WE'VE UPDATED OUR MINI TORII
This is version II of our
favorite small exotic tube amp - the Mini TORII. Exotic because it
employes fully tube regulated input and output stages in a fully dual
mono configuration using two independent power supplies. The most
exotic grain free amplifier you'll ever find in such a small
package. This amp has enjoyed it's own cult following for many
years now, and we've figured out a way to take it to an even higher
level by ...
- Upgrading the powder coat paint to a black wrinkle finish reminiscent of the 1930's typewriters.
- Changing from Aluminum to Steel for far greater mass and lower micro-phonics.
- Using special cryo-treated Jupiter beeswax capacitors with Silver leads for all coupling.
- Installing infinitely adjustable
feedback (meaning zero to 6dB) to let the raw and extraordinarily fast
attack of this tone machine out of the box for the first time and you
can adjust it to what you think sounds good!
The Mini Torii is a 6V6 BASED
SINGLE-ENDED CLASS A dual mono amplifier. It features tube rectified power supplies using EZ90 tubes, an OA3 tube voltage regulated output tube stage, OC2 tube voltage regulated input stages and dual stepped volume
controls.
NO ADJUSTMENT OR MAINTENANCE
It's a self
biasing
design where you never have to adjust it - ever.
COMPATIBLE WITH DIFFERENT TUBES
There are 6V6 compatible output tube equivalents that are plug in compatible, the
ideal platform for tube rolling See further down this page for more info on the tube choices.
SIZE/HEAT
In addition to
it's small size (8-1/2 x 11 inches) it also runs cool for a tube amp making
it friendly on your desk top even on hot summer days. No stress involved
in leaving this amp on for days at a time... it doesn't care.
PREAMPS
Preamps are
optional and generally not needed. The amp has stepped volume controls for each side and enough
gain to work with even the lower output sources such as an IPOD or even a good phono stage coupled with a lower than average output cartridge.
BI-AMPING
A special preamp output
is provided on each channel should you like to drive a slave amplifier such as is
common when bi-amping speakers. This output is tied to the Mini Torii's volume
controls and retains full signature of the amp, including tube choices. This makes the slave amplifier sound like your Mini Torii for a more seamless blend and far better imaging!
TREBLE SHUNT
Finally there is
a treble control that has been carefully crafted to take edge off the
top end, from barely detectible to substantial so that you can enjoy
listening to sub-par recordings or internet streams without going nuts
as well as trim the shout right out of your single driver crossoverless
speakers in bright rooms.
UNMISTAKABLE FIDELITY
The real deal - not mass
produced. It is a hand-built, point-to-point wired amp for purists and music lovers alike. We
affectionately named this amp after it's big brother, the TORII MK III
which is a 25 watt push-pull. If you've experienced both good
single-ended and good push-pull you know the push-pull typically has
more hit and authority in the low end. On the flip side,
single ended amps have a transparency and midrange to die for so we're
always left wanting both. The Mini Torii SE, thanks in part to the tube
regulated input stage has a signature and a hit that makes you think
your listening to a much larger amplifier, making classic and hard rock
sound good despite being heard on a small single ended amp - rare.
ALL OPTIONS CAN BE SELECTED DURING CHECKOUT
KNOBS
There are three controls on a Mini Torii... Left Volume, Right Volume
and Treble shunt. Below are your knob choices for these
controls.
You can select the knobs from a list when you add to cart.
VOLUME CONTROLS
The standard volume controls have 10 detents which make it
easy to set the same volume for each channel.
You can still make small adjustments to one channel or the other because
the control can be adjusted between detents and it will stay there.
The stepped attenuators have 20 detents which again makes it easy to set the
same volume for each channel. The advantage of the stepped attenuator is slightly higher transparency.
The disadvantage is despite having 20 positions, it is impossible to adjust the control between the positions
so no small adjustments are possible.
OPTIONAL DIFFERENT WOODEN BASES
You can customize your amplifier with different wood bases at any time during your ownership.
That's because there are eight simple screws holding your amp to it's
wooden base making it easy for the owner to change out at any time.
The standard base is dark walnut as shown in the pictures on this
page. This is what your amp will ship with unless you specify
otherwise from within the shopping cart. Other woods include oak, maple, cherry, black.
If you select to have an exotic wood, you can write what you want in
the comments section during checkout. We'll communicate with you
via e-mail or phone to make sure we get what you want.
- Small size - built on an 8-1/2" x
11-1/2 " thick aluminum plate. Same size as a piece of paper,
great for desktops.
- Light weight - easy to grab and move
around with one hand - making trips to the listening room painless.
- Low heat - no internal parts get hot,
only the output tubes create significant heat. The EZ90 rectifier
tubes generate less heat compared to the bigger 5U4, 5Y3GT
rectifiers. With 6V6 tubes the power transformers run cool even
with 24/7 operation.
- Long life - all internals are way
overbuilt, there's just nothing inside to fail. Expect 50 years of use
out of it without problems.
- Hand built - point to point wired and
silver soldered the old school way right here at DECWARE in the USA.
- High Mass Steel chassis
with a single point ground buss eliminating any signal from passing
through the chassis.
- Lasting good looks - The amp features
a black powder coat 1930's typewriter finish that always looks great and
clean. Finger prints can not be seen and it's scratch proof.
- Solid hardwood - bases available in
Walnut and Black. Custom woods including most exotics are
available for an extra charge. Bases are user interchangeable.
- Low cost of ownership - tubes last
almost forever in this thing, and they are easily found and
typically inexpensive.
- Ease of ownership - the amp is
self-biasing and completely dual mono so you never have to worry about
constantly SETTING the bias or matching the tubes. There is nothing to
adjust or maintain, just plug the tubes in and enjoy.
- Ergonomic - the controls, including
on/off switch for each channel are located at the front for easy access
when it's on your desk or in your rack.
- Low power - the amplifier can't blow
itself up if the speakers are unhooked, nor can it blow up a speaker if
a tube shorts or fails. There is really nothing you can do to
hurt it or your speakers.
- Big sound - don't let the low power
fool you. It's called the mini-Torii for a reason since it sounds
and carries itself the same way. (The Torii is
our 25 watt amp)
- Adjustable sound - designed with high
efficiency single drivers as a likely paring by many customers, a defeat-able treble control was incorporated that works perfectly to take
any hotness out of the top end, be it the speaker or recording.
- Hi-end jacks - with removable IEC
power cord ensure it's right at home in the main listening room with
other high dollar boutique amplifiers.
- Built-in preamp - this amp has twice
the gain of all of our other amps coming to full power at about the
half-way point on the volume control, so no preamp is needed even with
lower output sources like those from your computer or ipod.
- Preamp outputs and bi-amping -
for open baffle (and other) speakers. A special pair of output
jacks was implemented to feed a second amplifier of your choice with a
strong line level signal that matches your volume control and treble
control settings. This output is transformer driven so that the
even order harmonic signature of the amp is embedded into the output
signal to insure the second amp has a matching sound. WORKS GREAT TO DRIVE a subwoofer too.
- Woofer control - higher dampening
than our Triode amps for better driver control and tighter bass.
- Adjustable regulation - tube
regulation of output tubes uses your choice of VR75~VR150 tubes allowing you to lower the power of the output tubes to effect different sonic signatures.
- Adjustable feedback - Feedback can be varied from the factory setting of 6dB infinitely down to zero with an adjustable control independently for each channel.
- Dual Mono - This is actually a pair of single ended monoblocks that were built side by side on the same chassis.
- Proprietary Iron - Decware output
transformers are a big factor in the fidelity of our amplifiers.
They are USA made from the best grain oriented silicon steel
cores and best sounding copper magnet wire with careful interleaving
for wide bandwidth.
IDEAL SPEAKERS
The Mini
Torii will work with 4, 8, 16 ohm speakers, but will put out the most
power into an 8 ohm speaker. To be sure that fractional amounts of power differences between these three loads are not an issue we recommend speakers that are 93dB 1watt/1meter or higher and ideally 8 ohm.
TUBES
Everything
needs a center, so the stock tube compliment that ships with the
amplifier is carefully tested and voiced for this amplifier. They are of the highest quality and ideal for those who wish to not worry about tubes and just enjoy music.
TUBE ROLLING (SKIP THIS PART IF YOU'RE NOT INTO CHANGING THE SOUND OF YOUR AMP)
If you
decide to change the way this amp sounds despite the fact that we ship
it with hand picked top quality tubes that we like, that's ok. The
truth is that a great single ended amp is the amp you can't hear
leaving you the rather empowering opportunity to experience the unique
and delicate signatures of a large variety of tubes. In other words, it
becomes an experience of listening to the tubes and about the tubes...
not the amplifier.
To that effect...
All of these tubes will work in a Mini Torii II - each pair sound different.
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1944 RCA Gray Glass 6Y6G
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1949 Raytheon 6V6GT
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1951 National Union 6V6GT
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1950 Sylvania Gray Glass 6Y6G
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1950 National Union 6V6GT
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1955 Sylvania JAN-CHS-6V6GTY
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1959 Tung-Sol 6L6WGB
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1960 Canada G.E. 6L6-GB
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1961 Raytheon 6V6GT
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1962 Ken-Rad 6V6GT
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1964 Sylvania 6V6GT
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1970 Sylvania 6L6G
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1972 RCA / Amperex 5881
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1979 Philips JAN-6L6-WGB
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1961 CBS-Hytron 6L6WGB
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CEI 6L6GB
5881
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International
6V6GTA
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Ken-Rad Black Top 6Y6G
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Sylvania Gray Glass 6Y6G
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Westinghouse
6V6GTA
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Tung-Sol Type41 6K6
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RCA
6K6GT
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G.E.
6K6GT
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1940 RCA
Type 41 6K6
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Sylvania
6F6GT
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1961 G. E.
6F6 Metal
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USSR
6F6M-1
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Ken-Rad
6F6 Metal
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6L6 Black Plates
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Shuguang
6L6
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RCA
Metal 6L6
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RCA-Tung-Sol
6L6
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Amperex EL37-6L6
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Ken-Rad
6L6 Metal
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USSR
6L6
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1957 G.E. Black Plate 6L6-HP
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G.E. Double "00" Getter 6L6GC
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Tung-Sol
6L6
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G.E.
5881
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Sylvania JAN-CHS 5932 Black Plate
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GET THE POINT?
There are
huge sonic differences between the 6V6, 6Y6, 6K6, 6F6 and 6L6 output
tubes in the Mini Torii II amplifier. The differences are not unlike
owning a completely different amplifier with every change.
All are
compatible with the Mini Torii II. These are just the output tubes, of
which the amplifier uses only two, one for each channel. The above list is only
a sample of some of the really good sounding N.O.S. tubes you can enjoy
in this amplifier. Of course there are also lots of the standard 6V6 tubes that the amp was specifically voiced for that also sound great.
VOLTAGE REGULATION TUBES
Your amp will ship with an OA3 Voltage Regulator tube for each channel. This is the best performance of the four. The remaining three (OB3,OC3,OD3) can be used to take the tube rolling
experience to a deeper level. The four voltage regulator tubes above
all modify the operating points of the output tubes they supply high voltage to. This
in turn changes the way the output tube sounds.
CABLES
This
amplifier is so transparent that
differences between cables will now become big differences. If you
don't have good interconnects or speaker cables or just not sure how
good yours are... we offer reference quality cables that will let you
hear its full potential. It is important to us that
you hear what your new amp is capable of and most customers, even
those with expensive cables, find that ours sound better.
SUPPORT
This
amplifier is hand built in the USA by
DECWARE / High Fidelity Engineering C0. It comes with a lifetime
warranty to the original owner. If you purchase one second hand and
ever have questions or technical problems we WILL be happy to check it
out for you and service it if needed for a very reasonable rate.
We also
have a support forum
with
many people who own this amplifier who's experiences you may benefit
from.
REVIEWS
You may
read reviews
on
our
amps going back 15 years.
Since this amp is new, the best place to find reviews on it will be in
our support forums.
HISTORY of
REVISIONS / OWNER'S MANUALS
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MINITORII - 2009 to Oct 2012
Easily distinguished by the gloss white chassis plate. Original models used a 7 pin 6X4 rectifier tube that was later changed to a 9 pin current production EZ90 rectifier tube. Owner's manual below:
Minitoriimanual.pdf
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MINITORII-II - New in Oct 2012
Also easy to recognize because the finish has been upgraded to black wrinkle. Features user adjustable variable feedback. Cryo treated beeswax signal caps are now used throughout. New high mass Steel Chassis for improved micro-phonics... ads 150% more mass!
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UPGRADES
The main two things that changed between the original Mini Torii and the new one is the user adjustable variable feedback mod and the beeswax signal cap mod. Both of these mods can be performed on any original Mini Torii built with the white plates at a cost of around $400 for both.
This amplifier requires no adjustments
or maintenance other than changing tubes every couple years. It is a
self biasing design and dual mono - meaning tube matching is not
required.
| Weight
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17 lbs. ea.
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| Dimensions
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6.50" H x
12.125"
W x 9.125" D |
| Circuit type
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Single ended
Class A Pentode |
| Power output
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3.3 watts RMS
into 4 ohms |
| Input voltage
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1.0 volts for
full output w/ 12AU7 |
| Noise / Hum
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Too low to hear |
| Response
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20 Hz ~ 20 kHz
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| Regulation
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OA3 and OC2 /
tube voltage regulation |
| Rectification
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EZ90 tube
rectification |
| Output tubes
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6V6
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| Signal tube
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12AU7 |
| Transformers
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Decware
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| Biasing
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Self-Biasing
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| Resistors
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precision WW/MF
by DALE, VISHAY |
| Signal Caps
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Cryo Treated Beeswax & Foil Jupitor caps with Silver Leads |
| AC cord
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Removable power
cord |
| Consumption
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75 watts at
full power |
| Input jacks
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RCA type 24K
Gold / Teflon |
| Output
jacks |
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5-way
binding
posts
accept
12
gauge |
| Speaker
dB/1w |
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89
dB
minimum
/
96
dB
is
ideal |
| Warranty
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Lifetime
to
original
owner |
TUBE COMPLIMENT
NOTE: Left channel is a mirror-image of the Right channel
REAR CONNECTIONS
NOTE: Left channel is a mirror-image of the Right channel
RELATED
INFO
STEVE'S
DESIGN
NOTES on
this amplifier.
Shown with an IPod to give you a sense of scale.
The Mini Torii is small enough to fit on your desk.
We offer this
amp with a
30 day money
back trial
so you can hear
one
in your own room!
Available in 120 or 240 volts.
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