Magic leaking out - yes, that's right... screw the camera. I put the memory card up to my third eye (forehead) and just as expected ~ a picture of exactly what I saw appeared on the card.  This is the picture:

Also. . . an option for exceptional (and expensive!) home theater for those who are into that and can afford it. (Maybe there's a few. I haven't won the Lottery yet).

Can you imagine 5.1 with an Ultra and all those Torii Monos?

I'm almost finished with the web page for them, so that's going to be the best source of info on them right now. Once I get that done, I'll write the designer's notes and then the owner's manual.  Soon as they're on the site I'll be in here answering any and all questions!

I will however say this;  Go to any Audio Show like CES, RMAF, THESHOW, ETC., and you'll find less than 10% of the good gear is priced under four grand - which is the highest amount of money you can spend on a Decware component.   The people who actually BUY all that stuff don't have a clue who Decware is, or don't feel comfortable spending less on an amplifier than they did on their power cords so they have no interest in Decware.  I intend to change that.

These new amplifiers are my way of reaching out to this market without altering our current product line.  

Steve

Jameskk,

You are correct.  In fact I was just explaining some of why I designed it to Lon on another thread who feared we were taking the business in another direction...  I've copied my response below:

"Lon,  I understand your feelings, as this business was started for the "sincere but broke audiophiles" of the world and targeted at low power high efficiency designs because that's what sounds best.

It still is.


The Torii Mono's are the highest power amplifier I can ever see us building, because to go beyond is

A) unnecessary - if 60 watts won't do it...  and
B) requires paralleled output tubes that make transparency problematic.  

I would have had no interest in making these if they didn't sound as good as our other amplifiers.  Put another way, I'm as far away from selling out as a man can get.  

That said, there is no new direction of higher power amplifiers for Decware or the end of an era, just the inevitable evolution of the Zen TORII design into Monoblocks.

I just want to bring musical pleasure to more people. The number of audiophiles who don't give Decware a second thought because of it's low power or low price are in fact the majority.  This amp is hopefully the bridge that will bring them over to the Decware sound.  It has enough power to work with their present speakers. Many, after getting familiar with Decware, will be willing to explore higher efficiency, simpler speaker designs. This would set the stage to be able to enjoy our fine stable of low power amplifiers as well.  

So you see, rather than  building bigger more expensive amplifiers as the next phase of Decware, I am  in fact using this one amplifier as a tool to draw more people into our current product line.  The new SuperZen confirms it.

Thank's for "coming out and saying it" because I'm sure many people were having the same thought!

Steve"

Fire:

One slight consideration is that voltage regular (VR) tubes are not being made any more, unlike other tubes that remain in current production.

If regulation tubes are not produced anymore, does that mean the Torii and Mini-Torii would become obsolete eventually?  

I think the Jupitor Caps, as well as everything else in that topography, would benefit from either tube regulation stages, according to my understanding of what has been stated in both amps' Decware literature so far.

There may also be a consideration for aesthetics (mono's look better with fewer tubes), or maybe the fact that other pricey monoblocks don't feature this solution and price-wise Decware would be at some disadvantage, especially if the goal is to be 'not cheap' but better and still more affordable than the typical hi-end counterpart (the 'hook').

Let's see if we can learn about Steve's thoughts on this.  I just want to update my understanding of the tube regulation role in these designs.