us a sweet, very listenable sound.  The Mullard had wonderful bass and lower midrange ..... but was a little rolled off at the top compared to some others.  The Telefunken was the hands down favorite of both Dave and myself ..... lively, extended and full bodied all at the same time.  The Seimens was very similar ..... with just a little bit less of everything.

The real surprises to me were an RCA clear top (which is highly regarded in some circles) and a humble Sylvania that neither Dave or I expected much out of.  They both sounded very good.  Not as good as the Tele ..... but nipping at the heels of the Siemens ..... at least to my ears.  The RCA is better than the Sylvania, but not by a mile.

With that selection of tubes, it wouldn't be too hard to dial in a sound that would make most people happy .....  8-)

To this point, Bobaloo immediately preferred the ZCD over my combo rig ..... and after about 3 hours of listening, Dave was leaning toward the ZCD (especially with the Tele 12AU7).  It is a different sound for sure than most of the other digital gear I have had in my system ..... and it grows on you as time goes by.  I'm convinced that it is an extremely accurate player ..... and as it breaks in, it is proving to be a player that reveals subtlety in a very nice manner while having impressive dynamics.

Dave is still running the Camelot / Anagram Uther DAC.  For a certainty, my Channel Islands DAC is no Uther.  We haven't done a head to head yet between the ZCD and Dave's front end (and I have a strong suspicion that Dave's rig would win out) ..... but when you consider that the retail price of that front end is approaching 10 times the cost of the Decware player, it puts into perspective just how good the ZCD is.

Kudos to Steve on a job well done.

I'm really interested to see if a different AC cord and some additional break in changes things much from Lon's perspective.

Randy

FWIW, I'm using a 1950's (Canadian made ) Marconi 12au7 .
A huge soundstage, excellent separation of instruments/musicians, and an overall non-fatiguing, "listen for hours" musical presentation.
As an aside, I'm using mine with ESP off- haven't spent any time comparing it with the "on" setting yet.
This is one fine player, IMHO!
Don

Oh I know Steve, but see I'm going to use the player with the PS Audio power cord, so the ZCD has to compare to that. . . .

Thanks for your impressions.

I hear almost all you hear in the ZCD. I think it's a fine player.  I don't mean to appear to be ragging on the player, I think it's an achievement and so much better than the usual players below this price point, probably some above.  Still, for me, I don't quite get the right sound on piano for me, yet, and piano is what I judge a system by.  Nor have I gotten used to the forward nature.

I'm also using the same interconnects you are.  I've rolled the tubes I have and I have enough that I don't think I should buy more just to see how they work here.  

I must say though that at this point the ES Sony Blu-Ray is a better player for me, has that ease and the bit of laid backness I don't have in the ZCD . . .yet.  It's getting a bit better day by day.

I'm likely to keep it, there's always a need for a spare and it would jazz up my bedroom system. (I'm spending a lot more time in my bedroom than ever which is a good thing.)  I've also decided to try out a NAD model that is heavily discounted that seems to do SACDs RIGHT, the price is very nice at Audio Advisor, and I have a lot of SACDs that I miss a bit. . . .

http://nadelectronics.com/products/dvd-players/T585-Universal-DVD-Player

I'm looking for the best source for me. . . it was the DEC685 for a long time, and if it hadn't started to exhibit some digital distortion on some discs and skips on others I'd still be using that nonstop.

Glad you're that happy Randy.

I must say I'm relaxing deeply into the sound of the NAD player. . . no fatigue.