Lon, I have bought cables from Darqueknight on Usam.  He is liquidating a close friend’s extensive system.  He’s a great guy to work with as well.   I would make him an offer…these have been posted for 100 days.   Nothing to lose…except your💰.  Good luck with the search.

Thanks Lon & HK.

I did reach Dave. He was/is under the weather and very busy. All good otherwise. Hope you recovered and doing well Lon.

Thanks MM, I saw those, priced higher than I have paid for the last that I have bought. I am following a lead from another board that may more than fulfill my needs, but not finalized yet, so if anyone here has any to unload, thanks.

Hi Lon. There are several here: https://www.usaudiomart.com/details/650135851-ps-audio-powerwave-ac-12-power-cab...

No affiliation with the seller, just bringing to your attention.

I am in need or one or two PS Audio AC-12 power cables, .5 M or longer. . . . Let me know if you have one or two that are not needed. Thanks!

Quote:


Perfect summary to a well wrote post will!

You certainly are opening my eyes/ears to the complexity of refined sound that can be obtained with base Decware equipment.

Carry on

Fred Hersch Trio "Live in Europe" Palmetto cd

I woke up relieved to see there was no snow overnight, none since early evening. . . after receiving a total of 16" in the previoius 24 hours. We are expecting more this afternoon and evening though, so shoveling is still in my immediate future! It's cold right now, 13 degrees.

Starting the day off with Jerry Garcia "Live at the Warwick," disc 2.  1991 is not my favorite period for Jerry, but there is some great performances in this set, especially keyboard work.

Without risking totally hijacking Dom’s thread I will just say that I look forward to learning how your streamer settles in, Will, and how/if you modify it. I’ll bet the bass gets a little more solid once the new caps get some time on them. It’s pretty amazing how good digital is getting.

I’m glad you were able to narrow down the culprit. Those little diodes are sensitive buggers aren’t they? Luckily they are inexpensive so I always have some extras on hand.

If you haven’t tried the UF4007’s they are nice too. Much faster yet “softer” than the 1n4007. I don’t prefer one over the other. They both have their own sound that is good for the right music.

I think it would be very interesting to see the square wave response of your amp, Will. I wonder if all your carefully chosen capacitors have carefully tuned the frequency response of your amp. Similar to rolling tubes, except tubes are a blunt instrument and your caps are a scalpel.

Hi Larry, it was a very quiet one. My most exciting prospct for family fun was canceled due to an illness at that end. But it was okay to have a quiet one at home.

I have never enjoyed a Zen Wave product nor contacted the owner. Hope you can hear from him.

Both tubes SOLD!

Stone,

You might check out Audio Circle. Dave is a sponsor there and there may be some info on his circle.

HK

P.S. Dave noted a bout with Covid in November 2025, so he may be experiencing some health issues.

Hi Lon, hope you had a great Holiday.

I have an order in with Dave Cahoon at Zen Wave Cables.

1) Phone not responsive.
2) Email rejected.

Anyone know he's okay?

Hey MM, I will try to get it together to post impressions on the T8 once fully burned in. I started running it into the DAC and pre all last night, and it is already sounding faster, more nimble, and more complex/less smeared. And adding a little EQ helps me tighten, the now, a little soft bass, and to pull some mid "liveness. With that, and my most resolving Phillips 7027s, even hardly played, it is sounding pretty nice! I have had the same tuned Mini for so long because it sounds so amazing, and I could not imagine anything but very high end streamers beating it. Still, though I have a lot of music I love, streaming qobuz or tidal, especially for finding new music, keeps its pull. And now, eight years after upgrading my Mini, the ways digital has finally come into its own, I figured there had to be good front ends at lower costs now. I was close to trying an A8 for quite a while but never got up the nerve, things were so good already here. Then, the T8 showed up, and now having an even better sounding DAC, and Eversolo having been at it a while, the T8 being dedicated, I figured it was bound to be better at making streams from the net more complete and musical, so I went for it. The changes so far, this early in burnin, are promising.

The Bix Centennial All Stars "Celebrating Bix" Arbors cd



This music in modern engineering is powerful!

My system is sounding so good in its current form. . . the transport to DAC connection is awesome and the ZBIT and ZROCK3 are making the SEWE300B sing. I feel so lucky.

Just got in from another bout of shoveling and am warming up my hands. There were about 3 more inches dropped since I was last out, and it's still coming down gently. Sigh. I think it's supposed to end. . . soon (?) Feels good to sit down in front of the system.

Now playing
Marcus Printup "Nocturnal Traces" Blue Note cd



Bass – Ricky Ravelo
Drums – Woody Williams
Piano – Kevin Bales
Trumpet, Producer – Marcus Printup

Recorded January 24 & 25, 1998 at Avatar Studio C, NYC.

After trying out the FiioK13 for a couple months, I switched to the Cambridge MX10. The low quality AAC bluetooth streaming was what made me change (and once the convenience of bluetooth is offered, its hard to go wired). Once I blind tested and heard a difference and knew I wasn't getting the best quality, it was hard to not think about it. So the MX10 is hooked up and sounding really nice. Not an overwhelming leap from the K13, but also not a huge price difference. The setup was incredibly easy. Feeling good about it and thinking this is likely where I will stay for the indefinite future. I might hook up my desktop Geshelli DAC at some point to see if it makes a difference, but that will be another day.

Edcore got back to me and we did some measurements and testing.  Not the transformer.  The issue only occurs when the Left Side Plate is under load when the transformer is hooked up.  I swapped transformers and the problem remained in the left channel.  So... not transformers and back to the PCB.  

Also found that once the clicking and whining goes on for a bit, both test point D's lose power entirely... wtf?  This got me thinking it's back further in the power circuit.

Followed every connection backwards.  Good solder joints at the jumper and resistor going back to socket pins 7 & 9.  Went further.  Every single capacitor measures within spec.  Every resistor measures within spec.  Started to get frustrated.  Went and pulled the diodes.  Voltage flowing both ways.  This could be the issue, but they were good when installed.  I suppose I exposed them to too much heat as @MM suggested.

I've got more coming tomorrow along with some de-soldering wick as my pcb is starting to look no so clean anymore...

Decware cables pending sale.

Snake River’s still available.

PM sent

I forgot how well recorded these tapes sound and how nice the mastering is. And . . . Pres!

"Lester Young in Washington D.C. Vol. 1" Pablo cd

Lester Young with Bill Potts, Norman Williams, Jim Lucht

About 14" of snow overnight, and it's been 14 degrees F for a while. I went out and did most of the clearing I needed to before my hands got too cold--just have about four feet of the driveway yet to clear, though it's pretty thick there due to the county plowing. And. . . it's still snowing. projected for another four hours or more. . .we could get three to four inches more.

The price I pay for living in this wonderful area (as far as nature goes, people and restaurants qnd shopping etc. not so much).

Chilling out from all that exercise with Bobby Timmons "Sweet and Soulful Sounds" Riverside material from the German Jazz Plus release that also includes "Born to Be Blue". . .

Keep me posted on your impressions of the T8, Will. I’m excited to hear your thoughts. Eversolo is a brand that isn’t discussed here in the forums much, if ever.

I’ve been on the fence between putting a linear power supply in my Cambridge streamer/DAC or stepping up to the A10. The A10 offers a linear power supply, subwoofer outputs that are able to be delayed to time align, and premium wiring. It also offers a lot of other features that I don’t need, therein my debate. I’m also concerned the complexity of the board may make it unable to be easily modified. I could do a 30-day trial but the way these units change during break-in 30 days really isn’t enough to decide. Yes, so many factors indeed!

Dom, I have multiple stepped bypasses everywhere, speakers, in amps, my DAC, and pre-boxes, and no sibilance on any digital albums I play. [I have not used vinyl for decades so can't speak to that]. But I have experimented a lot to find caps I like and that compliment one another toward refining all balances. From that basis, I have also ruled out a lot more caps than I use.

Exploring a lot of bypass sequences of chosen caps, I work until I find mixes that are complimentary toward a natural and pretty complete complexity of resolution and speeds. It did not take long for them to become critical aspects for making a good sounding system, sound real....for me quite a difference. In electronics, some examples could be a base bypass cap of .1 or so on a power supply cap, and the .1 bypassed by a .01, and that bypassed by a .001, or .0022. Or it could be a .1 with only a .01, or .0047, or .0033, or .0022. or... But most of the bypasses I use .022 and bigger in electronics are Miflex copper and copper oil, and the small bypasses I most end up with in electronics are, not "spectacular" sounding, but pleasantly low key, naturally textured and resolving Mallory M150s...For speakers I also bypass tweeters and crossovers that have caps. Those I have worked on are not very complicated, but with the right caps, they sound pretty beautiful to me, not the same, but not unlike a good full range driver speaker.

Consistently, I find that good caps and bypassing can help solve weird sound things we associate with brightness, glare, grunge, hardness, sibilance, etc. By resolving all levels of speed and detail complexity more, there is just a lot more noticeably resolved fine information, making the space way more a part of the sounds, and the sounds more rich and complex... less concentrated and hard. At least the way I hear it, none of this works without all important good time balances, leaving very little discernible smearing of fine information. Everything starting and ending more completely and naturally, excellent timing, with excellent musical resolution, differentiate all aspects of fine detail, space and speeds more completely, smoothly, and complexly...also contributing to more immediacy and more impactful presentation. The easiest reads for me are more space/air, more complex textures, longer and more complex decays, and all this across the spectrum...

In context, I think it is important to consider that this is pretty specific stuff, but that it can be experienced with pretty broad variability depending on all else in a system/room. And there are a lot of generalizations in audio talk, many suggested as absolutes. But in such complex systems, once we get into decent sound like Decware can help us get, in my experience, little is absolute except perhaps that everything effects everything, including how improvements in some areas, can be notably compromised by weaker links in others.

So I agree with James that anything can contribute to issues like sibilance, including tube groupings that can emphasize upper midrange stuff in a just wrong way. But what I continue to find, is that if each thing.... each cable, each component, each tube, speakers, and with the room and system tuned to compliment one another... with every one of these tuned for optimal resolution and timing across the spectrum, problems can resolve.

I am trying a Eversolo T8, and not a fair comparison yet as it only has 15-20 hours on it. But playing 44.1/16 error corrected files from its internal drive, files I am used to playing with Amarra in my tricked out (old) Mac Mini (with an also obsolete super stripped down by-sound OS), the T8 sounds compelling and promising in intellectual ways, but at this point, not real to me. It is pretty resolving, harmonically relatively rich, and dynamic. But it is more concentrated in how it resolves, and notably slower and less dynamically complex than the Mini as a server. Still, density with decent textures and decays are pretty nice, implying promise with burnin, but the very fine information, space, and speeds are too concentrated and obvious so far compared to what I am used to. Sort of typical issues with new things, I am expecting this to improve with burn in, and also promising, the T8 is already revealing aspects of a great power supply and some of the musical revelation that allows. But  listening for very refined space, detail, timing and complexity across the spectrum, this hot new piece of gear is now notably less refined than my now pretty ancient server! I imagine/hope this might sort out with burn in, and once I find the right cables and setup for it. But the point is that it all starts with the front end of the front end, and in a resolving system, a "digital" server can in fact have a big impact on the sound... and like the rest, if it can't resolve things in pretty complete ways, that musical information just won't show up even if all else is good!

So to me, brightness and other sharp/irritating things are not necessarily from too much, and can be from too little. Who knows how many times I have said this, but I find that once things get really good, more resolution and spacial clarity, if done with care and attention to balances, can be resolvers of sonic issues that plague us audio heads as system/rooms start to grow more revealing. This, to me, means not choosing things to tune out the problems of a system/room... strong compensations having to be off-balance to balance off-balance systems... But more, fixing or losing things that do not help, and choosing things with great resolution and balances on their own. The more I explore, the more I find that all things contributing relatively equally, logarithmically better balances can show up... that "synergy" thing, while making it easier to further clarify without trauma.

Finally, if timing and resolution are even a little off anywhere, we feel and hear it as off. And if it is on, we hear more space, which is totally related to more fine detail... With more space, resolved musical information is more refined and complex, and with better resolution, the space that helps reveal it is more refined and complete. Together, this can help resolve hard concentration into pleasing complexity. So I hear it as: less smearing and more resolution go together, allowing the fine "particles" of sounds to be discerned, which means there can be a lot more information, and all aspects of it coming and going correctly, musically, complexly, it can stop sounding like a good system, and become more of an awe inspiring musical experience.

All that said, I have some CDs from the early CD days that tend thin and hard in the remaster and I just can't listen to them... So many problems with the transition to such clarity and resolution possible with digital, and coming from master guys with decades of tuning from within the smooth natures of tape and vinyl, it seems to me it was a different language, and many of those old remasters just sound bad in a resolving system! On the other hand, lots of what I listen to are pretty good re-masters from early digitizing, a lot of them pretty simple and straight up recordings with good mics, gear and room!

So many variables!

Still available

Oh you’re right. I haven’t used the latest board. There used to be an error on the schematic in one of the older versions with the way those resistors were connected.

Not sure what to tell you then. Triple check all your parts values and make sure you didn’t overheat the diodes.

I have a pair sitting on the shelf. PM your address and I’ll send them to you.

Greetings,
I pulled my old ZKit build out the other day and it's working fine. I did have an issue before with one of the speaker connections, and now I'm running into the issue that most binding posts available are too wide for these holes.  Parts Express shows the Part # 090-475 as backordered, so here's hoping it comes back into stock.  But I don't see this part on the Cliff site, the posts they show have 2BA or 10x32 threads, where this is apparently 6x32.  If anybody knows of alternate options, please let me know.

Using the most recent version dated 08-2025.  I believe this is the same you posted.  I am assuming you are referring to the two 220K 1/2 Ohm resistors.  These are now silk screened on the latest version of PCB (rev 2025).  

One of the first things I do when I’m rolling tubes is listen for sibilance. Some tubes that sound great for instrumental music also emphasize sibilance in voices. Academically I’m curious about why, but practically I just put that tube combo in the “no” column. Curious if others have a similar experience.

James…never really gave this much thought until I streamed this album.  At first I thought that maybe it was the lack of a pop filter addition in the digital realm during processing, but that is really meant for the plosives.  I could see how things like the cartridge setup, the pressings, and the tubes themselves play a role.  

John….I would have never made the connection with speaker crossovers and timing issues creating the environment for the presence of sibilance.  Very interesting.  I had a very interesting conversation with Ziggy about bypassing capacitors when I was modifying the caps on my Err’s.  He cautioned about incorporating a second bypass on my big Miflex caps.  He felt that could cause a phase issue on the top end, that we may not even hear. But when I was experimenting with the first and second bypass caps, I liked the sound more with the addition of that second bypass as opposed without it.  

Jack…I am curious as to what your findings are with your MFSL gold CD release of that album.  The only thing I didn’t play with was the settings on my ZRock2 when I was streaming that album.  Need to revisit that to see if it makes a difference. I’m betting that it may tame it somewhat, but I doubt it will eliminate it.  

Hi. What schematic version are you using? I think the problem might be the implementation of the resistor on the 20uf 250v caps.

https://www.decware.com/newsite/ZKIT1.pdf

Ok, follow up after further troubleshooting.  I was incorrect about the clicking only being on the right tube, it is in both.  I saw it better once it got dark and I turned all the lights off.  Something is causing the fluctuations in the power side of things and everything else downstream.  I have a few extra 6P15P-EV and a spare 6N1P-EV so tried swapping them with the backups to see if anything changed.  Nothing did.  I don't believe this is tube related.

Upon testing various points on the board for voltage readings, I noticed when placing the test lead on the OPT Blue Wire for the Left channel, the clicking increased quickly, then slowed again when I removed the test lead.  This led me to power down, wait, then revisit some solder points.

Long story short, I re-flowed all of the OPT (both left and right) wires to the PCB.  Cleaned up any excess dried flux in various places to ensure no bridging.  I didn't find anything significant but re-flowed to be sure.  Powered back up to the similar results, but reading at test points were much more steady than before.

I unsoldered the Left Channel OPT Blue Wire lead and left it hanging free then powered up.  Zero whining, zero clicking, zero voltage fluctuations, and all 5 test points nearly at target, well within range.  I believe I may have a bad OPT.  I'm waiting for a call back from Edcore to assist in further troubleshooting.  We'll see what comes from that once I hear back.  In the meantime, I will open the bells to see if anything obvious is inside.  

Stay tuned.

Doug, Yes the center plastic guide pin was snapped off by prior amp owner.  I repaired it by dremeling away the jagged remaining plastic and then glued a replacement center ring fitting over the pins.  This is the best way to fix this issue.  Functions perfectly like a new tube.  See second picture showing the replacement on original post. Tom

Got it Steve. Thank you.

In theory, it would make the biggest difference in the unit where an improved rectifier would make the biggest difference.  For some that could be a preamp, for others an amplifier.  It will be fun to read everyone's reports to see if there is a trend.

Hearafter,
When you say the center pin was broken and repaired, are you talking about the plastic guide post in the middle of the pins?  If so, how was it repaired?
Thanks!  Doug

Betty Carter "Round Midnight" Roulette cd

The amazing Betty Carter.

Made mistake on Heading, should be model number 3050A
I see nowhere to edit

Thanks for the clarification Steve. I wonder how it sounds in different positions? I only have a 5U4 rectifier on my UFO, but my experience with the STR was that it made an even bigger difference on the preamp. I realize it is different technology, etc. but if anyone has a 5U4 on a preamp or phono stage or something up the chain from the power amp, it would be interesting to get those impressions as well.

This is my alternative to the Lii Song driver.  I use this combination with good solid state amplifiers and it's really pleasant sounding.  I also use it outside in my outdoor listening space and drive it with the ZMA.  These drivers can handle the outdoor environment better than the delicate lii Song.

That's because I bragged about it.  Actually there were two.  Remember the show BeWitched?  If I had her magic, it would be a real bad day for spammers.

Quote:


In the video I made on the web page for the DynaGrid Jr., I used Linlai's Western Electric Version of the 845 which is twice as expensive and don't hear enough of a difference to make me want one.  Remember, the 845 tube is not the rectifier in a DynaGrid Jr.  It is a pass-thru regulator so it may not make a lot of difference to use other 845's.  At this early stage in the game I would recommend anyone doing comparisons between different 845 tubes, make sure to do it double-blind with a helper.  Maybe there is one out there with a justifiable increase in performance or sound quality, but I doubt it.  My guess is that the main difference between 845's in a DynaGrid is going to be in how long they last.

I am sure that if there are differences they will be subtle based on my testing so far, and that anyone thinking of buying expensive 845 tubes could probably put the money towards a weaker link in the chain and hear a larger improvement.

Steve

Belmondo/Yusef Lateef "Influence" B Flat 2 cd set, disc 2

FWIW here is one who got in:

https://www.decware.com/cgi-bin/yabb22/YaBB.pl?action=viewprofile;username=515E5...

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra "Duke '56/'62 Volume 2" 2 LP Columbia, LP 1



Satisfying my itch to hear the Duke and his expensive gentlemen.

Received mine last night, will probably stay in the box till my SE341.6 comes in a few months, can't wait...

JD

I love this hobby too. It keeps evolving almost like an organic thing, and it keeps me from being a rich prick.